Legal Commentary

The Internet: Are You Ready to Disconnect?

By Jeralyn

The LA Times has an interesting article today on coffee shops in high-tech areas like San Francisco that have stopped offering wi-fi and/or ban laptop computing. The shops say, aside from the drain on revenue, the internet has become too much of a distraction. Customers seem fine with the decision,

"People come here because we don't offer it. They know they can get their work done and not get distracted," [Downbeat Cafe owner Dan Drozdenko said.]

It's true. The internet has turned into as much of a time-waster as a productive tool. [More..]

My biggest objection is probably the increase in ads. Both on news sites and even on you tube. If a video starts with an ad, I click off instantly on principle. And, if the audio or video starts playing automatically when I log onto some page, I never go back to the site for any reason. How intrusive.

It seems every time I log onto my e-mail or the internet these days, at least an hour goes by before I get back to what I should be doing.

Out of 300 or more e-mails a day, there's rarely more than 5 that are messages to me from people. The rest are from organizations, media outlets or companies promoting their own stuff. Even though I delete 95% of them, it's still a distraction.

By comparison, it takes a lot less time to go on Twitter and see if there's anything important happening. It takes only seconds to scroll through the 50 or so media outlets, organizations and people I follow, almost all of whom are going to have something new up within minutes of it happening. And when ads become prominent on Twitter, I'll probably find something else.

As a blogger, of course I have to use the internet. But it's become a cacophony out there and as annoying as it is useful.

Has the value of the internet as a constant presence in your life peaked? What do you use it for most these days?

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 08, 2010 (boomark / email).