The Internet Diet: are we eating too much?

As students we often go onto the internet in a rare urge of motivation to get some work done, though all too often we find ourselves being side tracked by other topics and more entertaining content available on the web. There is such a plethora of knowledge available it is all too easy to get seduced by more exciting items. We are also constantly encouraged to multi-task; with the option to open up new tabs and windows to follow up thoughts instantly. Is this encouraging us to become too erratic with our train of thoughts and destroy our concentration levels? It could be argued that the ability to multi-task is a good skill to possess and develop. Though in the majority of cases it just aids distraction and procrastination as people tend to be more motivated to allocating their time to things that require less cognitive activity and far more enjoyment for example spoof videos on youtube.

Is this causing a stem of the dumbing-down syndrome that ITV and other TV channels were accused of? Are we being less productive or is it just a shift in the definition of productivity. Should we be encouraging more engagement in social media- uploading videos, writing blogs, filing out personal profiles and reading less credible articles to develop a more critical view on society or is it merely just sensationalism, an updated version of watching the film instead of reading the book?
In regards to education- the internet has provided children and students alike with a cheat way of accessing information with less effort needed, the term ‘google it’ has often been given as advice for not knowing the answer to a question. With podcasts, reviews and articles on a whole array of subjects available online it is now possible to get a crash course in just about anything without doing the extensive research into a topic or reading the original literature as was once vital to do. Have children got it easier? And are we becoming lazier?

Or have we in fact become more sophisticated in managing extensive volumes of information and becoming more critical in our evaluation of what is a credible source? Possibly, though a more likely answer would be that we rely on Google to do this job for us.

Lively interaction

Second life has been around for a few years but only now has google got round to creating an equivalent, 'lively'. Lets hope it lives up to its ambitious name.

I've had a go myself at creating a room and trying to add furniture and and create a person though sadly experienced a few technical problems. All i managed to end up with is a basic shell I could zoom in and out of. Though I have faith these problems will be ironed out eventually. It is no suprise therefore that the program is available for free at the moment.

So assuming this program does get up and running properly and people actually overcome the frustrations of trying to work out how to use it, what does this mean for online social interaction. IT seems to be a step up from conventional social networking sites as you can personalise your own character, your own music that plays in your presence and your own room complete with decor. So yet another way that we can exercise our right as a postmodern consumer to be playful with our roles in society.

People can invite people to visit their room, via google mail of course (yes you guessed it you need a gmail account to set this up) and you can also go find other rooms to join. Some of them already created by users actually look quite appealing if you allow yourself to postpone disbelief and induldge in the fantasy of you actually being in a futuristic sushi bar or lazing by the pool on a roof top terrace.

If people have time to go beyond being a citizen designer and turn their attention to interacting with other users the program can be quite clever, enabling users to chat using an instant messaging service and have their characters talk also through speach bubbles to create a more cartoonish feel. It combines social networking and computer game conventions that will be interesting to observe over the next few months to see what type of interactions prevail. Whether this will be a space for intellectual discussions or an extention of 'pub talk'.

It seems like an ideal platform for brands to extend their presence more physically online and for consumers to interact with their image, personality and products, they can almost create an authentic user experience with the brand online that couldn't be done before. I hope to see brands take the iniative to get involved in this new medium as I think it could open up many opportunities for brand awareness and engagement.

There are tv screens to input into rooms from the 'shop' and I'm sure I saw one room had youtube. Could this be the next generation for online tv? could we next be watching our favourite shows in our virtual living rooms online? Nowadays any wacky ideas seem possible!