Any kind of thought work requires focus and I suspect that ‘the ability to concentrate’ will become a precious commodity at some point in the future, if it isn’t already.

What’s next, a rant about kids these days not reading enough books? Times change. People used to kill time listening to radio shows, then watching TV shows. Now we have the web. It sounds like you don’t like change, so you’re assuming that the web is a worse way to waste time than any other, but is it? There’s certainly a lot more information and collaborative thinking on the web than on TV, the radio, or in any book. It doesn’t sound like a bad way to waste time if you ask me.

In addition – I think there may be an age-related factor here – my 23 year-old daughter seems to be able to multi-task – she has messenger permanently open, and it is constantly ‘beeping’ – which I think means that she’s getting messages, she arranges her local social life that way. At the same time she’s on facebook or ringo or some other – possible more than one – to keep in toch with people further afield. She has her mobile phone and seems to be texting regularly. At the same time she is successfully pusuing a business degree in French (her mother tongue is English) and is consistently getting great marks – even though assignments are written whilst all the above social newtworking is going on.

She also has her iPod playing most of the time.

She laughs that I have to stop walking to take a swig of water out of a bottle – there’s no chance that I could successfully multi-task on all those technologies – I’m 50 years old by the way.

Do you think there is an age factor? I heard a BBC show about how kid’s brains are slowly adapting and that there are distinct changes in synapse activity in the younger generation as a result of all the technology.

I realised a few months ago that I was becomeing a slave to certain internet communication tools – my daughter got me onto FaceBook, for example, then I found friends joining my FB page and soon I got a couple of snidy emails because I had not responded to their message on a wall, or their virtual hug !

I found the same with instant messenger – someone would invite me to converse, I was busy writing and being (!) self-disciplined would ignore the annoying little pop-up – but later found that I had offended them.

But it’s not just other people disrespecting my personal space – I set of on net searches with a purpose only to find that I begin to follow links that are increasingly tangential to the original search and -voila! – before I know it I’ve wasted the best part of an hour collecting information that is of no use to my writing and research.

This was a great post – as the response shows, I shall explore your site further (but not just yet – I’ve set myslef to write three scenes before I’m allowed a coffe break!)

à bientôt

Julie

Letting email/IM/twitter/browser run full bore during the periods of the day you are supposed to be creating something is exactly as stupid and criminal as driving a car while on your cell while texting while watching a dvd player. Someone is going to get hurt, and you’ll be to blame.