6 ms·

Wi-Fi Is More Addictive Than Coffee for Young People

38 points by davidedicillo 16y ago

hugh3 16y ago
Seventy-five percent of American respondents to a survey sponsored by the Wi-Fi Alliance said that a week without Wi-Fi would leave grumpier than a week without coffee or tea. Uhhh-huh. And I wonder what a survey sponsored by the Coffee and Tea Alliance would have to say. Is there no filtering layer at the New York Times that comes in between the press release and the story and says "Boy, this sounds like a bogus poll, we probably shouldn't base an entire article around it"?
- davidedicillo 16y ago
  I see your point, but how many polls do you know that aren't made by an interested party? Most companies sponsor polls to validate their products or success.
  - crystalis 16y ago
    I see your point, but how many ads do you know that aren't made by an interested party? Most companies sponsor ads to validate their products or success. Clearly, they too should get free press coverage.
- jcw 16y ago
  Does "a week without wifi" mean "a week without internet"? I hope people understand that you can also use a cable.
  - cryptoz 16y ago
    You never know. There's a lot of confusion around the term "wireless". As a teenager in the early '00s, I worked in an electronics store that sold laptops. Many times, people would be pissed that you still needed to plug it in to the wall: after all, they were buying a laptop "with wireless"! Of course, there's always the extreme case that's the basis of many jokes on the 'net, where an old lady returns a laptop because it died after three hours of use. She didn't plug it in because "it's wireless, right?" sigh
dbrannan 16y ago
It's just not young people! I'm 42 and would probably go crazy without my Internet connection.
- daniel-cussen 16y ago
  I got to live without wifi for a while after the earthquake (I live in Santiago). It was some serious withdrawal.
finnomenon 16y ago
I don't care much for coffee at all, so.. yeah, I'd be "grumpier"
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
sbov 16y ago
Just because you don't want to go without something you're addicted to it? I thought addiction had to do with continuing use in the face of adverse consequences. If not, then personally, I'm addicted to oxygen. I'm not sure what I would do without it.
- techiferous 16y ago
  My thoughts exactly. I'm addicted to wi-fi in the same way that I'm addicted to electricity and running water.
code_duck 16y ago
There's no question, the internet is way more stimulating! And that's good, that an experience of any sort is more entertaining than a drug. Of course, put the two together, and this may explain why I've been to a coffee shop 4 days out of 7 for the past 3 years.
Groxx 16y ago
Question: how many responders equated "Wi-Fi" with "internet access"? And how many capitalize and hyphenate "Wi-Fi"?
pmjordan 16y ago
I'm guessing 3G/HSPA coverage must be pretty bad/expensive in the US? (yeah, I know about the AT&T/iPhone complaints) For on-the-go internet use, HSPA is easily good enough and cheap enough here, I usually don't even bother turning on Wifi when on the go. It's not quite DSL of course, but public Wifi tends to be much worse than office/home DSL anyway...
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  Well, tethering also isn't free, unless you're with T-Mobile. Everyone else charges roughly $20/month for it.
  - pmjordan 16y ago
    The price I quoted is actually for prepaid do-whatever-you-want-with-it SIM card: €20 per 1.5GB bundle, lasts up to 12 months. You can go cheaper (€4/GB/month) if you're a heavier user or go for a flat rate (no idea how much they are these days). So yeah, sounds like you guys get screwed over for wireless data.
vilhelm_s 16y ago
See also: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
Perceval 16y ago
I just canceled my home internet precisely because I had no self-control when exposed to it constantly. I would get up, get online, waste hours, barely get any work done, then waste the rest of the day on it, especially when I had tedious work to do. It's much easier to get and up and get work done if I don't have internet in my home, so it's not the first or last thing I do every day. I've also started reading before bed again. Maybe asceticism is just my natural response to things, after all, I don't drink or have a TV or (now) have home internet. But writing a dissertation does demand a little bit of a monk-like existence, as I imagine other major projects do. I can still get internet with my iPhone or library Wi-Fi, but in the former case it's harder to waste hours surfing on the iPhone, and in the latter case I can simply avoid going to Wi-Fi-enabled places on campus if I need to.
- kiba 16y ago
  Maybe you just need to practice NOT eating marshmallow. Lay out one marshmallow and try not to eat for X seconds. Once you reach that X seconds, add another marshmallow. Keep doing it until you can't do it. After recording the number of marshmallows you ate, you try for bigger number of marshmallows next time. However, I never tested this. So if you ever try this idea, let me know how it goes.

