Having one of those boring Luddite revulsions

Every so often I have what I refer to as a Luddite revulsion. This is usually after or near the end of an excessively busy period in my work and family life, and often after an illness of some kind. I've also noticed it's more likely to occur in the warmer months than in winter.

My Luddite revulsions can be comprehensive (NO TECHNOLOGY! NONE OF IT! IN FACT YOU MIGHT AS WELL SWITCH THE ELECTRICITY OFF, BUSTER!) or selective, like the one I'm having now. At the present time, I am quite attracted to the idea of a little TV some evenings, and am happily using my tablet to write and polish poems (I haven't reverted to handwriting in a notebook yet!) I am also listening to lots of music and reading ebooks. Of course, with two work contracts still live, I'm using my desktop computer daily to write, edit and research the documents I'm working on, and that includes lots of email communication and using many online resources. All good with that.

What I am fatigued with right now is the social and entertainment Internet. I have no desire at all to visit blogs, forums and websites I normally enjoy. I am disinterested to the point of ennui in Twitter. I don't really want to blog, although I do have a mild interest in doing a "Christmassy" post soon because my kids really enjoy those and we like having the family record (I've done one every year since 2004, on this blog or my old one). I am not on Facebook, but if were, I have no doubt it would be in the crosshairs too. I don't even want to read the news online, let alone get drawn into discussions of it (very unusual for me).

I have had these revulsions before, and they always pass, sometimes in a few days or a week, occasionally longer than that. I think my lengthiest stretch was about 4 weeks, from memory. I don't see them as a bad thing; I actually think it's a healthy response, for my mind to sometimes prise me away from things that can be exciting and rewarding but also move very fast and frenetically. I don't mistake this temporary lapse in interest for a permanent change and nor would I want it to be. It's just my psyche trying to hit the reset button on a rather frazzled brain, and really, I think that my subsconscious's ability to do that is one of the things that keeps me from really breaking down during and after tough times. (My subconscious is ever so much smarter than my ego, which would keep whippping along until dropping dead and never realise there was a problem).

So I think I will be very sporadic on the blog until the New Year (definitely at least one Christmas post, but anything else will be mood dependent). As for Twitter, right now, I just don't want to, so I won't. I'll feel like it again soon enough, I'm sure.

Do I think anyone cares in the least that I will be living mostly offline for a bit? No, I don't - but I also wanted to write about this Luddite revulsion thing, because I haven't really before, and I've always wondered if other people get it too.

Anyway, I hope you have a great run-up to Christmas over the next two weeks. I hope the day itself is beautiful in whatever way works for you, and that the New Year is shiny and bright.