Technology has been fairly taking over my life recently, and that is a particular kind of irritating. I am generally against the whole trend of living our lives out of Gameboxes, sleeping on mePads, tweetering instead of talking, and dreaming in pixels. Tech isn’t evil or anything. Just misused and overused. Anyway, tonight the issue on our iPlate is all the stuff I can now watch/read/listen to online.
There’s more of it, that I know. Just a year ago I used the internet for schoolwork and Ubertube, or whatever, and even though that was fun (read: time-consuming) it’s nothing compared to what this past semester was like. I have Amazonian Prime, now, so I can borrow kindle books (haven’t yet) and watch endless amount of instant video streaming (that one I have done). Pandora’s (online) Box feeds my ears with never-ceasing melodies of exactly whatever I want to hear at the moment. And the reading… well, if reading memes and seeing funny pictures count, then I am still guilty (though to a lesser extent).
Overall, there have been some great results from this explosion of online media in my life (yeah, I know it exploded for everyone else years ago). I can watch every season of Aviatortar and Sherbertlock, and discover whole new realms of nerdy ecstasy, all at the touch of a button. And the music… neverending! I’ve discovered all sorts of new artists, great new songs and soundtracks, and my ear is being trained to recognize them even amidst all the schoolwork and job applications I should be attending to.
Except that’s the problem. I’m not attending to them. My media consumption has vastly increased with all the new opportunities I’m discovering online, and that has led to lots of new tasty stories and tunes for my intellectual palate, but there are several problems which have occurred in my own experience to make me doubt if this is worth my iVote.
For one thing: Ease of access. Yes, this is a plus insofar as it makes things, well, easy for me. But it also puts distractions that much closer. I get a lot less done of the important things (school, family, friends, etc.) when 20 episodes of Kung Fu Cow are just a click away from my procrastinating fingertips.For another thing: Glut of material. There is just too much. It’s great to have so many new songs (I’m particularly fond of soundtracks, and there are more than enough of those floating around), but the glut of material to consume makes it a lot harder to focus on particular favorites or to even fully appreciate good art when it comes.

So, overall, I think the increase in online media consumption is negative. I’m not saying it doesn’t have its attractions, but the thing that keeps playing over and over in my head when I see the next big online fad is I don’t need any of this. And that, I think, is the core of the matter.