Ever thought about throwing your cellphone or computer in a river? Or bringing some other piece of technology to a glorious end à la Office Space? Yes? No? Neither answer would be surprising and we all probably move back-and-forth on the "techno-loathing" spectrum (well, most of us- the folks at Anonymous probably don't believe that people could ever feel this way and I'm fine with that because somebody has to take a stand against something as ridiculous as Scientologyor S.O.P.A., P.I.P.A. and A.C.T.A.). I'm completely murcurial on this subject. I LOVE my new iPhone 4S. Since I bought it about a month ago, it has barely left my side. Yet, with all that connectivity to the rest of the world in the palm of your hand comes great...over stimulation. Sometimes I blink really hard, open my eyes, realize how much information is permeating my brain and give a Keanu Reeves, "whoa." At that point of saturation about the only thing to do is set the device down, pinch tobacco into my pipe and take a stroll through the arroyo.
Now we arrive at the crux of this Missing and Dissing post. This time, what I'm going to miss and what I don't mind leaving behind happen to be the same thing: the internet.
The internet is awesome. Arguably, it is one of the (if not the) most significant developments in human history since our ancestors said, "I'm getting kinda pruny. Wanna see what the big deal with dry land is?"
EVERYTHING is on the internet. I learned to play the piano, penny whistle and harmonica on the internet, I watch television solely on the internet. Thanks to Project Gutenburg(one of my favorite sites), I was able to cure a night of insomnia with a free ebook of the Iliad. The Khan Academy is attempting to provide world-class education for free. TED.com presents stimulating lectures from some of the greatest minds of this age...again, for free (notice that trend of not having to pay? Maybe the pirates are on to something...?). There's YouTube, Wikipedia, news sites, internet radio, movies, blogging, Instructables, guides to everything, opinions on everything, facts on everything! Not to mention all the memes and LULZ!
"Whoa." said Keanu Reeves.
Where was I? Oh, yeah, why I'm glad to get away from the internet. That can be reduced to the following: all of the above reasons. Everything that makes the internet freaking fantastic is also what makes it suck. It's the fact that you can jump from one terrific site to the next, to the next, to the next, until you look up and the clock that said "3:00 pm" five minutes ago now reads "6:00 pm." For example, if you were to read this blog entry and visit and read all of the sites that I link to in it, you would have visited sixteen websites (including this one) and read over 15,000 words. All started from one eight paragraph blog entry.
A motto that has always stuck with me is the age-old axiom: knowledge is power. Yet, there must be a line drawn when the knowledge starts to muddle together and the power that one gains from the knowledge accumulated is corrupted by the adage that quality is better than quantity. When that starts to happen, it's good to forget about anything that doesn't supply its own power and just take a walk. Whistling helps too.
(I have the feeling that some people reading this might need a little explanation of what memes and LULz are. Memes are actually a very interesting concept. An example of one is to the left. You can also read this. LULz are a little bit more difficult to grasp if you didn't grow up ROFL, so check this out. And, for your continuing education, there's always LOLcats.)
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