Wild Dingo

Sometimes I wonder why I work on the Internet. There is so much drek on the ‘Net these days that I inevitably find myself consumed with it. Not only does the Internet completely consume my work day in terms of design and programming (only for useful and informative sites of course, I have some standards you know), but most days, when trying to use the ‘Net for function only, I stumble upon sites that inevitably lead me to a huge time-sink. Sometimes, I get to the end of the day, my to-do list remains untouched and I feel like I’m no smarter than if I had just read a Star magazine. Is the vacuous information on the ‘Net outgrowing useful information?

If you’re reading this blog, I’m sorry for you. It’s not all that entertaining and sadly, contributes to the vacuous. For a web developer, it took me an embarrassingly long time to join the blog world. But I suppose that’s because I refuse to join any organization that would have me as a member.

Still, there are some sites that are extremely informative yet, considerably, a huge time-sink. Here’s a site that looks promisingly informative:

I could get lost at looking all the “stuff” on this site. From irrelevant LED lights with toxic batteries to men’s shower gel, a reader sure can learn a lot about all sorts of stuff that consumes our landfills. There’s even a really cute flash slide show of how stuff is made and where it ends up. It made me want to go clean out all my stuff. Only I actually don’t have a lot of stuff so I wouldn’t know where to begin. Still, I couldn’t help wondering, if time spent reading about stuff was actually time spent I could be using to make enough money that would enable me to buy environmentally-friendly (expensive) stuff that wouldn’t end up in a landfill? Although it can’t be counted as vacuous, the site certainly is a time-sink. Click! Buh-bye Annie.

One of my favorite time-sinks on the ‘net today is TED (ideas worth spreading). Now TED is pretty much the opposite of vacuous information. After watching any one of these videos, TED leaves me feeling more like an informed elitist. And since being elitist is the new black, it can’t be all that bad, can it? Unless, of course, you’re a helpless elitist–like me.

~  One of my favorite speakers to watch on TED is Richard Dawkins. Whatever your beliefs in God are, his hilarious sense of humor and frank personality make it easy to justify the time spent.

“The highest office of the greatest country in the world (USA) is barred to the best qualified, the intelligencia…to put it bluntly…political opportunities are heavily loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest.”

         Hmmm. Just what are you trying to say Richard?   ~

Anyway, if you’re like me, you’ll go through TED marathons, watching TED videos for hours, mesmerized. Perhaps you’ll even be inspired to formulate a plan for world peace. But that will have to wait until after you solve global warming or “the omnivore’s next dilemma” (Michael Pollan). Then you’ll swear off of TED for weeks just so you can get started on your plan for world peace, but that has to wait until you make enough money for the month’s mortgage, which leaves you with exactly three free days to formulate your plan. And by the time you get to your three free days to sit down and work on your plan, you think to yourself, “Hmm…I wonder what’s going on the Internet?” And you’re right back to surfing vacuous sites, later redeeming yourself with a TED marathon. And just as you pull away from TED, the next month’s mortgage is due.

No doubt the ‘Net is a wonderfully bad place. But just when it feels like it’s all spinning out of control, I pull the bus stop cord, read the lines, turn off the monitor and pick up one of the 20 or so recently purchased books I have piled waiting for me, hoping the pages will leave me feeling less empty than the ‘Net.