Perception vs. reality

It's unbelievably easy to slip down the "social networking" slope when you work in an environment unfettered by a corporate IT policy (to understate it) and have to do a lot of online "research". That, and a recent IT security scare*, made me resolve to go on a digital diet.**

Rather than trawling the FB or the Twitter during lunch hour or after work, I decided to access all work-unrelated miscellany using only a smartphone. The key to ensuring this idea worked was to: 

1) Own a smartphone.
2) Be subscribed to a data plan.

This approach works. For about 2 weeks (if you're me). It works because a mobile data plan is still light years away from broadband and home fibre network speeds, and you just feel really silly staring at a 4.5-inch screen waiting for a page to load, all the while knowing it contains absolutely nothing that will impact your life in a significant way. So, you go back to work, and work productivity doubles.

Unfortunately, a smartphone doesn't need booting up, unlike a laptop. Thus, after the aforementioned 14 days, you just get used to the loading times, transforming into the type of techno-nerd wanker featured in memes:

I'd be the girl in jeans on the left, but frownier. Image from Share Dis LOL (seriously??)

The boyfriend wonders where the girlfriend has gone; deadlines are just barely met (just kidding); plants are neglected. So, now I'm back to Square 1. New tactic: Put the phone in another room. I just need to put it down.

* Possible email spoofing incident.
** I don't think I can handle a detox.