From Here to There to Anywhere

Another insomniac night. I’m just glad I have a job where I don’t pay the ultimate price to badly for it. I don’t know what it is but I am crazy, crazy addicted to surfing the internet. It’s always been my guilty pleasure. I am addicted to information. It would be a bit more awesome though if I were addicted to good information.

Most people I know surf the net by checking sites they have bookmarked or searching for something specific. I start out that way. I click on a cnn.com and the next thing you know, I’m reading about how satellite’s work, then searching star constellations, then looking up some popular name mentioned, then somehow I’m in the gossip news looking at the latest Brangelina news. I might see some interesting picture and then I’m looking up a related movie it reminded me of only to check out the book it was based on and get motivated by reading about the author about some point in history.

I then spend another hour reading about a particular point in American History and that turns into trying to research how steel is made which leads to a search about synthetic chemicals and bam I’m on a website about how the brain works! Of course, on that page will be an ad that reminds me I was meaning to look up a trailer to a movie which I go watch. And that gets me to thinking of a song I wanted to check the lyrics for and that leads to another round about read on the history of the Beetles.

A short mention of another name in that era leads me on a search for painting by Andy Warhol and suddenly I’m researching the alleged love affair between Bob Dylan and Edie Sedgwick which for no logical reason at all reminds me I wanted to see who won the Biggest Loser TV show that season. And of course that leads to a research on past contestants and that branches into a lengthy read on yo-yo detox diets.

I get bored of reading about diets and then I’m on apple trailers where I see a trailer for a documentary which I research and it ends up being about a love triangle online that leads to murder. I then spend the next 30 minutes try to find images of the deceiving woman involved.

I can’t get enough. Having the general knowledge of everything at your fingertips is incredible. The sad thing is that at the end of a couple hours of surfing, I’m really not better for it. Sometimes knowledge without action is the same as ignorance.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Maybe you're just nicely weired by design and social "influence" (cf. chapter 2 of Alachia's adventures). At my fingertip I've just learned that:

"Austinites take pride in eccentricities and celebrate differences and being different (in lifestyle, character, beliefs, etc.). Austin is the only major Texas city that has no ordinance against women appearing topless in public. "Keep Austin Weird" has become a local motto in recent years, featured on innumerable bumper stickers and t-shirts. This motto has not only been used in promoting Austin's eccentricity and diversity, but is also meant to bolster support of local and independent businesses. According to the Nielsen Company, adults in Austin read and contribute to blogs more than those in any other U.S. metropolitan area."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas

"Sometimes knowledge without action is the same as ignorance."

I agree, nevertheless openly sharing your experiences and knowledge (addictive or not, through blog, podcast, twitter...) is an "action" (so it's not *that* bad for you I guess).

I can imagine two reasons why we behave this way:
1) procrastination (to avoid doing things we know we should do, "just one more link"...)
2) real love for learning

I'm really 2) but sometimes 1) comes in and must be disciplined.

When I was still a kid I had my first personal computer (a ZX81) and this precisely where the 2) craving began (obliviously no web yet). Much latter I read a book where I understood what happened to me with these "tools to think with" (Seymour Papert).
http://www.amazon.com/Mindstorms-Children-Computers-Powerful-Ideas/dp/0465046746/

The little problem with my 2) is that I'm passionate by just *too much* domains, loving connecting things at interfaces.

Maybe we are "renaissance souls". It's on my book pile but I haven't read it, so not sure what it's worth.
http://www.amazon.com/Renaissance-Soul-Design-People-Passions/dp/0767920880/

Yawn... luckily feeling sleepy on this side of the globe ^^

End Of Line.

francois

ҽ๓☆彡 said...

" Sometimes knowledge without action is the same as ignorance."
I like that. Very insightful.