The perils of online education and the dopamine rabbit hole: is it 2 in the morning already?

I'm not saying I think that online education is the reason I stayed up past 2 am today.  But if I wasn't taking an online class that pointed me to a clip of the Carmichael Show, which I had never heard of, which led me to IMDB, and then Jerrod Carmichael and his stand up on YouTube, and then clips of Gaffigan and then Whose Line Is It Anyway, would I have been up until 2 am today?

Is it my lack of will power or discipline?  Or maybe the computer itself and the internet and how my brain interacts with the ideas, images, and perceived social interactions?  The muse of my amusement, the traction of my distraction.  Maybe it's the dopamine hit and the attention getting YouTube logrhythm that has me hooked?

So what can I do to limit my exposure, to hone my tool, the computer, the browser, so that I can stay focused on my academic endeavor, and get some sleep?

Use an instance of Chrome that opens with the sites I need for my class, University website, University email, blackboard (or other LMS - learning management system), and a Google drive folder with class documents.  Keep it simple, less distraction, an empty desk, a clean slate. But isn't part of the beauty and power of education and intellectual stimulation traversing rabbit holes? (Just maybe not YouTube rabbit holes?)

I mean maybe it's my ADD baby?  Really though, maybe not necessarily ADD, but I have to admit even before computers were my fix, I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, reading, playing chess, talking with friends, or on some other inner trip.  I wonder what keeps me up like this at night? Is it any different, typing away on this draft in front of this luminous screen, than writing in a notepad? Reading this article on a tablet versus holding a physical book? I'm still not sleeping.

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The title of this post is misleading. I'm missing the point, or rather, I'm mixing two messages. We need to be careful how we interact with any tool, any medium. When books/novels first became popular in the 1800s there was an outcry of concern: all of these people indoors for hours reading, immobile, daydreaming, distracted from the real world work to be done.

Computers are not necessarily a problem (although my cellphone might be...damn Blogger and Blackboard apps handy on my nightstand I still haven't slept tonight at all. It's 4:33 in the am).

Learning is exhilarating. I'm enthralled, excited in the most literal sense as my intellect has been turned on and it's not turning off. I'm exuberant about the prospect of learning and growing and teaching and contributing to our body of knowledge.

My favorite quote from Professor Joi Spencer so far is, "All knowledge is political and shaped by power." So simple and so true. My father confidently and emphatically stated that teaching is political, that all action (and inaction) is political in nature as it speaks to our power and culture.  I have the beautiful opportunity within my community to facilitate the creation of new knowledge, to love each other in public, to create more social justice to transform our society together.