Anniee's Weblog

Last night, whilst I was cooking dinner, I turned on NPR and came in to the middle of a story about technology and whether it was good or bad for us. I have searched and searched and I cannot find this story online or else I would add a link. I could wirte a whole separate blog about how hard it is to find a story when you don’t know the name of the show. So here’s what the story was about:

After a meeting about people addicted to the Internet, a journalist decided to go a certain amount of time (I think a week, gosh, I need to remember more details while I’m cutting broccoli) without using the Internet for any sort of contact or information. Another man went another unspecified amount of time using all Internet for all his contacts or information.  The first gentlemen found it very freeing to be rid of that dependency and found that, after awhile, the urge to look something up the easy way dissappeared.  The second man found himself disconnected from society, except (and this is the interesting part that took so long to get to) when he had been on Second Life for a few days and found himself forgetting that he was not fac to face with the person he was speaking with.

Okay, so once I do find the feed to this show I will link it up and this story will make much much more sense, but I thought it was an interesting study on both sides of the spectrum and something that we need to keep in mind for libraries. I don’t think we need to cast aside all technology or give up our beloved books in favor of virtual libraries. It is somewhere in the middle and all we have to do is find that balance for our specific community. Good? Good. Now let me eat my broccoli.