Procrastination and Technology

Caught red handed. Okay so I’m procrastinating but hey, in my defense writing scholarship essays isn’t exactly the most exciting things ever, plus it’s Saturday (and don’t you have other things you currently need to be doing rather than reading a rant of post, if you’re in my English class then never mind congratulations you’re actually doing what you’re supposed to be)! It’s weird how I’ve come to refer to my laptop as the “distractomachine” (for obvious reasons) and so far the score is 5 billion distromachine – Maryam 0. Technology, Y U So Distracting! It’s got me thinking though, about how easily technology has taken over our lives.

Take this image, for example. There was a point in time were I would have said, without any hesitation, that I would be that lonely guy doing the book sniffing and fondling but now I’m not so sure. While I’d still go with books over iPad’s any day (as I’m not big on Apple products) but give me an Android tablet or an e-reader and suddenly I’m not so sure. Not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line, I drifted into the world of e-books and digital libraries. I mean it’s so convenient to just carry a full library of books all stuffed into a tiny electrical circuit, ready to open a new book at my will (especially handy for someone like me who for some bizarre reason is always reading at least 3 books at once).

Then again e-reading has its disadvantages as well. Oh look the battery died! Oh look a new YouTube video I never knew I needed to watch but suddenly now I do! Oh look someone messaged me, better reply! All these distractions, it’s a wonder I get anything done. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who’s distracted by the call of the internet. Milgrim, in William Gibson’s Zero History does the same as well one night, sitting on a bed, refreshing his Twitter feed instead of sleeping. Interesting how the pull of technology and the internet overrides our needs of sleep. Self-control? Seems like that’s something I lack.