Boredom and the internet

[Poltergeist]

Can it be said that ever increasing phenomenon of boredom accounts for the fantastic growth internet has experienced in the last decade?

Many bored people surf through the internet, not to find something useful, or something they are truly interested in, but only it is to them a means of distraction.

[Tabiti]

Internet is the perfect way to waste your time nowadays. TV is not so satisfying, because you cannot choose all the programs you want to watch in the moment. Chatting with different people is a way of many shy persons to "socialize", not to mention the increasing number of couples met in the web.
Many of the ordinary people just have no particular interests to search of. If you ask the average 15-25 year old girl about her interests and hobbies she would reply "Shopping, going out with friends and having fun". Internet is not the core of the problem, since it can be useful if you know what to search for, the problem is the lack of any interests in modern society.

[SwordoftheVistula]

Internet is not the core of the problem, since it can be useful if you know what to search for, the problem is the lack of any interests in modern society.

True. Some of it is that due to modern technology we no longer have to spend such a large part of our day scraping out an existence, part of it is that it opens up a world which was not previously available to us.

[Ariets]

Propably if I wasn't bored i'dnt ever use internet...

[Lutiferre]

Internet is the perfect way to waste your time nowadays. TV is not so satisfying, because you cannot choose all the programs you want to watch in the moment. Chatting with different people is a way of many shy persons to "socialize", not to mention the increasing number of couples met in the web.

Not to mention it's becoming just the normal way of socialising.. instant messengers, facebook, myspace, etc..

Many of the ordinary people just have no particular interests to search of. If you ask the average 15-25 year old girl about her interests and hobbies she would reply "Shopping, going out with friends and having fun". Internet is not the core of the problem, since it can be useful if you know what to search for, the problem is the lack of any interests in modern society.

True. As they say, only boring people are bored. People should find some interests to be enthusiastic about, other than "having fun".

[Aemma]

Not to mention it's becoming just the normal way of socialising.. instant messengers, facebook, myspace, etc..

True. As they say, only boring people are bored. People should find some interests to be enthusiastic about, other than "having fun".

The elusive "having fun"...I sometimes wonder if saying such a thing is rather a reflection of our inability (and perhaps more so our overall laziness) to imbue our language and hence communication with words of action and meaning, being more precise in language but especially in our selection of words rather than settling on the nebulous. Whenever I hear the phrase "having fun" it invariably always leads me to ask the question: what the hel do you mean by that?

Anyway, coming back to the topic:

The internet as a form of distraction? Yes invariably it can be and is (at times/most times, depending on one's POV). The question I always ask myself though is whether or not it is a healthy form of distraction. It most certainly has the capability of being such, healthy that is. For this reason, I'd tend to call it a diversion rather than a distraction.

Good question Lajos! Thanks for this thread!

[Johnny Bravo]

The elusive "having fun"...I sometimes wonder if saying such a thing is rather a reflection of our inability (and perhaps more so our overall laziness) to imbue our language and hence communication with words of action and meaning, being more precise in language but especially in our selection of words rather than settling on the nebulous.

Ah, yes. I even believe you aren't the first one to notice this phenomenon.
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/...nglish/e_polit

Whenever I hear the phrase "having fun" it invariably always leads me to ask the question: what the hel do you mean by that?

I find that it's often a euphemism for the unpalatable.

[Poltergeist]

The question I always ask myself though is whether or not it is a healthy form of distraction. It most certainly has the capability of being such, healthy that is. For this reason, I'd tend to call it a diversion rather than a distraction.

In most cases it isn't healthy.

[Liffrea]

It’s a good way of communicating with like minded folks without the net I would probably never have found Odinism, never have joined the OR, never have met quite a few folks who I converse with on a regular basis, it’s great for social reasons, personally I tend to use it a lot for research etc, if I’m not out or reading I’m usually sitting at a computer.

It's unhealthy if it's the only interaction you have with people, after all it's not the same as real face to face contact or sitting in a pub with a pint.

[Vulpix]