For the science, some of it quite shocking, check out this great lecture series http://www.youtube.com/course?list=PL4FD135EA45DEEBB6&fe...
This lecture in particular, about rat studies, is amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cli0RJQiPc
I would call this "self control", which is exactly what the GP was advocating.
"Neuroscientists and psychologists have discovered that, even as adults, our brains are very plastic," Carr explains. "They're very malleable, they adapt at the cellular level to whatever we happen to be doing. And so the more time we spend surfing, and skimming, and scanning ... the more adept we become at that mode of thinking."
I highly recommend The Shallows[1]. It's a look at the way the internet is changing our brains. It really might be a good idea to limit exposure to the internet. As a programmer and geek it's worth spending some time thinking about these questions and least being aware of the affects of the medium.
Just focusing on self-control is very hard. Take smoking, for instance -- it's hard to just "cut down" when that temptation is always there.
And then the article fell completely to pieces. If you view your time searching for new information as a "waste", then you're going to end up in a world of self inflicted ignorance.
We have the capabilities of sifting through bleeding edge information that shapes our lives on a daily basis with the internet. The act of ignoring this blatant fact is to effectively censor your own education. Why not just try to stay away from all of the meme loaded bullshit that the internet has to offer instead?
I would bet that cutting off their internet entirely would be a net positive for a surprising number of web users.
The only problem I have is a desperate will for people to work out self control without resulting to absolute extremes. I really want to make the argument that people should just tone it down a bit, and maybe try to remove themselves from the shit that ends up actually being wasted time (facebook, 9gag, mainstream reddit, stumble, etc), but there's a part of me that completely sides with the idea that people should just fuck off from it entirely and enjoy the nice day.
I don't really have an issue with time management, so my internal conflict ends up hanging on the fact that I've never been in those proverbial shoes.
What exactly are you talking about here? Of the top of my head I can't thank of anything on the internet that isn't a total waste of time, with two exceptions: - looking up specific information (programming docs, the first 10 minutes on wikipedia, etc) - browsing the arXiv
But every single person responding to his post on this page, even those like me who defend him just don't get it. We have to unplug. We wonder why all of the developed countries have not been producing and China and India are. You know why? Because we are wasting our fucking time on the internet, that's why. You can blame it on the fucking Fed, the fucking banks, fucking Wall Street, the fucking automobile industry, the fucking terrorists, the fucking e-Trade shit and wild speculation and investing in e-shit that caused the fucking dot bomb bubble, but in the end, this shit is our own fucking fault. We are a bunch of lazy fucks, and we need to get the fuck off our computers and do something productive.
I have a degree in computer science with a wonderful salaried 8-5 job (doing what I love) with benefits, a wonderful girlfriend of 5 years, and 3 excellent cats. We take walks and go out to our downtown area to socialize in the many available bars on the weekends, and take vacations whenever she can get time off from work. I also greatly enjoy working on my project car when I have a spare weekend and the money required to buy parts and tools.
I'm incredibly happy with my life and what I have to show for it. I'm also incredibly grateful for the plethora of new things that I learn on a daily basis while browsing HN and reddit during little breaks from coding.
It seems as though you're a rather agitated individual at the moment, given the overtone of self deprecation in your post, but I really think that you should examine the good (great, amazing even) parts of internet citizenry along with the unfortunately bad.
A week ago, a lightning strike took out my internet. I didn't react this way at all.
I don't remember being bored except for the last day, when I was waiting for the Ethernet to USB adapter to get here (My Ethernet port was damaged, along with my modem and router).
I read a book. I watched the history channel. I drank some coffee and spent some time with my family. I read another book. I got a hair cut.
This isn't a problem with what the internet allows you to do. It's a problem with what you do with your time.
Edit: My boredom on the last day can probably be attributed to the maker habit of not getting into something when interruption is imminent.
