What you have

[Jasper]

I just read something that struck me.  LMNO said, "It's not a benefit if you don't use it."

This is important.  We are allowed access to so much.  The internet, a supermarket, your neighborhood, your home, your time.  How effective could I be if I never slept in, took short showers, played no games, and spent every moment either working, learning, creating, or engaging people in mental activity?  I think I could change a lot of my environment. 

Rest is dangerous, I think.  You can rest until you die, but you will live emptily.  You can work while resting too.  And that's what most people do, because they can't rest enough at home because they're neurotic.  This society will kill your soul if you aren't adamantly alive and thinking.  With access to untold information at our fingertips, how can we be content with anything but brilliant discovery and progress?

Well?

[LHX]

once you see it - its hard to be content with anything less

the internet is waking people up


we get to be creative and get immediate feedback instead of sitting around and watching the results of other peoples creativity

[Triple Zero]

i need to print that shit out and tape it to the inside of my eyelids.

and now i stop reading this fucking forum cause i'm off to create something.

[LMNO]

I like how you took my one-off about vacation time at work and ran with it.

Good show, old chap.

[AFK]

It is true the internet offers much promise for information exchange and gathering.  I wouldn't be able to do my job without it.  Or at least, it would take a lot longer to do it without it. 

At the same time, I think a lot of people use the internet to reinforce their lazyness.  Not just physical, but social.  The internet, for many, becomes their social circle.  Then there ability to converse and exchange information with people in person becomes eroded.  Meanwhile, while on the internet for their socialization, they do not think to use this powerful resource to expand their minds.  To learn about new things.  Or to learn new things about concepts they think they are very familiar with. 

There's also a generational gap.  While it is true more and more baby boomers, and even some elderly, are tapping into the internet, it largely remains foreign.  These people still get a majority of their ideas from newspapers, books, Television, etc. And really, I think the generations need, to some degree, to get on similar pages.  When the baby boomers retire society is going to become very interesting with Social Security just being the tip of the iceberg. 

But, Felix is right.  There is much that is not taken advantage of that might give people a better understanding of the environment they exist in.  But, is that likely to change?  I'm not optimistic. 

[Jenne]

Thanks for saying that, RWHN.  I have seen a LOT of breakdown of IRL relationships that's partly because of this well, somewhat of an addiction? to the internet and how push-button technology can take raw humanity and make it at best passe and worst just an inconvenience.

There's the flipside to everything, even vacation.  Too much of it and your unemployed, not enough and an IBS-riddled workaholic.  However, there's rest and there's slack.  There's IRL relationships and there's syphons and sycophants.  There's online-gurus and there are hacks.  *shrug*

Again, it's a judgment call.  You use too little of one thing you have access to:  why?  Do you NEED it?  Is it MISSING from your life?  Or are you just not tapping in to a resource that will benefit you in the short-or-long run? 

I get antsy when I hear an all-or-nothing plea, not to say Felix's inquiry in the OP above was just that.  But sometimes there are just "seasons" for things, and sometimes there are just "reasons" for things.  But then, I'm a "case by case" kinda person, anyway.

[Jasper]

LHX- Concept of immediacy.  I don't think anything is immediate, but I like that line of inquiry.  'Boom', as you are given to saying, yes?

LMNO- That's high praise, it's just two paragraphs. 

RWHN: Time will tell.  I'm something of a futurist these days, and I can't help being optimistic about the longview, no matter how things look now.

Jenne: I maintain a slight addiction to interweb, but it's mainly because of LG.

[Jenne]

Felix, I of all people would be last to accuse anyone of inappropriate time use on the computer (ahem, notice my post count on any given forum!).

[AFK]

I would say "inappropriate" time use would be any use that cuts into social time with friends and family IRL.  That of course is different for different people and different situations.  That, of course, is based on my "moral" compass. 

[Jenne]

I tend to agree with that, RWHN.  Again, I've seen it in all spectrums.

I err greatly unfortunately on the wrong side of things...tend to neglect loved ones in my little escape.  Not good. 

so, I'm no moral majority here, at all.

[Jasper]

Inappropriate habits are what kill you.

[Jenne]

Good, now I know how to go if I so choose.

Just kidding.

[Cramulus]

Inappropriate habits are what kill you.

Then I'm probably going to die from drinking from water bottles that I find.

[AFK]

Inappropriate habits are what kill you.

Then I'm probably going to die from drinking from water bottles that I find.

Heh, Optimist.