Practice Management

When my youngest son was very young he was such a TV junkie that during the day the only way the sitter could get him to turn off the set without a fight was to tell him that it was time for the TV to take its nap.

Now, come forward 14 years and I am afraid his father treats the computer with the same regard, only I know the computer does not have to take a nap.

My son?  He now aspires to go to film school.  His Dad?  A lazy lawyer that cannot quit blogging.

When not blogging, of course, I am reading across the web, or I am undertaking legal research, or drafting or filing a pleading or brief.  But, the point, I think, is that I am probably on the web now more than my son was use to watch TV.

But, an Internet Sabbath?

I do not think so.  Heck, If I could buy my groceries online and have them delivered I would, but no such service exist in our area.  I would buy everything online if that were easily achievable.

ShutdownDay.Org asks he question, "Can you survive for 24 hours without your computer"?

Well yeah, but I do not want to survive 24 hours without my computer.

Come on people, computers are not like drugs, or alcoholism or tobacco.  It is social media that keeps us in touch, in stock with what we want and need and, for many of us, keeps our businesses humming.  It is how we make money.  And you treat it like a disease?

How did that song use to go?  "If lovin' you is wrong, I don't want to be right".   Only now maybe it should be, if using you is wrong, I don't want to be right.

The goal is not to eliminate computers and the Internet.  It is to make it integral and portable in our daily lives.

Look, when typewriters came into being preachers and others preached about the evilness of such machines.  This stuff about an Internet Sabbath suggests the same thing.

I am even getting in my practice where I do not talk on the phone that much anymore.  Attorneys rarely call with referrals, as they email me or text me, and I email and text back.  Clients rarely call as they email and text, and I email and text them back.  And, you want to take me away from all of that?  How Amish of you.

As for invoking the Sabbath, what better device is there?  I look up religious sites online.  I read devotionals. I find the location and time of the nearest Mass wherever I am.  And, I do not have to disturb anybody on a Sunday to do it.  Besides, computers and the Internet are tools.  They are not a religion.  It is also not a cult to be feared.  And, we have to get over this idea that they are bad for us.