By Brian Covert

So is this Wikipedia blackout what the Mayans were predicting when they said the world would end in 2012?

In a way I’m being facetious but in a way I’m not. After all, where am I now supposed to find the correct age of Kim Kardashian or who were the main protagonists of the Russian revolution? I imagine for some –count me in this group - this blackout of Wikipedia is a pretty big thing.

And I certainly don’t want to undermine Wikipedia and its significance; after all, it has long been my go-to spot for all things information-related wise and the ideals it upholds are truly admirable.

But this blackout comes at an interesting time for me as I’ve lately been trying to better understand my relationship with technology.

In all seriousness, it has proved to be quite a quandary. On the one hand, I’m certainly an advocate for technology; cars aren’t a bad thing – I can now make it to the beach and back in a couple of hours or I can take a road trip to Montreal on a whim.

But on the other side of the argument, do I need to check my fantasy scores five times a night or know what all my Tweeters are Twittering 24/7 (that sounded pretty lame)? This age of information technology may be slowly driving us insane because, since all information is out there and accessible, we feel we need to know it all. Instant gratification is rarely a good thing.

I’m fighting it though. Or, rather, I tried to fight it.

Just last week, I challenged myself to not be on the computer past six o’clock in the evening. All was well and good for the first couple of days until Tuesday when I saw the NBA scores on the sports channel ticker and like a smoker giving up on a New Year’s resolution I took the laptop’s sinister offer and jumped online to see my score. I tried to tell myself it was alright because that was all I checked but unfortunately it didn’t stop the hint of shame I felt when I actually did close up shop for the evening.

But perhaps this blackout is a second chance, a day when we reflect on the hold technology has affected on our lives. And maybe it can be something like the Toronto blackout where we realize things aren’t so bad without it for a little while.

So let me not be unbowed. I will continue my struggle. Let me detach from the world of technology and attach to the world of my real life. Let me engage with bricks and mortar and disengage from kilobytes and download speeds.

So there you have it – my proclamation in black and white. Unfortunately that will have to be it as I my smartphone just buzzed and I’m dying to know who just texted me.

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