Published: March 22, 2006 in articles » management by Thomas Baekdal
I have always been more or less addicted to the internet - and having to live without it for about a month is not something that I like. But, being offline has made me realize how much time I waste on the internet.
Note: I moved to a new house, and had to wait a month to get the connection set up.
In every sense, there was no practical difference between being online for only 1 hour a week, and being online all the time. In fact, it made me more productive to be offline - even though every single thing I do is based internet technologies.
What on earth did I spend all the remaining time on? Well...
I received well over 200 emails during the first week. Out of those only 7 of them required my attention and only one required me to act within the same day. That's a very low percentage of effectiveness.
Essentially I could open up my email program every day at - say - 2:00 PM and close it 10 minutes later - and still get as much done (if not more) than if it was open all the time.
I also received 814 feed items. Of those only 22 was about something I wanted to know more about - and only 3 of those was really interesting.
Most important thing about RSS feeds is that none of the items requires your immediate attention. I was not able get my feeds for about a week, and most astoundingly it made no real difference. In fact, checking only one time made RSS handling much faster.
Note: This makes me wonder why I have my RSS reader set to "check every 30 minutes"...
I used to browse a lot. Often it would start because of some specific need - like fact-checking for an article - but I would easily get distracted.
Just a couple of weeks ago (before my offline period) I needed to get some information about how our brains work when things is accelerated (as part of a stress handling). During this fact-finding "mission" I stumbled over an article about how much G-force drag-racers experience, and that a drag-racer can accelerate to 100 mph in less than 1 second. Although this was completely unrelated, I was intrigued by that kind of force, and spend the next 20 minutes reading about that instead.
That is a big problem with the internet; there are too many things out there - without any barriers between different categories of information. It is too easy to get distracted and that is a serious time-waster.
Of course, much of this isn't exactly news. We all know that browsing, RSS and emails are causes of ineffectiveness. But, what I didn't know was how much ineffectiveness it accounts too.
For me more than 99% of all the time I spend handling emails and RSS is a waste. And, more than 60% of the time I spend browsing is keeping me away from more important things.
This is something that needs fixing - and fast too.
I wouldn't want live without the internet. It is truly a helpful tool - if you can ignore the many distractions.
Hi,ya!
For some time now I´ve changed my view on Internet,cell phones and all these gadgets that we are supposed to be needing...
They are A huge waste of money and time...I am certain that we´d be better off with out them. From the beginning for example PC´s should ´ve been sold only to those who really need them;
like schools , firms and so on, you get the picture...
Not to some exchibitionists and freaks that we see all over the net! I honestly think that there should be directives and laws that give directions to what should be on the net and what should not.
Things were better 20 years ago....
One could extend the analogy to the written word, perhaps literacy should be limited to those that really need it - the clergy, scribes, schools for those scribed and firms.
As a former junkie (aka college student), I can attest to the hours that one can waste on the internet.
- Just like finances, our time needs to be budgeted... as unlike time you can't get a loan for more time when you run out.
-M
mz = some one researching this topic and i disagree coz i rekon the internet HAS useful stuff. it is efficient and keeps u up-to-date with stuff going on. The 21st century has produed a spectacular thing, so use it!!! :] <3
ISWIRTT (071807 posting) - Get a load of the library. Read. There are awful things happening in this world. We are spoiled; internet is an enabler.
Act - improve - care. It's not all about you.
and here we are doing the same thing over and over again
we seriously need to unplug ourself from the net. its like a jar of cookies. you cant take away from it unless someones takes it away from you.
i am someone researching about this topic too. teachers gave us this topic for us to debate and i am on the against side. so i think it is a monster but the debate will be on 11th january. so could you help me with this subject?
The internet, what a curious piece of crap. Without it you're almost lost and with it you are definitely lost. Thank goodness for search engines. But I must say there are far too much useless and repeated information on the net and to little relevant information. Just by discarding half a billion web pages, the planet can almost exist for another 100 years or so to come.
But my question is, when do we really (need) use the internet? There must be like a need for something or information. It is like buying a new toothbrush; you don't go and buy a new toothbrush every time you stroll past a shop. So do small businesses really benefit from the internet, do us as humans really benefit, or is it just a hype till someone finds something else.
We all know the situation around email, spam - spam and some more spam. What I hate is getting the same mail or video clips from ten different people, some I don't even know. My suggestion is to make people pay for emails. If you send a mail you pay, so this will stop unnecessary emails. Then people will only send what is important and what you really need. But what do I really need? Only I will know.
You all bad mouth the internet, and yet how the hell have you all posted these comments about; the internet is a waste of time, the internet is a waste of money. Its about time you all woke up a smell the coffe, because the internet is here to stat if you like it or not!!!
