

No More Internet - wells-riley
http://skloot.org/post/29549771991/no-more-internet

======
fein
"it allows us to get really comfortable wasting a lot of time."

And then the article fell completely to pieces. If you view your time
searching for new information as a "waste", then you're going to end up in a
world of self inflicted ignorance.

We have the capabilities of sifting through bleeding edge information that
shapes our lives on a daily basis with the internet. The act of ignoring this
blatant fact is to effectively censor your own education. Why not just try to
stay away from all of the meme loaded bullshit that the internet has to offer
instead?

~~~
praxulus
Because not everybody has enough self control. I'm sure most people who waste
too much time on reddit/tumblr/etc. realize they could be spending their time
more productively, and many of them have made an effort to do so and failed.
At that point they can try again, or just go with the nuclear option.

I would bet that cutting off their internet entirely would be a net positive
for a surprising number of web users.

~~~
fein
I fully agree.

The only problem I have is a desperate will for people to work out self
control without resulting to absolute extremes. I really want to make the
argument that people should just tone it down a bit, and maybe try to remove
themselves from the shit that ends up actually being wasted time (facebook,
9gag, mainstream reddit, stumble, etc), but there's a part of me that
completely sides with the idea that people should just fuck off from it
entirely and enjoy the nice day.

I don't really have an issue with time management, so my internal conflict
ends up hanging on the fact that I've never been in those proverbial shoes.

------
slashclee
Every time I see a post like this (including Paul Miller over at the Verge),
it reminds me of an obese person suddenly deciding to go anorexic. You know
what the problem is? It's not the food. It's self-control, plain and simple.

~~~
jacobolus
It makes sense for an obese person to stop stocking the pantry and
refrigerator with ice cream, cookies, chips, and soda. Binge eating and sugar
addiction are serious problems, and just blaming people and telling them they
have “bad self control” doesn’t really solve anything. Putting dangerous
temptation out of reach, however, can have real benefits. (Although usually
overeating is also linked to other unrelated stress, so this may mainly be
treating a symptom rather than the root cause.)

For the science, some of it quite shocking, check out this great lecture
series
[http://www.youtube.com/course?list=PL4FD135EA45DEEBB6&fe...](http://www.youtube.com/course?list=PL4FD135EA45DEEBB6&feature=edu)

This lecture in particular, about rat studies, is amazing:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cli0RJQiPc>

~~~
awj
> It makes sense for an obese person to stop stocking the pantry and
> refrigerator with ice cream, cookies, chips, and soda.

I would call this "self control", which is exactly what the GP was advocating.

~~~
jacobolus
Okay. Then by the same token, getting rid of the home internet connection is
“self control”. So then what is he complaining about?

~~~
mbell
The proper analogy to getting rid of the internet connection would be throwing
out the refrigerator, the cabinets and every piece of food or food holding
device you have.

Of course, you'd be risking dying of hunger to do so, just as you'd be risking
intellectual death by cutting off the internet.

~~~
jacobolus
> _risking intellectual death by cutting off the internet_

Give me a fucking break. I know many people (even several programmers) without
an internet connection at home, and none of them are at any sort of risk of
“intellectual death”.

------
nsmartt
I program every day. I live on the internet. I blog (privately), plan
projects, work on said projects, and inhale information probably 15 hours per
day- sometimes more (I don't sleep much).

A week ago, a lightning strike took out my internet. I didn't react this way
at all.

I don't remember being bored except for the last day, when I was waiting for
the Ethernet to USB adapter to get here (My Ethernet port was damaged, along
with my modem and router).

I read a book. I watched the history channel. I drank some coffee and spent
some time with my family. I read another book. I got a hair cut.

This isn't a problem with what the internet allows you to do. It's a problem
with what you do with your time.

Edit: My boredom on the last day can probably be attributed to the maker habit
of not getting into something when interruption is imminent.

~~~
griffindy
I feel the same way, and I don't even have cable! But I always have mountains
of books to read, which was the pre-internet internet to an extent.

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shell0x
I think the internet is more boring than any outside activity. Sure, it's an
easy and comfortable way to get information and communicate with each other,
but I see it mostly as a tool. I think the internet gets overused by the most
people. A lot of people, even here at work, are online on Facebook, because
they don't want to miss anything. But what would you miss if you doesn't read
thats a boring day for someone, someone liked your newest image upload or
something else? I don't understand this weird behaviour, but maybe it's just
me doing sth. wrong.

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ojbyrne
Interesting until "we still have our phones." From what I observe while
commuting current smart phones are very amenable to wasting time on the
internet.

