The Folly of Internet Addiction: William Gibsons Perspective

In the essay "The Net Is a Waste of Time" by William Gibson, he speaks about how he is an "passionate internet browser of the World Wide Web." While individuals discover this to be odd and his spouse discovers it positively perverse, Gibson thinks differently saying "I, nevertheless, scent huge changes afoot, possibilities that were never rather as manifest in earlier incarnations of the Net" (Gibson 691). While some individuals think he is wasting his time with the web, he thinks it will be the tool of the future.

Even though the web has significantly changed because Gibson composed this essay, I think that the internet will continue to grow, and will become a larger part of our everyday lives. When Gibson composed this essay in 1996 the web was new, and there has to do with a TV in every house now. Where he matured down south, recreation included resting on screened porches, cigarette smoking cigarettes, drinking iced tea, talking, just staring into space, and fishing.

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What has leisure time end up being into now? Gibson has a conversation with his partner trying to persuade her how excellent the web is however she isn't moved at all. Sometimes the web does remind me of fishing. It never ever advises me of discussion, although it can feel a lot like looking into space. "Surfing the web" (as dubious as "the information highway") is, as a pal of mine has it, "like reading publications with the pages stuck." My wife shakes her head in discouragement as I patiently await the downloading of some Japanese Beatles fan's individual catalogue of bootlegs.

"But it's from Japan!" She isn't moved. She goes out to take pleasure in the flowers in her garden. (Gibson 692).

Some things do not change while individuals today still download bootlegged music and films, but today's web advises me of discussion. You can now talk online with buddies using Skype, Facebook, and Windows Live. Even service guys utilize the internet to participate organisation meetings that take location half way across the world. Gibson is just doing mindless browsing and exploring on the internet however he is somehow hooked on it. Gibson then starts to ask himself "Is this leisure-- this surfing, randomly connecting my method through these little spots of virtual real-estate-- or do I in some way envision that I am performing some more vibrant function?" (Gibson 692).

While the Web is still new, TV has been around for some years and has become a regular leisure activity for most families. Gibson then says, “We have become terminally self-conscious. There is no such thing as simple entertainment. We watch ourselves watching. We watch ourselves watching Beavis and Butthead, who are watching rock videos. Simply to watch, without the buffer of irony in place, might reveal a naiveté” (Gibson 692). Is this the start of a technology controlled world where we all rely on machines for daily use? Gibson talks about “the test pattern”, and how he first remembers the nightly appearance of the test pattern on the television. Now whenever he surfs the web he thinks about that test pattern. “I imagine that the World Wide Web and its modest wonders are no more than the test pattern for whatever the twenty-first century will regard as its equivalent medium” (Gibson 691).

We have already seen technology advance to the point of where machines can build machine and are taking away some of those skill jobs. How far will technology grow before it hits that medium? Have we passed that medium and need to slow down? When do we know that we hit the medium? I believe that we have hit the medium already but technology will continue to grow anyways. Technology has started to take over jobs; everyone was fine since the jobs that the machine was taking over seemed too dangerous or too hard for us. Now, technology has replaced assembly line workers being able to work ten times faster than man, more and more companies are choosing machine over man power. This has created a new job market for man, creating and repairing the machines when it breaks down.

I’m sure you all have heard or used Red Box, this and the ability to download movies right from your TV has practically destroyed the movie renting business. When was the last time you saw a Blockbuster or Hollywood Video? Technology is all created to make our lives easier. Our lives have become too easy and we are beginning to become too lazy, even to get an education. In a study by Travis Waldron called Nearly Half of America’s College Students Drop Out Before Receiving A Degree, “Only 56 percent of the students who enter America’s colleges and universities graduate within six years, while only 29 percent of students who enter two-year programs complete their degrees within three years.”

Since machines are taking over some skill jobs that people could get without having completed high school. Now we need an education more than ever to find a job. I’m not saying that another Y2K is going to happen, or robots are going to try to take over the human race like in the movie iRobot. We need to be careful how much we depend on technology; we have already become an obese nation. Gibson writes “Technology would leave us less and less to do” Gibson (692). We need to leave technology where it is, and let man catch up to it.