Let's Talk About...

So, I absolutely stole this line from one of my favorite comedy duos of all time: North Carolina's own Rhett and Link. They are two friends who decided to pursue comedy through a YouTube channel, and their videos have given me many, many hours of informative (or not) amusement and clean, quirky fun, (plug is almost over, I promise). I'll link you with some of their videos at the end of this post.

But first, Let's Talk About...

Hmmm. Well, I kind of have two things to talk about, but they go together so it's all good: Sleep and social networking (hey, they even have alliteration!).  Let's tackle sleep first.

Until I saw a Rhett&Link video it never occurred to me that my historical schedule of going to bed at 10 PM and getting up between 6 and 7 AM was anything but "normal." Now, we've covered the fact that normal is about as abnormal as it gets in various other posts, but I hadn't ever considered the fact that different sleeping routines could actually be beneficial.

Currently, I follow a sleeping schedule of four or five hours a night, on average, and a two hour nap sometime during the day. I am sometimes a bit dozy, but for the most part I can function at my usual energy level. I adopted this schedule by accident when I started talking to several close friends who happen to live on the other side of the planet. A sixteen and a twelve hour time difference mean that one or both people talking have to alter their routines a bit. (Their nighttime is my daytime and so forth.) But this schedule has boosted my energy levels, surprisingly, and made me more efficient during my waking hours.

Which brings us to topic number two for the day...Social Networking.

 I am an introverted person. I like people, I need them to stay sane, but too much socializing burns me out and makes me surly, tired, and unresponsive. I dislike being surrounded by hordes of chattering folks; I prefer one-on-one interactions, or hanging out with small groups of my best friends. But social networking has perks that I never appreciated until now. I know that in the ancient world (haha, as recent as the early 20th century, folks) people wrote letters to one another as their primary means of long-dstance communication. I read lots of historical romance novels, and sometimes the plot involves two characters falling in love via letter. I was always a bit skeptical: how the heck do you fall in love with someone you've never met in person?

Well...let me just say, I understand the possibility now. There is enough distance in writing back and forth that it frees you to say things you might not confess to someone face to face. There is distance and deception in social networking, true, but I find that if two people are invested in a relationship (speaking broadly) honesty and interest will ensure the integrity of that relationship regardless.

I was raised with a distrust of the online world; my access was limited, but as I grow older I realize this was a good thing. By controlling my presence online, I control the number of mistakes I make, and I refine my BS-meter so that those relationships I mentioned are more meaningfully than the run-of-the-mill stuff. I have under 100 friends on Facebook, unlike the majority of my peers. I am a private person, but I hope that being private doesn't mean I'm inaccessible. I open up to those I care for, and only recently has it occurred to me that social networking is neither good nor evil: it is merely a tool. And in some special cases, useful one.

And now, I give you Rhett&Link:

Rhett&Link on Sleep
Rhett&Link 20 Questions
Rhett&Link Epic Gun Battle

Have fun!
WolfGrrl