Waste of time?

At the beginning of the semester, when we first started talking about The Shallows, we talked a lot about how the inter has turned us all into people who get distracted easily. I completely agree with this. I know that from my own experiences, I have become much more susceptible to being distracted when I’m working on some sort of project. Even right now, I have my phone next to me and am constantly texting; I’m watching Chopped on the Food Network, and I keep constantly going back to Facebook and checking if I have new notifications. I also have been adding things to my planner as I remember about them. I am very easily distracted as it is, and having the “world wide web” at my fingertips really doesn’t help anything. However, I find I concentrate more if I have some sort of background noise going on. Whether it’s the TV or my iTunes playing. All through my high school years, my parents would get angry with me doing my homework in front of the TV or on the computer, but it’s definitely apparent from my grades and how much faster I work. If I am just shut in my room, then I feel like I’m missing out on things and that there’s so much waiting for me and the pressure really gets to me. There are times when I absolutely need to shut myself in my room and just concentrate. Usually this happens when I have a test during the week or a huge project that I procrastinated on.

            I also believe that the Internet has made us more lazy people. I find that a many people, especially teens and young adults are spending way too much time online and not outside. I remember the days before we had the Internet that I would be outside on my swing set with my friends making up different types of tag games. Now when I hang out with my friends, one of us has a laptop out or we’re on our smartphones or something. It’s definitely not the same as it was in the early-mid 90’s, and a lot of the time, I miss it.

            It absolutely appalls me when I see elementary school kids texting and their iPads. I didn’t get a cell phone until I was in high school, and that was only because of my busy schedule from Marching Band. I didn’t get texting until my Junior Year of high school. I’ve had 3 iPods, my second because the first broke and my thirds because the second was stolen. I’m on my first laptop, and only because I needed it for college. Honestly, I’m still kind of living in the 90’s, being naive about everything and just enjoying life.

            I may disagree with a lot of what Carr says, but he definitely has the fact that we’re lazier and get much more distracted down. It’s obvious when you look at the 90’s generation and then the generation that is still growing. I still believe that the Internet is in the top 5 greatest things ever invented.