multi-tasking or zero attention span? i can't seem to have only one browser opened at once. meaning, i have to have no less than three or four websites open at the same time so that i can click on them, on demand. one for gmail or yahoo mail. one for kinja. one for ebay. one for my financial institution. one for research. this combination happens a dozen times a day. all day. non-stop. hundreds of other combinations occur before night falls. i average an extra opened window per hour from links friends send through instant messaging. what's up with that?
so i tried. just for a minute. i opened one browser to game girl advance and i felt fidgety. i stared at the bottom of my screen and my web window looked lonely neighboring only my outlook inbox icon. i couldn't just read gga's latest blog entry. so i opened another browser. awesome. i feel better, i can read up on what britney-expert-by-default, scott stereogum has to say about celebrity culture. and i can bounce back between the two, skimming headlines to see what i've been missing. what's the matter with me? am i only capable of ritalin reading?!
i can read a book without opening up two other books at the same time. how come i can't do it with the web? i know you do this too. i've seen your computers. some of you have at least a dozen little boxes to click on at the bottom of your monitor. ok, some are legitimate shortcuts to applications for how do you say...work? what's the matter with us? why do we care to see a photo of a monkey walking upright? or video footage of a skateboarding dog? who needs this kind of information? none of us. but shit fire, it's entertaining. do i need that much entertainment? do i have bigger problems then originally suggested? oh brother.
let's not even talk about the email addicts. i am one. but at least i don't check my email when i'm away from my laptop (i'm blessed with the lack of this technology). friends in new york on business tell me they can grab wifi on their laptops in a cab ride -- just long enough to shoot off emails! you are crazy. is that really necessary? were you just sending a link to a friend or was it really that important?
and who's addicted to their rss feeders and weblog directories? me! are you so time constricted that you can't open up each blog individually to read what's new? i love these tools. i'm using kinja, bloglines and yahoo's beta app on my yahoo at the moment. they are all slow to update. i'm actually better off never checking them and clicking on links directly anyway. i am reading so much about well, nothing really. but enough times i find a gem and that makes everything worthwhile.
i think everyone should go offsite at least once a month and completely unplug. no IM. no email. no web surfing. no SMSing. no nothing that requires electricity. what would a bunch of tech heads converse about when you can't send a link with a, dude, check this out!? they'd probably reference all the silly info they amassed before the trip. ha.
