0.cached.png
By Steven Levy
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Your tech-stock portfolio might still be aching from a three-year hangover, but when it comes to the Internet's effect on our lives, the binge is just getting underway. What's more, participation is no longer optional. That was the bottom line in two very different research studies released last month. Taken in tandem, they present a breathtaking picture of how quickly and indelibly the digital world has made an impact on our lives.
The first report would have landed on the desk with a resounding thump, had it not arrived in a PDF digital file that weighed nothing. (Thanks, Internet!) It's the fourth in an annual series of voluminous, carefully documented studies from the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, attempting to track "the most important technological development of our generation."
It's only been a decade since the first decent Web browser began transforming the Net from something cherished only by Star Trek fans with modems the size of shoeboxes to something your mother uses. Yet the Annenbergers report that three quarters of all Americans have access to the Internet, spending an average of twelve-and-a-half hours a week online. Netheads abound in every age range, but for those between 12 and 18, usage approaches 100 percent. Though e-mail is still the No. 1 activity, the study concludes that the Net has profoundly changed the way we spend money, keep in touch with our friends and get information (Internet users use the medium as their No. 1 source of news, despite worries about credibility). For millions, it's as essential as air.
Read More on News
Which brings us to the "Internet Deprivation Study," commissioned by Yahoo and the media agency OMD. In an attempt to dramatize how we can't live without the Net, the companies hired ethnographic researchers to see if some typical wired-up Americans could cope for a fortnight offline. Eventually, 28 brave souls in 13 households cut the Ethernet cord, entering the forbidding and barren world of our pioneer forefathers in the 1980s.
You may be wondering how a modern citizen could make it through 14 days without Google, Outlook, Rhapsody and the Wonkette. Could it be going offline would put the participants in touch with a more convivial past, reaffirming the values of our ancestors? Not a chance. Oh, they gave it a shot. Some of them discovered that you could look up people's numbers in a fat, pulpy tome called a "phone book." Others dug out board games, reconnected to fax lines, stood in post-office lines and actually visited neighbors. It wasn't easy. They were appalled to discover that going offline resulted in extra fees for using bank tellers, paper airline tickets and getting college course catalogs. One participant, attempting to catch up on the news, was forced to grapple with the archaic technology of the printed word. "[I] felt very inconvenienced at having to carry around the paper, which was cumbersome." Plus, it cost money! The subjects reported feeling "out of the loop." In the words of one poor soul, "every day without the Internet is frustrating." Thirty-five times, the subjects were forced to break the digital fast, invoking a "lifeline" provision that permitted a one-time cyberspace fix. When the experiment was over, the participants bolted for their machines and once again became whole.
The results of these studies aren't so surprising; Internet usage is routinely woven into the fabric of our Jetson-esque lives, to a degree that exceeds even the most optimistic prognostications of a decade ago. That's why the Yahoo/OMD study has the flavor of a reality television show--going without broadband these days is scarier than anything the producers of "Fear Factor" can contemplate.
But there is a scarier prospect: the changes are just beginning. The very ubiquity and addictiveness of the Internet is spreading the online world even deeper into every area of communication, commerce and human interaction. Don't try Googling the answer to where this will take us. We've long ago strayed off the map.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines