How much time do I spend in front a computer? Waaaaay too much. Between blogging and my so-called part-time academic job, I’m always here.
My fun loving neighbors get home at 5:30 and start drinking beers on their back porch. They call me over for a while, but I end up back here after a short break. My kids make me play board games with them, but then I end up back here.
Ingrid wonders why part-time academics bother with the part-time employment, since there’s nothing part time about research. Well, getting out of committee work certainly is a good thing, and so is the flexibility.
Dan notes the parallels to blogging. So, academic bloggers really have no lives.
I think grad school screwed me up. I long ago disassociated work with money. I’m still surprised that my college sends me a check every two weeks.
Apt. 11d 
“I’m still surprised that my college sends me a check every two weeks.”
Let’s hope they don’t follow the blog or they might take this opportunity to stop…
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Laura, you describe both academia and blogging more like lifestyles than occupations. I enjoy my work but don’t think of it as a lifestyle. If I break away from evening beers to check e-mail or work, it’s because I’m on a horrible deadline, and i’m bitter about it the whole time.
This makes me wonder if comparing different aspects of the two (such as pay, or hours) is even germane? (I’m trying to think of other “careers” that are really more like formalized lifestyles … perhaps someone who runs a chartered fishing boat, or a bartender?)
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jen,
I think there are lots of jobs that are “formalized lifestyles”–running a restaurant or a B and B, being a doctor, a farmer, a live-in social worker, etc. If you do any of those things, you don’t expect to have much of a life outside.
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OK, so let me rephrase.
Laura, how much time do you think you’d spend on the computer if you weren’t teaching part-time or blogging?
FWIW, I am a computer professional, but I almost never get on the box in the evenings. And during my workday I would estimate a 70-30 split of “screen time” vs. meetings. So my total computer time per work day is ~ 7 hours, and on the weekends it’s nil. (I check for emergencies via blackberry but otherwise try to unplug.)
But Laura appears to be saying that her teaching gig income doesn’t matter to her because she’d be doing all this stuff *anyway*. The pay is just gravy. Or am I misunderstanding?
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“f you do any of those things, you don’t expect to have much of a life outside.”
But, it’s not just, not just that you’re too busy. I go back to check my emails (oh, and lay in bed at night, or in the shower, thinking about a particular analysis I want to do) because I really really want to know the answer to the question I thought up. I feel frustrated at not having enough time for it, not just because of the competition, but because I want to do it. And, of course, the competition makes it worse, ’cause there are plenty of people out there who feel just like me, and have more time to do whatever it is I’m thinking of.
(Some doctors, BTW, are trying to “de-lifestyle” the profession, incidentally. There was a Business Week article along those lines, with a gender subtext, saying that women doctors are working fewer hours, and contributing to the physician shortage in some parts of the country. It’ll be interesting to see how well the profession survives de-lifestylization.”
bj
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I would be doing exactly what I am doing, even I wasn’t getting paid for it. In fact, for a couple of years, I did research while pulling in zero salary. I adjuncted at an Ivy League school for so little money that my babysitter made more than I did.
Money is starting to come in, so I’m less surly about the whole thing.
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I just read a really cool piece by Clay Shirky here. I like Clay Shirky because he doesn’t make me feel like a loser for spending so much time online. 🙂 I’m exploring and experimenting in a new exciting cognitive ecosystem.
And basically, I’d be doing it no matter what my job was. The internet is a part of my life. I’d find a way to have a presence on it no matter what. It’s where the most interesting information is and some of the most interesting people are. It challenges me on every level. When I’m talking to my kids, I often pull over the laptop to explain something I’m talking about, to show them a video or a picture of something. If I want to know what time it is in Australia (my daughter loves koalas, so we often talk about Australia), I IM a friend from Melbourne to tell me.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go watch an episode of Doctor Who, which I never would have started watching if it weren’t for the Internet. 🙂
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Diplomats, also: always on. And their spooky counterparts, too, needless to say.
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University presidents?
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