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What Is The Point of the Internet?
A few days ago, I was reading the football results on the BBC. Two hours later, I was scrolling down sites of ancient ruins in Qatar.
If you follow football, you can probably guess how I got from A to B via X, Y and Z. If you can’t, then Google it.
Everybody knows what I’m talking about here. Those lost hours (days, months) scrolling down Wikipedia entries on dead rockstars. Do you know Bob Marley died of acral lentiginous melanoma?
I’m not even a heavy internet user. I generally use it for the football scores, banking, bureaucracy, writing this blog and listening to music. I don’t even use it for work, as I work on a farm. But like everyone, I sometimes get sucked into the void.
True, I occasionally learn things. I learnt about String Theory recently, which I included in the post before this. But most of the time, it’s guff.
Take the Guardian newspaper, for example. I’m a keen supporter of the paper and its values, but most of the pieces I’ve read before. Different topics, different authors, but the ideas are the same. Features, articles, and opinion pieces recycled whenever there’s some special commemoration, anniversary, or event in the offing. Another climate change summit, another slew of ideas and protests that won’t be taken on board by the politicians, because in short, they…
