Southwestern College Collegian

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Editorial

Knowing all of the wonderful things that are at a person's fingertips can sometimes make other things seem far out of reach. The Saturday before last the internet was made unavailable to everyone on campus, and everyone received ample warning of this occurrence. In the days leading up to that Saturday, people could be heard making plans followed by the phrase "…since there will be no internet access that day." It goes to show just how technology has us in its grip. It is kind of sad to think about. However one has actually drawn a new outlook from, "The day the internet died." Finding out you don't need to check Facebook a couple of times every hour is actually kind of relaxing. Not being bombarded with news links, YouTube videos, instant messages and e-mails can do a whole lot of good. Is there too much information floating around out there? Twenty-four hours a day we can be updated on the latest news from anywhere in the world. It is kind of scary for those of us who will be entering this media circus world. Instead of a news show at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. we always have to be ready. Convenience has made things more complicated and we'll have to adjust. The real newsflash was on March 1. Yes it was one day without the World Wide Web, big whoop. But without that distraction and temptation to see what's happing there, homework and other tasks can be completed with less stress and in less time. Isn't that quite a concept. If you do not believe this, disconnect your computer from the internet for a day and see how much you can get done. Granted, a lot of research and other things of importance are essential for homework purposes. But those pesky chapters might be read or the library and its contents might be rediscovered. Call someone you haven't talked to in a while instead of posting on their Myspace page or Facebook wall. It may just brighten both of your days. It's little things like this people miss out on with the easy cop-out of using the internet to communicate. But if it saves time, that is all that counts. The internet is not the only distraction. Not by any means. From experience one might know that after a long day of homework that Xbox360 starts to look more than adequate for some time killing. Then again who are we kidding really? These days it seems like homework is a distraction from other homework. That high dollar gaming system and its really time consuming games, might not even get the chance to be a distraction in that case, nor does the TV or anything else. Yes, the load seems larger and the path much more winding than it did when we first arrived on college's door steps. And all of those distractions could be the leading culprit. All it takes is will power to overcome them.But as mentioned before, a lot of them are at our fingertips. It's just not very fun when the things we use to relax end up causing more stress in the end. It's all convenience, and a good friend of mine says convenience will be the end of us. It takes some thinking about, but that friend might be right. Less time online and more in the real world is a good thing, the only problem is that we live in a be damned or on demand world. Conveniently it is a world we've created. Nate Jones is a junior majoring in communcation. You may e-mail him at nate.jones@sckans.edu.

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