Op-Ed: Go Ahead: Waste Time on the Internet.
Metadata
Highlights
- The notion that the Internet is bad for you seems premised on the idea that the Internet is one thing — a monolith. In reality it’s a befuddling mix of the stupid and the sublime, a shattered, contradictory, and fragmented medium. (View Highlight)
- Our time spent in front of the computer is a mixed time, a time that reflects our desires — as opposed to the time spent sitting in front of the television where we were fed shows we didn’t necessarily enjoy. TV gave us few choices. Many of us truly did feel like we wasted our time — as our parents so often chided us — “rotting away” in front of the TV. (View Highlight)
- I’m told that our children are most at risk, that the excessive use of computers has led our kids to view the real world as fake. But I’m not so sure that even I can distinguish “real” from “fake.” How is my life on Facebook any less “real” than what happens in my day-to-day life? In fact, much of what does happen in my day-to-day life comes through Facebook — work opportunities, invitations to dinner parties, and even the topics I discuss at those dinner parties. (View Highlight)