The Internet is Quicksand

Dear Reader,

I had a great time on my girls’ trip (see last week’s post) but the best part was this–we had no internet access at the cabin. It was nice to have no one need anything from me all week, but let’s be honest. If I’d been able to go online, I wouldn’t have done anywhere near the amount of reading and writing I did. The internet, you see, is quicksand.

It’s a common joke these days. “Based on my childhood media exposure, I expected quicksand to be a much more present danger in my life.” We all laugh, but none of us seem to realize how much of our lives we do spend mired in the stuff. Not literally, of course. I’m talking about the metaphorical quagmire that traps us each time we go online.

Don’t get me wrong–I love the internet nearly as much as I despise it. For a curious person, carrying around a device with instant answers to my every question is a miracle.

But…

I’m sure King Midas’s ability to turn anything to gold felt like a miracle, too, right up until it destroyed everything he loved. Our quicksand doesn’t work as quickly as the golden touch, but it’s just as insidious. It turns our most precious resource–time–into a weight that pulls us down and drowns us.

How often have you tried to check one quick thing online, then realized an hour disappeared without notice? It’s been carefully planned that way, because the more time you and I spend online, the more ads we see and the more money goes into various pockets.

(Not ours, of course. Never ours.)

The world these days is a place where it’s nearly impossible to complete any task without a visit to the World Wide Web. Once we dip just a toe in…. Boom. Quicksand.

I remember those jungle movies shown on ’80s television. Once the hero blundered into a pit of quicksand, he was done for, unless someone else was around to pull him out. He might still be able to talk and try to get out, but we viewers knew death was inevitable. Its slowness made it all the more gruesome.

So here we all are, slowly drowning in this quagmire of our own making. This time, those bystanders who might grab ahold to pull us out are sinking just as surely as we are. I’d love to offer a solution, but unfortunately, I have none. The best I can suggest is to spend a few days in a place with no wifi. It may not save us in the long run, but it does make for a lovely reprieve.

And hey, it’s easy to find and book a trip like that. All you have to do is search online. Good luck!

Love, Melissa