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I'm not sure the internet is necessarily any "worse" than TV or whatever in this regard, but its threat is more disguised. When you're wasting time with superf
by tjr 18y ago
I'm not sure the internet is necessarily any "worse" than TV or whatever in this regard, but its threat is more disguised. When you're wasting time with superficial information on the web, you're still using a computer! And there is so much useful information on the web, how could using the web be a bad thing?
On the surface, it appears to be a more productive activity than watching television. It is more interactive, and it does require more skills to get going with it than television does. But once you get past that, it can still all too easily turn into a waste of time.
- tjr 18y ago...I should add, I don't think that the internet is the problem, nor is television, nor anything else along those lines. The problem, if it exists at all, is with the users of these technologies. The internet can be used for good, useful things, and for wasteful distractions. I think that some distractions can be fine -- some fun diversions here and there is not wrong -- but the users need to realize when they are letting the distractions take up too much time and reverse the trend.
- mechanical_fish 18y agoWell, yeah. Now you're talking like Merlin Mann or the Rescuetime folks -- or, for that matter, a Zen Buddhist. Someone who sees the problem and tries to do something about it instead of merely starting a panic and yelling at some kids.
- mechanical_fish 18y agoThere was a time when television was considered a valuable source of important information about the world. The idea that TV is intrinsically stupid didn't really have popular traction until Newton Minow's "vast wasteland" speech in the 1960s. I agree that the web is more subtle, especially today, when the chrome has yet to wear off. But no medium is free from time-wasting. History is replete with people whose reading and writing was arguably "a waste of time". It's certainly replete with artists, musicians, and writers whose tendency to focus obsessively on their hobby was bad for their finances and their health. Ramanujan arguably worked himself to death with mathematics.
- thwarted 18y agoI remember back in the 80s there was this trend to outfit schools with a television in every room, as television was going to be some kind of teaching/learning holy grail. Then it was never used for that, and I remember a lot of the televisions going unused.
- william42 18y agoI thought Ramanujan died because he wasn't used to England weather.