Impact of Internet Thinking
Impact of the Internet on Thinking | September 24, 2010 • Volume 20, Issue 33 | Is the Web changing the way we think? | |
By Alan Greenblatt OverviewRecently at lunch, Eric Wohlschlegel announced, “I have to take a BlackBerry pause.”Plenty of people interrupt social and business meetings to check messages on their mobile devices. There was a time just a few years ago, Wohlschlegel recalls, when his employer didn't require him to have a BlackBerry. Now, as a spokesman for the influential American Petroleum Institute, Wohlschlegel is expected to be in constant contact with the world at large, fielding some 200 work e-mails a day.He doesn't have the option of tuning them out. But when circumstances forced him to, he had a hard time adjusting. His BlackBerry stopped working at just the same time that his home computer crashed, leaving him disconnected, and disoriented.“You always fantasize about that one day when you sit back and go golfing,” he says. “But then when you have a moment without being connected, you realize how significant it is and what you're missing.”Meanwhile, Wohlschlegel kept checking the empty holster on his hip, out of habit. Many people describe feeling “phantom vibrations” signaling incoming messages after their smartphones have gone bust.People today are more connected than ever, visiting social-media sites, checking headlines on the Web and texting, e-mailing and instant-messaging. The Internet has become the focus of many people's lives — the place where they socialize, shop, do their work and view and listen to entertainment.
Mobile phones, with their instant-messaging, Web-surfing and online-shopping capabilities, can link people to the Internet and to each other at just about anytime, anywhere. “Texting and IMing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort,” a student wrote. Some researchers worry the Internet might even be addictive like substances such as alcohol and tobacco. (AFP/Getty Images/Lakruwan Wanniarachchi) |
By Alan Greenblatt OverviewRecently at lunch, Eric Wohlschlegel announced, “I have to take a BlackBerry pause.”Plenty of people interrupt social and business meetings to check messages on their mobile devices. There was a time just a few years ago, Wohlschlegel recalls, when his employer didn't require him to have a BlackBerry. Now, as a spokesman for the influential American Petroleum Institute, Wohlschlegel is expected to be in constant contact with the world at large, fielding some 200 work e-mails a day.He doesn't have the option of tuning them out. But when circumstances forced him to, he had a hard time adjusting. His BlackBerry stopped working at just the same time that his home computer crashed, leaving him disconnected, and disoriented.“You always fantasize about that one day when you sit back and go golfing,” he says. “But then when you have a moment without being connected, you realize how significant it is and what you're missing.”Meanwhile, Wohlschlegel kept checking the empty holster on his hip, out of habit. Many people describe feeling “phantom vibrations” signaling incoming messages after their smartphones have gone bust.People today are more connected than ever, visiting social-media sites, checking headlines on the Web and texting, e-mailing and instant-messaging. The Internet has become the focus of many people's lives — the place where they socialize, shop, do their work and view and listen to entertainment.
Mobile phones, with their instant-messaging, Web-surfing and online-shopping capabilities, can link people to the Internet and to each other at just about anytime, anywhere. “Texting and IMing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort,” a student wrote. Some researchers worry the Internet might even be addictive like substances such as alcohol and tobacco. (AFP/Getty Images/Lakruwan Wanniarachchi) |