# Working with the internet/technology as opposed to letting it entertain us



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

The internet is probably here to stay, and it manages to involve itself heavily in the life functions of entertainment and work, yes? Its easy to complain about its negative aspects that come from the allure of its abundant entertainment, such as addiction and wasted time, and many other more subtle things like making our lives too publicly exposed, misinformation, ect. Which may trigger people's natural tendencies towards neuroticism more easily than ever. Sometimes I've thought of the internet's entertainment aspect as in being the instruments to the eventual destruction of our decadent society. 

But must it be primarily used for diversion and entertainment? Perhaps technology will in the long run benefit us more and more, once it settles in more and becomes more widely used as a tool for actual work aside from the professionals working in specific fields.

For example: This question came about by the thought of what it would be like to compose music on a music notation program on a smart phone or tablet, effectively eliminating the need for paper and going "high tech." Yet for some reason, I can't picture myself using technology in a way to help me work on something and not to distract me from all things work. 

Do some of the adults with steady jobs on this site find themselves being tech saavy with things like smart phones, laptops, search engines, and software for the sake of work just as much as entertainment? I know that many people use it for business communications, but that's just a step up from a phone...

Maybe a lot of people already use it for things like I talked about, but it seems like an even larger number like to waste their time with it...and their lives are too comfortable and boring. I feel like one of the latter.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Personally, although when I was a little younger I used the internet primarily for gaming, and although I am not immune to using it for a substantial amount of time looking up cat .gifs, my internet use has morphed over the past year into something that I value very much. My daily routine involves talk on here (which tends to be interesting, and where I tend to talk about anything _but_ pieces and recordings!), talk on the 'highbrow' subreddits of reddit (like philosophy, aesthetics, anthropology and science etc.), chatter on Google+ mostly about skepticism and religion (I avoid facebook like the plague because the tenor of conversation is demented in comparison), and then, if I have the chance, the bulk of the rest of my internet use is watching or listening to documentaries. YouTube has set up its EDU page, which provides easy access to fantastic lectures from universities like Oxford, Stanford, MIT and others (during my most recent university term, when I was eating lunch in between reading works by Chaucer, I watched a 25-part series on human behavioural biology given by Robert Sapolsky - it was so fun!!), and there are other great initiatives such as the Khan Academy, which I plan to use to teach myself statistics when I go into the sciencey side of linguistics.

Although the internet still remains a procrastination tool for me at times, I really think that at least 80% of my use is dedicated to learning. Right now, I have about 30 lectures bookmarked, twice that in playlists I've yet to scour properly, and endless educational resources still untapped which I nevertheless know exist. The internet is awash with as much knowledge and learning as it is porn, and that is something I don't want to have to live without.

EDIT: Of course, it helps when learning _is_ entertainment to you.  I know it isn't for many people, and that's a great shame.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

most of the paper preprints in physics are uploaded to arxiv.org, I read a lot of papers from there.


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## Philip (Mar 22, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> But must it be primarily used for diversion and entertainment? [...]


There is no "must"... things just are... I do ALL my work on the computer, my phone is strictly for communication, my notebook is my workstation when i'm away. It just so happens that my computer is also a porn machine.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Philip said:


> There is no "must"... things just are... I do ALL my work on the computer, my phone is strictly for communication, my notebook is my workstation when i'm away. It just so happens that my computer is also a porn machine.


Its an interesting thought to divide your technology related tasks among devices rather than have an all purpose machine. I might want to do it differently than you do, but its definitely a worthy thought. Then again, maybe its just an excuse to get more stuff.

I wonder that if in another era, I would have been more productive or if I would have succumbed naturally to the diversions of the time, at this stage of my life. I actually hope it is the latter, because that means that there's hope for the future.


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## Philip (Mar 22, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> all purpose machine.


...where can i buy that?


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Nevermind...the article was not quite was I was looking for.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Most my internet browsing i'd say is productive, learning about various ****, something new every day. I lost all desire for video games a few years ago, and collegehumor.com stopped being funny after college. TV is still my guilty pleasure of misspent time.


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

I am currently doing a degree, and can surmise that the internet has mooted the point of most higher education, and within a few years, the whole lot. Universities will still thrive of course, because most people simply can't be bothered if they aren't being harangued by an authority figure.

The vast amount of lecture material for my course is drawn from information freely obtainable with a minimum of searching.

I do spend 5-6 hours or so at the computer a day, probably with about 3 hours leisure with TV services, Skype and general procrastination, but the other 3 to Uni work/independent learning on any topic that i invariably get obsessed with for about two weeks.

Viva interwebs.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Well, I'm trying to use wikipedia articles and youtube to help me understand what exactly constitutes atonality. Unfortunately, there's too much quasi technical jargon and I can't get to the bottom of it. I'll try harder. I made my cry for help.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I was brought up in the period of time when there was no internet ... no mobile phones ... the only 'electronic thing' we kids has was a transistor radio. And you know what, we got along just fine in life - if we wanted to get information on something, we went to the local library and researched it, and wrote out or notes in longhand on lined paper. 

I view the internet as a grand source of information ... it's all at our fingertips now which is impressive. So, yes, I do use the internet extensively, but mostly music related - I have a 'virtual library' of organ music scores now, and also own a mobile phone. I also use Netflix for streaming television (commercial free for the most part) and have Wi-Fi capability at home.

We just bought another home and sold the previous one ... most of the transactions and form signing were done 'electronically' via the internet which saved lots of time and saved bundles in petrol use and cost. 

Could I live without the internet today? Absolutely - no question about it!! But, as mentioned in another post above, the internet is here to stay, and I will make good use of it ... but sometimes the old process of researching in a library, and also interacting with real people in a real place is a wonderful experience too. 

Kh


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