And I Thought it was The Smack
A new study has reported that depriving internet addicts of the net in as little as two weeks incapacitates people and reduces them to a wimpering pile of jibberish. Ok, maybe not quite, but almost.
A small sample of 13 families was used and members were barred from accessing the net for two weeks. But even more important than this, despite the allure of $950, the study had difficulty recruiting people to participate.
Now the results may be skewed since Yahoo! and an ad firm commissioned the study-- after all what better way to improve ad revenues then to tell buyers consumers are addicted to the product you want to sell advertising on. But on the other hand, I agree.
If I had been offered $950 I would have given the study some thought, but think I would have found it difficult to execute since more than half of my job requires that I spend some time online scouring photo archives, researching information, emailing, ect.ect.
The longest I've been disconnected in recent memory was the 5 days I spent at Cape Cod this summer. Of course, I missed out some good events like the Governor comming out of the closet, a moment I really would have liked to have read about on politicsnj.com. But that was only five days, and I was on the beach.
Other than several long weekends, 3 days at most really, in the last 5 years. the exception being the 2000 trip to Italy. Just shy of 4 weeks, I was in one of the most beautiful places I've ever traveled to. But as it turns out, I don't think I even went two weeks without the net while we were there. Before we left Rome, my cousin helped log us on to dial-up internet and we all feverishly checked out our email, weather, news, ect.ect.
Now if I were going back to Europe any time soon for an extended stay (2 - 5 weeks), I'd probably suck it up and spend a good bit of money on internet cafes. (After all, if nothing else, I would need to blog).
And finally, a few things that I don't understand how it worked before internet:
Finding a place you've never been to.
Figure out music you like.
Phone numbers.
Communicate with friends.
Work.
Rent an apartment.
Buy obscure products, like out of print books.
Learn about things in depth.
Define words you don't know.
Be entertained.
Breathe.
A small sample of 13 families was used and members were barred from accessing the net for two weeks. But even more important than this, despite the allure of $950, the study had difficulty recruiting people to participate.
Now the results may be skewed since Yahoo! and an ad firm commissioned the study-- after all what better way to improve ad revenues then to tell buyers consumers are addicted to the product you want to sell advertising on. But on the other hand, I agree.
If I had been offered $950 I would have given the study some thought, but think I would have found it difficult to execute since more than half of my job requires that I spend some time online scouring photo archives, researching information, emailing, ect.ect.
The longest I've been disconnected in recent memory was the 5 days I spent at Cape Cod this summer. Of course, I missed out some good events like the Governor comming out of the closet, a moment I really would have liked to have read about on politicsnj.com. But that was only five days, and I was on the beach.
Other than several long weekends, 3 days at most really, in the last 5 years. the exception being the 2000 trip to Italy. Just shy of 4 weeks, I was in one of the most beautiful places I've ever traveled to. But as it turns out, I don't think I even went two weeks without the net while we were there. Before we left Rome, my cousin helped log us on to dial-up internet and we all feverishly checked out our email, weather, news, ect.ect.
Now if I were going back to Europe any time soon for an extended stay (2 - 5 weeks), I'd probably suck it up and spend a good bit of money on internet cafes. (After all, if nothing else, I would need to blog).
And finally, a few things that I don't understand how it worked before internet:
Finding a place you've never been to.
Figure out music you like.
Phone numbers.
Communicate with friends.
Work.
Rent an apartment.
Buy obscure products, like out of print books.
Learn about things in depth.
Define words you don't know.
Be entertained.
Breathe.
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