And thanks for letting me know rense.com is a conspiracy site… now I know not to be bothered.

Carr whines again — I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages

So why do people get involved in this nonsense like twitter and facebook which are simply CIA-NSA info-siphoning attention-killing and time-wasting useless activities?

The whole friending unfriending thing is as bad as watching CNN or FOX and expecting anything other than disinformation, lies and more time-wasting nonsense

Answer me …

I read it everyday.

And I find myself agreeing. I’ve been an avid reader since childhood, belong to my university alumni association just so that I can keep my library card and read the kind of scholarly works undergraduates will do anything to avoid – in several languages. I ditched the TV years ago. And yet I have overdue library books and stacks of purchases, things I know will be fascinating once I actually start them, but what do I do when I get free time? Turn on the Internet and start surfing. Meadows is right – it’s doing something to my brain.

Now, back to work, oh, wait, I haven’t checked http://www.whatreallyhappened.com yet……

As to the new comments: Any doctor will tell you that the Internet use in itself does not trigger a significant dopamine response… chemical imbalances do. Going “cold turkey” from an addiction causes significant physiological distress and detoxification symptoms, which cutting someone off the internet does not. To suggest the internet is somehow addictive, as a drug is addictive, is simply wrong.

“Internet addiction” is a PR gag used to sell newspapers and magazines (ironically enough). But in reality, this is an issue of behavior and focus, both of which can be gained (or regained) with desire, practice, and occasionally outside assistance. Blaming outside influences is counter-productive, and will only make it harder to regain focus and re-balance behavior.

Or, to put it another way: Get a grip.

I will bet all I have that the majority of people here, have learned MORE outside regimented classes, where tptb’s ideas, what they wanted us to learn, useless minutae, unrelated to life, repetitions, cremmed down our throats. We have learned MORE from the INTERNET than when we didn’t have it! I KNOW this is true with all internet users.

Tptb, actually kept us dumbed down – and now that we’re “coming out of the farm,” they want to force us back.

“We actually resemble nothing so much as those legendary lab rats that endlessly pressed a lever…..”

To Emile Yoffe, of Slate: “As the Indian said: ‘Speak for yourself White Man.’ ”

I’m NOT a rat, I’m a thinking, discerning Human Be-ing.

There is a plethora of spoutings from the Mass News Media and the Feds, claiming all kinds of negativity from the Internet, but all of this can bbe traced to the fact, that the Newspapers are losing money because the lies they print, the half-truths and obsfuscations, and just, censoreship.

And the Feds, intend to destroy the internet, because the Alternate News Media on the ‘Net, presents the REAL happenings, historical and current. The Internet makes us, The People, aware of the stinking, corruption, the chicanery of Church and State! They think we are still in the ignorant, uneducated state of the poor “peasants” of the Middle Ages ( which btw, were kept that way by the very ones, who today, vilify the Internet, by any and all means.

As for me, it has been a blessing! One can choose, in a discerning way, to read e-books, or whatever. But it is our choice. No person has to come along, to patronize us, instructing us, what is best.

Long Live the Internet!

Now? I fidget, my mind wandering hither and yon…searching, not feeling fulfilled, good books left unfinished, while I roam around the internet looking for something *new* and *unique* to stimulate my brain. Like a lab rat.

I do indeed agree the internet changes the way we think. Um, TV and Radio are not interactive media, so saying the ‘net is like them and they didn’t change us is an absurd comparison. And yes, TV does change the way you think….that is it’s FUNCTION now: to program YOU.

All that said: I can unplug the damn computer, and am not saying anything about restricting it.

I’ve begun to force myself to pick up books, valuable ones on subjects which I have become interested in due to the internet, but solid books all the same. It is not unlike trying to break a drug habit actually.