Do you remember that AOL commercial from a while back for (what happened to all those free AOL CDs? They were fun frisbees) where a guy was surfing the web, and he supposedly reaches the end of the Internet? His wife shouts from the other room something along the lines of “are you surfing the web?” and he replies, “I was, but I finished it.” I couldn’t find it online anywhere, but you get the gist of it.
Though it would be impossible to “finish” the Internet in the same sense as one “finishes” a book, one man, Greg Rutter, has apparently attempted to write the Cliffs Notes version. I recently stumbled upon this little gem (actually my dad emailed it to me), it’s called: “Greg Rutter’s Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You’re a Loser or Old or Something.” The name is self-explanatory: it’s 99 things on the Internet that all the cool kids are doing.
Check it out; it’s a really great list. It mostly consists of funny videos (think Star Wars Kid, Chocolate Rain, etc), but has other stuff as well. WARNING: There are 4 links at the bottom that are rather X-rated (read: 2 girls 1 cup), but the rest are mostly silly YouTube videos (which still may not be safe for work, so beware).
It’s a pretty awesome list, and if you check it out, it’s fun to count how many you’ve already seen (I was around 55/99). The site is a great way to distract yourself and catch up on the viral videos you may have missed. But after spending a good 5 hours clicking from link to link (and related links) and then attempting to stand, my legs’ inability to function got me thinking…
Take a second and think, actually think about how much time you spend on your computer each day. It’s crazy. Perhaps I’m an outlier, but I’m about as attached to my laptop as I was to watching Are You Afraid of the Dark everyday when I was a kid (no better time to watch a scary show than 4:30pm, IMO). I know, I know, the statement “Facebook is ruining our ability to communicate in person” has been said again and again, but really, Facebook IS ruining our ability communicate in person.
I actually don’t have too big of qualms with Facebook (it does help people stay in touch), though I do think Facebook has affected our ability to actually speak with others in real life. It’s really just our general abuse of the Internet that worries me. It’s just too darn easy to get lost in the Internet and completely avoid actually interacting with other human beings; why push myself and acutally engage in social interaction when I can just as easily waste away and watch an entire season of 24 at the push of a button? In a recent study I did (by asking myself and my Mom), surfing the web with no real purpose was found to be the #3 leading cause of lost friendship (#1 was a friend suddenly liking Linkin’ Park, and #2 was catching an acquaintance examining a snooty Kleenex too long).
When does aimlessly surfing the web go from ‘relaxing escape’ to ‘reality-numbing-brain-frying-life-sapping menace? I’m not 100 percent sure of the time and date, but I think it’s a Thursday.
I actually don’t fault the videos found in the list above. Viral videos and the like don’t contribute much to our slow transformation into half-human half-computer cyborgs (the real cause, as everyone knows, is rogue Sky-Net technology from the Terminator movies), they tend to be too short, too hilarious, and generally too harmless for me to be mad at. But I do think we need to re-examine our Twitter/Facebook/Side-Reel/Warcraft/Perez Hilton/Hulu/Addicting Games/Second Life/ESPN.com/MySpace/Megavideo/IGN/Minesweeper infected lives.
Now I know I’m opening myself to a lot of retorts: “You’re writing a freakin’ blog, the manifestation of the computer age,” or “the Internet is an extremely useful tool,” or “where else can I find such a sweet picture of a mustache!?!” Those all have a lot of merit. But I don’t think it’s a stretch to claim we really ought to be spend a little less time surfing the web, and a bit more time ensuring that we don’t let technology turn our children into socially inept, brain dead adults who resort to biting to solve their problems.
(Thanks again Dad for the link…)
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Isn’t it kind of outdated to say that the too much internet is going to make us braindead? The same argument was made for tv and video games, and I can image it was made for radio as well. The tv argument was proven wrong and recent studies have proven the video game theory wrong (see Growing Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World by Tapscott, who goes as far as to say that hard core gamers might make good doctors because of the their ability to manipulate machines similar to video game consoles that are used for surgeries). You might try and say tv/video games/internet turn people into zombies, but did it turn YOU into a zombie? No. Wouldn’t it kind of elitist to make sweeping generalizations about how these technologies impact the general public but somehow consider yourself an exception?
If you are really THAT worried about internet surfing impacting your life, install an application that tracks your usage:
http://lifehacker.com/software/featured-firefox-extension/track-browsing-habits-and-curb-procrastination-with-meetimer-291405.php
I know you briefly mentioned it, but I think your are understating what useful tool the internet is. Facebook can actually promote social interaction, via invites for events and such… for example, I got involved with a magazine on campus last year solely because I stumbled upon its facebook group. In the bigger picture, it’s more of a facilitator of conversation than the mode of conversation itself. It’s another way to be social, a different way to be social. If none of your friends were on it, how much fun would facebook really be? Outside of this, I recently read a book about human rights in the global information age and it gave several examples of how the internet is used to unite people for social causes, such workers at WalMart who are barred from forming unions at work but use the to the internet to unite for workers’ rights. What about the argument that internet use can lead to more aware and informed people?
Let’s be honest, although we might seem part of the general population typing away on our laptops drinking chai lattes on campus, the truth is we are a part of a tiny minority. I’m not sure the true question is whether or not the internet is going to turn our kids into mindless people… a more pertinent question would be whether access to the internet is almost creating two classes of people in the US and abroad, where the people who have access to these technologies have a clear advantage in life. This is what scares me about the internet… not whether spending 10 minutes laughing at a squirrel water skiing is going to make me any less of a social person.