Thoughts...

I’ve been banned from the Internet at the time of which I am writing this. I know it will only be for a short time (until tomorrow) but Mama still thinks it bothers me. Yes, I have the keen and uncomfortable knowledge that I can’t access my favourite websites (Tumblr and the like), I can’t install my new Photoshop program as I want to and just the fact that it isn’t there (Mama has turned the internet off to prevent any of us-my siblings and I-from accessing it. But it truly doesn’t bother me as much as she seems to think it does.

She seems to be under the impression that I lack imagination; that the Internet is my only source of entertainment. That I am unable to entertain myself.

To me, at least, the concept of having nothing to do once the Internet is taken away from me is a foreign one. I spend half the week without the Internet (at my Dad’s house), what does she think I do there? Sit around and curse the world and my father’s lack of entertainment? No. Definitely not.

I write, for one thing. I write stories about nothing; stories about everything (Ha!). I can sit for hours, if I have enough inspiration and drive, and simply write. A few hundred words in as many minutes, or a few thousand in a few hours. I don’t need the Internet until I want to put what I’ve written up; and even then, I wait until it’s entirely polished and I am completely pleased with it before even considering posting it. If I don’t have Internet, it can always wait to go up, it’s not an urgent thing.

I draw. She knows that I draw. I draw all the time; sketches, attempts at polished pieces and the like. I rarely use a template or a reference image for my sketches; they are usually caricatures and not true to life, and they far outnumber any polished pieces I work on, which always have a reference, however-like I said-are few and far between and reference images don’t always come from the internet.

I’ve recently finished (or thereabouts) a drawing of my friend Gabby, I’m really quite pleased with it; it’s my first completed drawing (sketch or polished) of 2012 (the apocalyptic year!). I found an image on Facebook of her and saved it onto my computer; once I had done that, I closed my Internet browser and sat for an hour or two drawing her from this picture. As soon as Mama returned from work she told me that I had to get off the Internet and come and be sociable with the rest of the family (who, by the way, don’t enjoy my company all that much, anyway. Being a sarcastic teenager and all). When I told her I wasn’t on the Internet she didn’t believe me.

So, I’ve been wondering, does Mama truly think that the Internet is my only source of amusement? Even disregarding the two options I have above, there are many things I can-and will-do to occupy my time as a replacement to the Internet (books, to name one). It seems almost patronizing to me; that she would believe that is a little bit astounding to me. It’s not really a problem or a punishment for me, for her to take away the Internet merely means that I will find a new way to be unsociable and entertain myself. Despite all my posturing (Oh I miss Tumblr! I can’t wait to get the Internet back!), it doesn’t matter all that much. Whatever is on the Internet will still be there tomorrow, or even after that (unless of course it’s ABC iView, which only keeps videos up for a short time). It can all wait.

Are other people’s parents like that? They think the only source of entertainment for teenagers nowadays is in the form of a giant spider-web-like network that turns them into mindless zombies and makes them into the people parents warn their children about when they first venture into the supposed anonymity of the Internet? (At least, that’s what the Tumblr kids are.)