Although I do think one of the great pleasures of the internet is being able to randomly surf, and a certain amount of this should fall within the slow information movement – the unstructured exploration vibe seems to fit well. Although obviously if out of control it does just become noisy and overstimulating.

Bea

slow to respond though. heh.

And I would think all of the clementines would have had the opposite effect – if nothing else from all of the fiber. Ahem.

And I love this. I have always gravitated towards the blogging world because it seems that I can rarely find more than 5 minutes at a time to read or write something. More and more lately, however, I am seeing how unproductive and unfulfilling this really is, and am trying harder to set aside a block of time that is focused and structured and that make me feel like I have spent it wisely. Great post!

I agree- I noticed that though I feel productive online I’m almost half dazed on-line kind of surfing here surfing there and really it feels like you’re moving but you’re not.

I’ve been thinking about the constant stream of information. My daughter made a comment over the weekend that I am “on Twitter every minute of the day.” It’s not quite true, but that’s what it seemed like to her. I got the feeling that the family had seen the back of my head far too often while we were in the kitchen together. I never want social networking to take the place of time better spent with my family. I drew her round to the desk and showed her that even when Twitter is on my screen, I have other tabs open. I write an article, then tweet it. I get an email with good info, I tweet it. I need help (lots) & tweet it.

I have two streams of girlfriends: the ones I know through my kids and the ones I know through my business. Not one of those among my Mommy friends owns any techie information tools or does any more than the occasional FB post, but nearly everyone among my business friends has accounts on LinkedIn, FB, Twitter, Ecademy, as well as shiny new I-Phones with Apps. I am drawn in more and more. If I am on the computer after 10 p.m., my husband nags me to get off. I’m not addicted, but I am so entertained by witty comments, great info and links to news I never would have had access to otherwise.
As a tutor of creative writing, I still make every child sit with his or her dictionary next to their notebook, instead of letting them get away with “who cares, spell check will pick it up.” I still love the feeling of holding a real book, turning the pages, and falling asleep with the book open on my chest. But, if someone would buy me a Kindle, I would be ecstatic. I think what I am trying to say is that I am sitting on the fence on this issue.

I liked this post. I’m definitely an internet addict and I need to find some balance. Thanks for your brilliant post, as always!

I’ve gradually gone from reading lots of books to reading lots of magazines to struggling to finish the daily papers, while unread books & magazines pile up around me. I don’t watch a lot of TV anymore either, so I’m obviously spending my time other ways, & it’s obviously online. When I do sit down with a book, I find my attention often wanders. The only time it seems I can really settle in & devour a good book the way I once did is when I’m on vacation at my parents, away from my daily responsibilities & with more limited time on the computer. Sometimes I find this a little frightening.

And then I think about how what a relative techno-neophyte I am — we still have just regular cable TV (no movie packages, no digital channels, no PVR), we rarely use our cellphones, we don’t text message, we only JUST got a DVD player a few years ago, the only video game system in our house is a 20-year-old original Nintendo system with the original Mario Brothers game & Duck Hunt. : ) And yet kids today are growing up absolutely immersed in this stuff. I worry sometimes about them & how this is affecting their development and their ability to relate to other people, face to face. (And I weep for their atrocious lack of spelling & grammar skills, but that’s another post.)