38 points by davidedicillo 16y ago

hugh3 16y ago

Seventy-five percent of American respondents to a survey sponsored by the Wi-Fi Alliance said that a week without Wi-Fi would leave grumpier than a week without coffee or tea. Uhhh-huh. And I wonder what a survey sponsored by the Coffee and Tea Alliance would have to say. Is there no filtering layer at the New York Times that comes in between the press release and the story and says "Boy, this sounds like a bogus poll, we probably shouldn't base an entire article around it"?

davidedicillo 16y ago
I see your point, but how many polls do you know that aren't made by an interested party? Most companies sponsor polls to validate their products or success.
- crystalis 16y ago
  I see your point, but how many ads do you know that aren't made by an interested party? Most companies sponsor ads to validate their products or success. Clearly, they too should get free press coverage.
jcw 16y ago
Does "a week without wifi" mean "a week without internet"? I hope people understand that you can also use a cable.
- cryptoz 16y ago
  You never know. There's a lot of confusion around the term "wireless". As a teenager in the early '00s, I worked in an electronics store that sold laptops. Many times, people would be pissed that you still needed to plug it in to the wall: after all, they were buying a laptop "with wireless"! Of course, there's always the extreme case that's the basis of many jokes on the 'net, where an old lady returns a laptop because it died after three hours of use. She didn't plug it in because "it's wireless, right?" sigh

dbrannan 16y ago

It's just not young people! I'm 42 and would probably go crazy without my Internet connection.

daniel-cussen 16y ago
I got to live without wifi for a while after the earthquake (I live in Santiago). It was some serious withdrawal.

finnomenon 16y ago

I don't care much for coffee at all, so.. yeah, I'd be "grumpier"

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

sbov 16y ago

Just because you don't want to go without something you're addicted to it? I thought addiction had to do with continuing use in the face of adverse consequences. If not, then personally, I'm addicted to oxygen. I'm not sure what I would do without it.

techiferous 16y ago
My thoughts exactly. I'm addicted to wi-fi in the same way that I'm addicted to electricity and running water.

code_duck 16y ago

There's no question, the internet is way more stimulating! And that's good, that an experience of any sort is more entertaining than a drug. Of course, put the two together, and this may explain why I've been to a coffee shop 4 days out of 7 for the past 3 years.

Groxx 16y ago

Question: how many responders equated "Wi-Fi" with "internet access"? And how many capitalize and hyphenate "Wi-Fi"?

pmjordan 16y ago

I'm guessing 3G/HSPA coverage must be pretty bad/expensive in the US? (yeah, I know about the AT&T/iPhone complaints) For on-the-go internet use, HSPA is easily good enough and cheap enough here, I usually don't even bother turning on Wifi when on the go. It's not quite DSL of course, but public Wifi tends to be much worse than office/home DSL anyway...

steveklabnik 16y ago
Well, tethering also isn't free, unless you're with T-Mobile. Everyone else charges roughly $20/month for it.
- pmjordan 16y ago
  The price I quoted is actually for prepaid do-whatever-you-want-with-it SIM card: €20 per 1.5GB bundle, lasts up to 12 months. You can go cheaper (€4/GB/month) if you're a heavier user or go for a flat rate (no idea how much they are these days). So yeah, sounds like you guys get screwed over for wireless data.

vilhelm_s 16y ago

See also: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Perceval 16y ago

I just canceled my home internet precisely because I had no self-control when exposed to it constantly. I would get up, get online, waste hours, barely get any work done, then waste the rest of the day on it, especially when I had tedious work to do. It's much easier to get and up and get work done if I don't have internet in my home, so it's not the first or last thing I do every day. I've also started reading before bed again. Maybe asceticism is just my natural response to things, after all, I don't drink or have a TV or (now) have home internet. But writing a dissertation does demand a little bit of a monk-like existence, as I imagine other major projects do. I can still get internet with my iPhone or library Wi-Fi, but in the former case it's harder to waste hours surfing on the iPhone, and in the latter case I can simply avoid going to Wi-Fi-enabled places on campus if I need to.

kiba 16y ago
Maybe you just need to practice NOT eating marshmallow. Lay out one marshmallow and try not to eat for X seconds. Once you reach that X seconds, add another marshmallow. Keep doing it until you can't do it. After recording the number of marshmallows you ate, you try for bigger number of marshmallows next time. However, I never tested this. So if you ever try this idea, let me know how it goes.