We’ve
all been there.
We
hop on the internet with good intentions. And then, without warning,
the temptations of roughly a trillion pages of stuff takes hold.
A
trillion web pages. That’s a rough estimate. How rough? Well…
In
2014 it was announced that the one billion web sites mark had
been passed. Flickered above and below for a bit, then stayed
put. Most places I checked seemed to put the figure of active
web sites at around one out of six… so just shy of two hundred
million.
By
the way, these numbers are awful. What determines an active web
site as opposed to an inactive site? How are we defining indexed
pages, since indexed seems to carry some type of weight when a
report claims that there are so many indexed pages on the internet?
We
could go on, but it’s one thing for me to be vague with subtle
and occasional attempts at humor, completely another thing to
reach into snarky and unapologetic sarcasm. All we need to agree
on is that the internet is big. Important to consider that if
you’re looking for sports, porn, travel recommendations, monkey
videos, books to purchase, social media, porn, your city’s calendar
of events, this week’s sale at the grocery store, or porn, there
are a lot of options out there.
Good
intentions can disappear quickly.
All
you wanted to do was check your e-mail. That was it. But a friend
sends one, mentions the kids and something they saw on Facebook,
and your move toward social media has begun. (Uh oh.) Before you
know it, you find yourself comparing costs and shipping options
on flower boxes from three different home improvement sites.
Often,
I find myself doing research.
(Shut
up! I do look for information and check reliable sources. I do.
(Ahem. Sorry. Back to it.))
Let’s
say I want to check out something about a castle built in Ireland.
After reading a bit, I start to notice instances of castles being
built on water and castles that have been transformed so that
you can stay there on a trip. Suddenly, the idea of surprising
my lovely wife with a hotel stay in a castle located on the water
begins to take shape. Barely a few minutes later, tabs still open
featuring castles in Ireland, I’m five other web sites deep looking
at castles in Maine and wondering if there is anyone I could contact
to actually stay in the suite at Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic
Kingdom.
And
that’s just a simple distraction. You already know that the internet
is a vacuum, prepared to suck us in and never spit us out.
(At
least not until your wife calls from the other side of the house,
bringing you back to reality by wondering if you brought butter
and rolls home since you were supposedly leaving for the store
three hours ago. Or something like that. That’s hypothetical.
Hasn’t happened to me at all. Although, completely random and
unrelated, recently I have found several great places to stay
in Maine.)
Where
it gets tricky is that I wonder if the distractions take away
from quality research.
It’s
one thing for me to say consider the source. The internet is filled
with unsupported claims and incorrect details. Quite another when
it’s so simple to be reading about one thing and suddenly want
some details about another that has absolutely no pressing need.
The
result is I’ve often found that when doing internet research,
I’m spending twice as much time (if not more) doing things that
have nothing to do with my research. I’m not getting things done.
I’m procrastinating. And not that well.
Ever
talk to a professional procrastinator? These people… my people…
operate on a different level.
I’d
like to think all of us can agree on the basic idea of procrastination.
It’s where you basically do one thing to avoid doing another.
Well, at the professional level, the procrastinator actually can
make the avoidance task look like a necessity.
If
you head to the internet to research castles, there are very few
ways to defend purchasing tickets to the Magic Kingdom’s special
holiday event as a necessity. Oh, you might be able to identify
the fork in the road where you went off course. You might be able
to jump into a circular logic about how Disney World and Irish
castles connect. But if you weren’t planning a vacation and didn’t
have Disney Halloween party tickets on a to do list, purchasing
them is not quality procrastination.
More
often than not, you might get what you need and finish the work
you planned. But the reality is, you likely won’t give either
your full, complete, highest quality attention.
Still,
videos of orangutans and dogs becoming unlikely friends, pandas
sneezing, and cats pushing glasses off the counter. The internet
is a wonderful place regardless of why you went there.