The Internet

After an agonizing two days, the internet is back at our chalet. It was a frustrating hiatus to my recent boost of productivity, but it was nice to be freed from the prison of technology. I was able to finish A Feast for Crows and make headways in The Purple Land.

While connectivity is back, it still does seem to disappear at the whim of passing clouds. As we emerge from two days of incessant rain, Wi-Fi only appears to work during brief sunny episodes. I am taking advantage of one right now to write this entry.

These trials and tribulations have made me reflect on the nature of my dependency on technologies. Am I addicted? Is it a problem? Should I do something about it? These are questions that are constantly in the collective mind of society. Here are my two cents:

I still stand by the notion that while it is necessary to closely examine the effects of our technological habits, we shouldn't be too quick to damn them. We spend our days staring at screens for a reason, and I don't think that it is fully explained by chemical addiction.

I can, and I'm sure so can many others, halt my internet use for weeks a time if I choose to, with no consequence on my mood. Disabling facebook, blocking websites, changing and then hiding computer passwords... I have on many occasions successfully taken these steps in the fight against my so-called internet addiction. The call to return, when it inevitably comes, never feels like a symptom of dependency, but rather like a call of duty. I need to return to normal life to keep up with friends, family, and the world, as well as work on building my future. The internet is so central to our productivity that I sometimes feel that our attempts to remove ourselves from it are simply a waste of time. These attempts aren't helping us fight an addiction, they're actually keeping us from being productive members of society.

And it's perhaps a bad thing that the internet is required for that. But at the same time it seems unlikely that we will return to a productive life that doesn't depend on the internet, given the seemingly infinite new abilities that connectivity confers us. It is my genuine impression that any lifestyle, even the most hermitic, can be improved with controlled use of the internet.

Fans of the outdoors can connect with other nature enthusiasts, discover new places to explore, and organize amazing adventures for themselves with great ease. Some of the most "successful" and happy people in the world spend their entire days using internet to e-mail, do research, or simply check the news. They still, in general, manage to fit in time with their family, or to simply enjoy life.

The internet has its bad sides, obviously. But it's a powerful tool that gives us an unprecedented ability to connect with the rest of the world. There is a community for all of us now. Anonymity has become a choice.

In any case, it seems that it should be quite possible to responsibly use the internet to improve our lives without losing track of reality. So why do so many people seem to waste their time on mindless internet activities? Perhaps the issue is with our attitude. If we stop looking at technologies as soul-sapping forces of evil, but more as positive agents of change, maybe we will treat them differently too. Maybe we will start to use them more for our benefit, instead of simply for distraction. Maybe once we start to use the internet deliberately, rather than reluctantly, we will begin to use it better.