It’s the desire for knowledge that is messing with my productivity. Like the proverbial tree, the lure is nearly irresistible, and the consequences less than ideal. It’s a struggle between thirst for knowledge, characterized by the broadening of my horizons to encompass the entire globe, and taking care of the stuff of life. I’m speaking, of course, of the Internet as a fountain of knowledge, and as the bane of one’s goals.
Just in this little corner of the Internet, here in Slice of SciFi, there is enough content so as to suck up at least a couple of hours worth of each day… and that’s if you’re just scanning the offerings, not even reading them in-depth. Multiply that by hundreds, if not thousand of other sites. They are all clamoring for ever more precious slices of my time. The answer, of course, is to cut down on work, eating, sleeping, and family life.
Seriously, does anyone have any suggestions? Because I know I am not alone; in various podcasts I hear writers and photographers, show hosts, and professionals all lament how hard it is to get anything done. Just about anyone who is asked responds the same way; turn off the TV, log off from the e-mail account, or better yet, turn off the Internet. Yeah… get real!! At any given hour, one can be conversing with someone from Australia about a video from the Netherlands that was submitted to the Internet by someone from Japan. If one stopped to think about it, they would find the reality of it mind-boggling… and exciting, and interesting, and hard to resist.
The fact is that I, and many others, don’t think about it. It’s become a common occurrence, something that can happen multiple times a day, substituting any of hundreds of countries, and dealing with almost any conceivable topic. Being a social recluse (by choice), I find myself using the Internet as a substitute for social interaction. But really, it’s not a substitute; it is social interaction, minus the tiny detail of not being face to face (a good thing to my mind, and likely beneficial for the person at the other end as well).
Chat rooms, forums, and e-mail all blend to give me a virtual presence that spans the globe. A number of people around the world know my name, and I know theirs. And I’m nobody. I don’t have a popular blog, run a forum, or even have a web page (kind of an embarrassment these days). But others do; interesting people who provide a common ground for interactions, sharing ideas, and forming friendships… the bastards!! How am I ever going to amount to anything if all these people keep strewing obstacles on my path to published glory and a lucrative movie deals?
I only have myself to blame. I have a choice. A choice between adding to my stories, polishing them up, forging new worlds, interesting characters… or spending an hour answering a small snippet of a comment made by someone I don’t know on an obscure forum regarding a subject that within minutes will no longer be of interest to anyone. It is a compulsive disorder. I read something, I formulate an opinion, I correctly assess that my posting a comment will just be a waste of time… and yet the next thing I know, I’m using precious time to compose a piece of writing that will be no more than a drop in the vast sea of the internet. Maybe all of two people in the whole world will ever read those words, and one of them is me.
I find this cartoon humorous for a very good reason; if I look very closely, it’s me sitting on that chair.
Sure, I’m one of those lucky guys who can do well on as little as three hours of sleep a night. But think of all that time I could have used to write fiction, or even posting more of these brief pieces. Instead I find myself online debating the pros and cons of using fantastic Nikon equipment versus the other mediocre, if well-selling, brand. Or debating the merits of my opinion on any given subject versus that of poor souls who invariably seem to hold views that are totally wrong. The real annoyance is that they think they are right, and that it’s me that’s wrong. Perhaps that is it! It’s the sheer audacity of these other people who spur me to pound out reply after reply.
Whatever the reason, my “to read” pile grows, my writing projects gather electronic dust, and my goals get time-shifted to the point where it’s automatic to move them a week into the future without even really remembering what they were. I wish I could say it’s making me miserable, but I can’t. I like to learn about the world, to converse with people half way around the world, and to reach out and see the universe (WorldWide Telescope). I get to do all that without paying some airline to lose my luggage, or have some security person feign interest in examining my shoes.
Thankfully the lure of real life — family, writing, photography, etc. — strike a balance with my virtual endeavors, and I am the better for having added to my understanding of the world we live in, the people we share it with, and its place in the vastness of the universe. But I do hate “wasting” those three or four hours sleeping each night…
Jarik says
Amen brother!
fred says
Like a moth to the flame.
sandyg says
I found this interesting and true. We get so used to the internet in our lives that it starts to be compulsive….we can’t sign off, after all; we might miss something.
And the cartoon is funny. I agree that is probably you in the chair. ;>)
Rif_Luna says
Sorry it took so long to post. You see, I had a lot of stuff on my plate to review before this! LOL Although I agree you are probably the person in the chair, (obligatory Randal get out of my head comment!), I don’t think your really a stick figure. There is a little more…. Substance! heh. And I could go on and on about, wait what is this article about? I should really concentrate to keep on task. But it is just so hard with the internets constant lure of entertainment and knowledge. Damn you internets! Keep up the writing Emilio, can’t wait to go watch the Dark Knight with you!