The Internet : The Use Of The Internet

How many times a day do you find yourself checking your phone out of habit? For most people this would be too many to count. Although technology might make our lives easier, the negative effects of the Internet seem to outweigh the positive. In Tony Schwartz’s article "Addicted to Distraction" the three main areas of focus are on solitude, conversation and distractions. Technology causes us to separate ourselves from the world around us both mentally and physically.

The message from this section sticks out to me because I am surprised about the average smartphone user checks his or her phone around 150 times a day (Huffington, 2015). The statistic shows that how often smartphone users check or use their phones per day. Moreover, it also tells us how our brain is forced to distract attention continually, and it becomes difficult for us to focus on certain things when we use the smartphone too often. Technology products are like the serpent in the digital garden of Eden, which gives us what we want, but not necessarily what we need. Technology devices will not be helpful for people when we either overuse it or become addicted to it. My

In “Jessie Brown: Who Says Smartphone Addiction is bad thing? The case for constant connectivity” (Brown, 2012), Brown claims that the cellphone is not the problem, in fact, it is the person and how they choose to value their time while using smartphones.

For their research project, "We brought awareness to the about the excessive use of internet use through our cell phones and social media apps,” explained Lopez, “excessive use that is non-productive, that has nothing to do with homework.”

Technology is constantly growing and thriving every day with a heavy impact on various people’s lives through its efficiency for daily tasks, communication, research, and other aspects of our lives. In an age of technological advancement, the extensive use of personal devices can lead to a heavy dependency on them, which causes negative side effects such as decreases in focus, productivity, and attention. According to Lenhart (2015), “92% of teens report going online daily — including 24% who say they go online “almost constantly.” Reasons such as these can enlighten certain people to take a well-warranted break from their tech such as their phones and computers. Even though it can be difficult to disconnect, my view on these “Digital Sabbaths” is that they can be very beneficial and give a more clear outlook on the digital society we all live in today.

The idea behind the internet was to revolutionize society and with over 3 billion individuals using it, it clearly succeeded (ITU, n.d.). However, individuals started coming online to check their email, watch a video, visit Facebook, or play an online game as a habit, may easily become addicted to these behaviors over time. According to the DSM-V, internet addiction applies to individuals who use the internet excessively, often without realizing how much time has passed, how much more they are using the internet and neglecting their basic needs, as well as, ignoring any negative impacts said internet use has caused (dsm). When not using the internet, the individual may feel withdrawal, angry, tense, and/or depressed; in addition, they may feel the need to have a better computer and more software, which is an internet-addicted individual’s form of tolerance (dsm). Time of use per day in those addicted to the internet is nearly double the time those who are not addicted spend online (Lee,

I spend three days without any personal internet, TV, phone, musics. It was difficult to start to unplug day because I can imagine that how uncomfortable without any of these. I usually check my phone once a hours: look at the clock, and check messages, email, news, listen to music, and watch TV. I carry my phone on my hand all the time, and put it on my desk in the class. For three days, I didn’t use phone and personal internet. It was difficult at the first day and I got used to it at the third day.

Most college students use a computer at home and/or a smartphone, a more compact, mobile version of a computer. Thanks to the mobility of smartphones that makes them ubiquitous, accessing the internet is effortless. Frequently, I observe students dotting all over the campus interacting with their smartphones. As observed by Clive Thompson, author of “Smarter Than You Think,” “our tools are everywhere, linked with our minds, working in tandem (p.347).” In other words, we are likely to be using our computers all the time. We use our computers whenever we have a chance. In particular, students from my writing class opt to use their smartphones during our short ten minutes break. Author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr shares a similar experience, “Even when I’m not working, I’m as

Looking back over my week of tracking my electronic device usage, I was surprised to see how much time I actually spend consumed by these different mediums. Giving an analysis of the data that I have gathered, it would seem that my selected devices are tied between cell phone, TV, and radio usage. Despite my full-time school and work schedule I still have time to spend approximately 37 hours total a week on using these devices.

In the article “Addicted to Distraction” by Tony Schwartz, he argues that the internet has a relentless pull on humans. He goes into detail on how the internet interrupts all daily activity. Schwartz also explains how he is also a victim to the internet and how he is overcoming the overuse of it. The internet does have a grasp on the attention of humans. People willingly give up their primary focus and activities just to check their devices. People are imprisoned to the internet and don’t even realize that it is leading to a deterioration of their learning ability.

After monitoring my phone use for 4 weeks I learned a few things about myself. One, I use my phone way more than I ever suspected. Without consciously putting my phone down I spend a little over 4 hours on my device daily. That is a lot of time wasted in an 18-hour awake period. I questioned causes such high rate of phone usage. I kept track of hours I go to

What I learned about my media usage is I use and depend on my phone a lot. I noticed I couldn’t go 10 minutes without checking my phone for a notification. I really got to thinking, why I depend on it so much. It was to the extent that I would run as fast as I could if my phone was about to die because I was worried I was going to receive a notification or I was going to be bored. I learned that I’m on my phone way too much.

In the past couple of years, electronics have gone from almost nonexistent to practically the main source of entertainment for people around the world. In the more recent years, the internet has slowly changed our society making it more interactive and social instead of immobile (Craton). In fact, each American on average spends nine hours a day in front of a cell phone or computer screen which can lead to serious health problems (Khan). However, the human’s excessive use of particular electronics such as computers, phones, and automobiles, is not always detrimental to our society.

Internet usage has skyrocketed in the last decade, propelled by web and multimedia applications. While the predominant way to access the Internet is still cable or fiber, an increasing number of users now demand mobile, ubiquitous access whether they are at home at work or on the move. For instance, they want to compare prices on the web while shopping at the local department store, access Internet “navigation” aids from their car, read e-mail while riding a bus or hold a project review while at the local coffee shop or in the airport lounge. The concept of wireless, mobile Internet is not new. When the packet switching technology, the fabric of the Internet, was introduced with the ARPANET in 1969, the Department of Defense immediately understood the potential of a packet switched radio technology to interconnect mobile nodes in the battlefield. Consequently, the ad hoc protocols must self-configure to adjust to environment, traffic and mission changes. What emerges from these characteristics if the vision of an extremely flexible, malleable and yet robust and formidable network architecture. Because of its mobile, non-infrastructure nature, the ad hoc network poses new design requirements. The first is self-configuration (of addresses and routing) in the expression of mobility. At the function level, ad hoc network users typically communicate and collaborate as teams. These applications thus require efficient group

If I only had one hour of Internet left I would probably try to cram as many things in as possible. First, I would check the scores from the big games that last week, if there were any, so that I would be somewhat in the loop. Second I would talk to my friends and catch up with them. Next, I would watch some videos on YouTube. Lastly, I would watch as many funny videos as I could in the allotted time. I would do this so that the depression that would be coming would not be as severe for a while at least.