THE INTERNET IS A BOON TO THE LAZY
Thanks to the internet, as well as always-improving features for web browsers, productivity has grown tremendously. I can get so much work done, but more importantly, it also allows lots of time for non-work activities. I can check my email, the news, this blog, and Facebook once an hour without becoming significantly less productive. I can buy movie tickets online (btw everyone, go see The Dark Knight at least once), search for happy hour bars for after work (please send me ideas, readers), and check the traffic report to see if it’s worth it to sneak out of the office early (hint: it always is). I can’t fathom what people did before the internet. They either were bad workers or actually had to do nothing but work for eight hours. Imagine that! But here’s another important issue:
Thanks to the internet, as well as always-improving features for web browsers, productivity has grown tremendously. I can get so much work done, but more importantly, it also allows lots of time for non-work activities. I can check my email, the news, this blog, and Facebook once an hour without becoming significantly less productive. I can buy movie tickets online (btw everyone, go see The Dark Knight at least once), search for happy hour bars for after work (please send me ideas, readers), and check the traffic report to see if it’s worth it to sneak out of the office early (hint: it always is). I can’t fathom what people did before the internet. They either were bad workers or actually had to do nothing but work for eight hours. Imagine that! But here’s another important issue:
ONLINE PRIVACY AND FACEBOOK SPIES
I’ve also learned a lot about Facebook over the years. Originally, I saw it as an obnoxious trend that depersonalized the virtue of friendship and brought the shallowness of high school beyond the schoolyard and into cyberspace. Eventually, I accepted it as a practical networking tool that allowed me to stay in touch with friends after moving to Chicago and it also can be good for planning social activities.
However, things changed as Facebook introduced its News Feed (aka Stalker Feed) which announced every action you take on Facebook to all your Facebook friends. So effectively, you can stalk people on Facebook. At the same time, this is all information people personally release to their “friends” and they personally accept all their friend requests. So it’s not exactly stalking, but it’s fairly awkward. It’s definitely stalkward!
Most of all, beware two problems. First, Facebook spies. Some cute girl at work adds you as a friend and think, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m this lucky.” Well, you’re not, bro. It’s probably a Facebook Spy. She was hired by your boss to track your behavior on Facebook. One wrong move and you’re fired. (Gentlemen, never post pictures of you and your boss’s daughter.)
Second, parents have figured out about Facebook. It’s a travesty that people born before 1975 do not have a separate Geezer Facebook for those who did not grow up in the Tech Age. It’s not so much a travesty for little kids (some one should keep an eye on those bastards). I’m talking about the height of awkwardness: teenagers and twentysomethings getting “friended” (a blatantly fake word) by parents. This is so wrong. It’s just wrong. I can’t explain why (sorry, Dad). It just is. Thankfully, Facebook has addressed this with Limited Profile! Of course, Dad, I’ll be your friend. Here’s my profile…not much there…no photos, just some basic info about me.
Watch yourselves out there in the cyberspace, PMW Nation!
I’ve also learned a lot about Facebook over the years. Originally, I saw it as an obnoxious trend that depersonalized the virtue of friendship and brought the shallowness of high school beyond the schoolyard and into cyberspace. Eventually, I accepted it as a practical networking tool that allowed me to stay in touch with friends after moving to Chicago and it also can be good for planning social activities.
However, things changed as Facebook introduced its News Feed (aka Stalker Feed) which announced every action you take on Facebook to all your Facebook friends. So effectively, you can stalk people on Facebook. At the same time, this is all information people personally release to their “friends” and they personally accept all their friend requests. So it’s not exactly stalking, but it’s fairly awkward. It’s definitely stalkward!
Most of all, beware two problems. First, Facebook spies. Some cute girl at work adds you as a friend and think, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m this lucky.” Well, you’re not, bro. It’s probably a Facebook Spy. She was hired by your boss to track your behavior on Facebook. One wrong move and you’re fired. (Gentlemen, never post pictures of you and your boss’s daughter.)
Second, parents have figured out about Facebook. It’s a travesty that people born before 1975 do not have a separate Geezer Facebook for those who did not grow up in the Tech Age. It’s not so much a travesty for little kids (some one should keep an eye on those bastards). I’m talking about the height of awkwardness: teenagers and twentysomethings getting “friended” (a blatantly fake word) by parents. This is so wrong. It’s just wrong. I can’t explain why (sorry, Dad). It just is. Thankfully, Facebook has addressed this with Limited Profile! Of course, Dad, I’ll be your friend. Here’s my profile…not much there…no photos, just some basic info about me.
Watch yourselves out there in the cyberspace, PMW Nation!
6 comments:
Agreed, the news feed smacks of stalker-creepiness. But the profiles are helpful in a few ways: You can find out if someone is taken (thus saving untold dollars that would have been spent on fruitless nights of strictly "friend zone" activities), you can find out how old they are (thus restraining your inner Quagmire), and you can find out a few of their casual interests. If anyone reveals more than that on their profile, it's their own fault.
Waco, as far as good places after work: I prefer Ten-Forward on Deck 10. Or, if you find yourself at DS9, Quark's on the Promenade makes a decent Manhattan.
-LeVar
Good points LeVar. Thanks for the recommendations. I'll keep that in mind if I'm ever on Star Trek.
Waco
We don't believe in lazy in the future. We believe in constructively not doing anything. For example, we go to Risa and sit on our asses and do nothing. The difference is that it is a conscience choice. The issue with your so called "internet" is that it makes people insidiously lazy. You don't even know that the laziness has occurred until you are dependent on it for your every task. In fact you don't even know that you are dependent on it until it disappears. We don't have the internet in the future. It grew to tiring to maintain. People didn't realize their lives were consumed by it so much that no one remembered how to maintain it. Lucky for me though it was about the time holodecks were invented and they are much better at bringing people together.
Wow that's fascinating. So, without the internet, how do you read PMW? Is it archived in the future? Or did you go back in time? And if so, why? You seem to prefer the future.
Riker may have found a class-9 subspace rift. Don't count those out -- that may be why he's able to communicate with us. I've never come across one myself, but we learned about 'em at Starfleet Academy.
I will be plainly honest. I really didn't want to admit this here but I will. I am bored. People seem to have stopped listening to me and watching my adventures week after week and I have needed something to pass the time. This brings me to you and your sad, sad state of being. I feel you and I have a lot in common and I feel like I can sheered you to a future better then mine. In terms of how I upload comments here, I simply call your mother using future phones where you can enter the time and number you wish to call. Your mom has assisted me in placing these comments for me (well thank you Jonathan and I wish I could send you some cookies in the future). Well thank you Mrs. Waco Kid you have been most helpful. With that, always remember that I have my eye on you...
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