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HER VIEW: Confessions of a real Internet junkie

By Ginny McConnell

Posted on: Thursday, November 20, 2008

"We do not ride upon the railroad," Henry David Thoreau wrote in "Walden." "It rides upon us." He was referring to the dependence of people on something that was originally designed to be a convenience. Thoreau thought our tech toys were turning us into slaves instead of masters. Steve McClure's column in the weekend Daily News illustrates this point dramatically, with the tribulations of getting a newspaper out when the Internet goes down - a newspaper that was previously cobbled together successfully by hand.

We have all experienced the extreme inconvenience of those dreaded words - "the network is down" - when trying to make a bank or some other critical transaction. For you who are too young to remember how it was done in the old days - well, you're probably not reading this column. But, in case you are, here's what happened when you went to the bank: If the teller didn't know you, she (and it mostly was a "she") went to a drawer where your signature was on file and compared it with the check you were presenting. There was no system to be "down," so you always had access to your money.

But now here we are in the brave new world of networks and systems. And these have made us waste time and turned us into lazy and impatient people. How do I know this? Because I'm one of them. There was a time when I would have said (and undoubtedly did) that our dependence on our own version of Thoreau's railroad was insidious and silly. But now that I am one of the Internet junkies, I'm willing to put up with those occasional system meltdowns in exchange for the wonderful world that opens up to the user.

The down side of this is that I find myself wasting incredible amounts of time that I know I would put to better use if it were not for the Internet. I would get more papers graded (and sooner), get materials gathered for class earlier, and have more time to attend to the myriad chores I have around the house. But ... first I need to check Accuweather to see what I should wear or whether I will be able to jog or the chances of rain if I leave the dogs in their pen. Then I should respond to that one last e-mail that just came in, or see if that check cleared at my bank, or pay my bills for the month, or look up the symptoms of one of my pets to see if I should schedule a vet appointment. I'm not 100 percent sure of the meaning of a word, so I'll look it up with Google's "define" function. And, while I'm at it, what station will be carrying the Purdue game?

As for impatience, if a page or a file doesn't open or download fast enough, I'm ready to bail on it. If it's especially important, I become enraged. I want the Internet to work fast and all the time, without any hitches - which, of course, it doesn't do. When I can't access my e-mail, I feel lost and out of touch. I've turned into a lazy person, too, using Google and my favorite databases to do research instead of going to a library. It's just so darned convenient! I have become my own students.

I don't have a handheld device, but the idea of being able to access the Internet wherever I am is incredibly enticing. I sympathize with Barack Obama, who must now give up his Blackberry when he becomes president for security and privacy reasons.

I have to go now and download Google's Chrome. I understand it's a wicked good research tool.

Ginny McConnell lives in Troy and teaches English at Walla Walla Community College in Clarkston.

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