Decluttering, Unfriending, and Starting a New Chapter

I am taking steps to cut myself off from most of the electronic world. It's achingly hard. I'm addicted. I don't want to be addicted.

I've tried to delete some - any - Facebook connections for YEARS. It took me that long to delete JUST 10; 10 people who I knew once but have not heard from since, in whom I have no interest, and apparently who have no interest in me. Why did it take so long? Because I'm addicted.

Why delete a Facebook connection when I can hide it? Why delete an RSS feed when I can skip over or suspend it? Because if it/he/she is there, then, in my spare moments, I peek at it. My electronic life is so full of convenient interesting distractions that I could spend ... I have spent ... every spare moment consuming, instead of producing.

Actually most of my spare moments, for the last three and a half years, have been devoted to Purple Pawn, scanning, reading, searching, writing, researching, etc, etc. With the help of some co-writers (more or less; I wrote many more posts than the others did) I turned Purple Pawn into a strong. though small, voice in the game world. I became a better journalist, learned a great deal about the game industry, broke a few important stories, and made a number of friends and contacts.

However.

Before I started Purple Pawn, I wrote a great many excellent posts on this blog; since I started Purple Pawn barely any. Purple Pawn - and the other time suckers I have let overwhelm my life, such as social media - distracts me from new game designs, completing a short story I started, writing a number of books, going out, meeting people, experiencing culture, exercising, ... I don't know that I'm going to get these done if I drop these distractions, but I know that I'm not going to get them done if I don't.

So. I am cutting Purple Pawn out of my life (for at least three months, probably far more). I am eliminating 90% of my RSS feeds, including nearly all game related info (my blogroll is disappearing, sorry), most tech, and nearly all news. Don't be offended if you are suddenly dropped from my social media; it doesn't mean I don't like you.

This blog will continue; writing is a small distraction, but it also stimulates my creative process. It will especially be used during my upcoming November trip to Ireland and BGG.con. If you want to follow along, and you're no longer connected on Facebook, feel free to use RSS or Feedblitz, located on the top right of the page. If not, thanks for reading until now. This chapter is over.

Yehuda