The Net Effect

J. Kevin Tumlinson

I used to be one of them. It's appalling, but I remember the days (or nights, rather) when I would spend hours upon hours combing the Internet, chatting with total strangers around the globe, checking out some guy's opinions on Bill Clinton at two in the morning. I remember waking up bleary eyed and grumpy, like suffering some sort of digital hang-over, and eagerly going for more hair-of-the-dog. Eventually I got over it. The new wore off, the thrill was gone (my regards to Mr. B.B. King). And thank God! What would my life be like today, if I were still an Internet junkie?

Which is not to say that I don't spend a lot of time online. I spend hours. Maybe not all at once anymore, but the cumulative effect starts to add up after a while. I'd estimate that out of any given week I likely spend twenty some-odd hours online. Some of that is work and research, mind you, but a great deal of it is purely recreational. I'm very net-savvy.

The beauty of the Internet is the overwhelming availability of knowledge. Name a subject, add ".com" to it and WHAM! It's extremely likely that you'll find a web site dedicated to it, complete with moving graphics, music, photographs and the equivalent of a 200 page thesis on the subject. Is there anything wrong with that? Not at all! The adage says "knowledge is power," right? Can too much information be a bad thing?

A recent article in the Oxford Journal of Communication would seem to say "yes."

The article discussed Internet addiction, or rather "dependence." It focused on college students in their first and second years and the negative effects that extended Internet time had on grades and even health. The article also hit on the lack of social interaction and the consequent results.

Of course extended Internet time will have a negative impact on academics. If a student is spending all of his or her time chatting with some guy in Australia, they probably aren't going to put the kind of time they need into studying. If they're up all night, eyes glued to a computer screen, they probably aren't getting the rest they need, which means they won't be mentally focused.

I don't buy the concept of Internet dependence. I've seen plenty of addiction-like behavior, but it fades (I call it "fast addiction"). I think the truth is that using the Internet, just like using anything else, is not the problem. It's the EXCESSIVE use that leads to trouble. Anything you do in excess is going to come back to bite you.

As technology allows us to move out of our bedrooms and home offices and access the Internet on the go, I think we'll find that we're not as tied down as we thought we were. Do we need to step away from the big glowing box for a while? Certainly. But the Internet is not some irresistible opiate, lulling us into a stupor. We choose. We sit down, we log on, we tune out. So if there's a problem, it's inherent in our choices.

I could probably get by with less net time, but that's one of the hazards of my life. I've chosen certain paths, and most of them lead to more time on the web. But how much is too much? How much is too little?

Wisdom is in our ability to make the distinction.

J. Kevin Tumlinson is a writer and a schoolteacher living in Lake Jackson, TX. He would love to talk to you in a chat room some time..