Remember when things were free on the web, and you didn't have to confirm passwords and email information to look at a page or chat. I miss those days. I bet in the future you won't even be able to do anything without submitting how much money you make per year.
Hear, hear. I've been giving thought to getting rid of my Internet connection at home. I, too, also waste an inordinate amount of time doing "research". And while the Net has made it easier to have so much more at our grasp I wonder, though, if we are truly grabbing a hold of anything more or that more simply slips out of our hands...
Thoughtful piece. Just don't ask me how I came across it. I was doing some more "research". :)
Coming from Cuba, where internet is missing for the most part, I find myself quite poisoned by internet and the tv these days... (Relocated to nyc 2 yrs ago)
Subscribing to World of Warcraft didn't help either. That was the ultimate social life killer.
A friend once compared modern times in developed countries to the Middle Ages. He said ppl have walls all around them keeping them from seeing the world for what it is... Accessing information and building their spirits and personalities from what they read and are fed with over the web.
Extreme? A bit, perhaps... Still, made me think.
The internet, like other technologies, is a tool. It is up to the user weather or not it wastes time. There is much about the internet that saves time if one can tame the urge to "wonder" towards useless gossip, hype or any trivial information. I only get on the internet twice a week for about 45 minutes...30 of those minutes are important. Tame the beast! It's in your control!
i'm just starting my blog on waste of space in the internet, anyone can direct me to resources discussing such topic?
thx
It,s no fun for people like me who does not live in the states or canada. I was just trying to check out CSI New York, but got blocked for not being in the right region. FRUSTRATING!!!
the internet is just a cesspool of immorality and stupidity. the people that use it are mostly just looking to take advantage of someone or something. someone being....someone to use for entertaiment purposes to kill time, flirt make yourself feel good, when you're done move onto something else to kill time. the internet is full of anti-social people who dont want to meet anyone for real. its a total waste of space and time.
take advantage of something...usually information for free or getting some product cheaply or for free mp3s, movie etc or scamming someone or something for gain. cheapskates who have no respect for anyone or anything. i mean you wouldnt go into a bricks and mortar store and steal a dvd, yet thats what you do on the internet, people dont treat anyone or anything on the net as something real, therefore they couldnt give a damn about them, victims are virtual, therefore they cant be harmed right? thats all the internet is, biggest waste of space ever, given the choice which i dont have because my job requires me to have a computer, i would gladly toss my laptop into the sea and everyone and everything associated with it. the reason i spent hours on it is because ive paid for it, it costs the same if i use it 30 mins a month or 300 hours a month.
I agree with the writer of this article, completely hit the nail on the head. I may sound strange and misguided for saying this, but its funny when I 'waste time' on the internet, the majority of the time I come across articles or news stories about how the economy is hurting so bad.
I thought about the repercussions of people not spending their hard earned money unless it was on something necessary and I had to realize this was exactly the way most of the people I knew lived 15-25 years ago. We never wasted our money on frivilous things, and of course most never fell into the sinkhole of cellphone bills and credit card debt.
I went to my local mall the other day to wander around and look at the books in the stores, and I had to laugh, the place was PACKED with people, toting huge bags and items they were purchasing.
I then went to the supermarket to pick up some groceries for the evening meal and the same thing happened there, people with entire baskets just full of items. I wondered about the so called recession and I cant remember a time seeing so many people shopping!
I had to think about the people getting laid off and the correlation between the top news stories on the internet, I wondered if this was simply a knee-jerk reaction and businesses panicking and firing or laying off workers when they really dont need to...Who knows, but I can say they could definately use some help at the local mall and supermarkets! People definately had extra spending money to waste on gadgets, clothes and microwave meals...
Hey ...
I somewhat laughed at this...
YOU are complaining about internet that, internet this
(i mean there, everyone who posted comments, or the article writer)
Stop raising hands in the air telling "it's not my fault" YOU are the only one who decide what you are doing
This is a nonsense to tell to forbid to buy something, because you have no courage to tell YOURSELF to stop doing this, so relying on others people is sooooo easier
STOP, and use your brain!
Baekdal.com is (nearly) everywhere. Check out our social profiles:
FaceBook
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
FriendFeed
Delicious
Sep 7
2006
Thomas E. Elliott
There are some days I miss just having a phone on the wall and sometime ponder just dumping the computer. I have a 15 year old son so realistically it is not likely. Nowadays the house phone rings and nobody even winces, if it is anyone you knew they would be calling on the cell. Caller ID and answering machines are the landline firewall. I guess I need to find a way to just stay off the computer except for the vital uses.