Nothing But Net - For Five Days

Devastator writes "A reporter for the Toronto Star spent five days online. This article gives us a glimpse of how the Internet is still not a replacement for real life human contact. " Interesting story but a little too much information.

Comments

Forget the work-related stuff...

[acarey]

... not that I'm saying that's not important.

But it seems to me that the major long-term problem associated with cutting oneself off from the "real" :) world is to do with socialising.

Sure, there are on-line communities, but currently these are limited as per the contrainsts of the web itself: limited rich content, low bandwidth, audio and visual information only.

Why is it harder to carry out a conversation via email than it is face to face? (Aside from the extra time taken in typing, of course :) Because human beings typically only exchange about 20-30% of the information in a conversation via the spoken word. The rest is the _way_ the words are spoken (pitch, rhythm [sp?]), the body language, nuances, other senses.

Email and other web-based communication techniques that rely on the written word rather than the spoken word can only communicate a minority of the contextual information that a human being typically expects to receive during a conversation. For work or academic related stuff where specifications are clear this may be fine, but for a social conversation email and the like aren't there yet.

Until the web (or its offspring) can transmit non-written conservation like language pitch and context, and body language - "rich conversation" - I don't think it's going to feasible to cut oneself off entirely from the outside world.

Re:Forget the work-related stuff...

[Tom Christiansen]

Why is it harder to carry out a conversation via email than it is face to face? [...] Email and other web-based communication techniques that rely on the written word rather than the spoken word can only communicate a minority of the contextual information that a human being typically expects to receive during a conversation.

Everything you just said is true.

But I think there's something critical that you failed to mention. You're talking about a conversation that's time delayed. When I send someone mail, even if they read and respond right away, there's still a significant latency between the time that I was composing my note and when I eventually read their response. This time lag can easily stretch into days--sometimes even longer.

Despite the readily observable fact that most electronic communications are written as though they were quick post-it notes, at least in the case of those media which are not interactive in real time, our written words often have a lot more to do than they would in a simple post-it note. They need to make up for the missing context.

Back when folks actually sent each other letters in the post, a very different sort of communication occurred. This is particularly evident in those letters that went overseas, or which were composed before we had our mail delivered by high-speed aircraft. In these circumstances, a great deal more care was put into careful drafting and composition. The greater the latency in delivery, the more context would be provided, the more care taken.

Today when you send mail via the computer, you find that unlike the many famous collected letters of our forefathers, our own written notes no longer use what one would call "written English". In the vast majority of cases, communications via electronic media are treated with a level of informality that was previously found only on post cards and notes stuck on the front of the fridge or computer terminal. In other words, most of us employ "spoken English" in our daily electronic exchanges.

But as you yourself noted, there's a grave problem here. The amount of context provided is nothing like what you would get in a face-to-face, real-time conversation. It doesn't even compare favorably with the environment of a telephone conversation, in which you can at least perceive the intonation and stress patterns of the other party's voice.

The art of writing letters, and, all too often it seems today, the very art of writing itself, have faded into historical obscurity leaving us an impoverished shell of sound bytes and surface banter. As disturbing as the effect itself is the realization that this has happened to us without even our being aware of what we were losing.

Once you recognize that written and spoken English are, in some senses, different languages, you can start to analyse their respective advantages and disadvantages. Clearly spoken English is more spontaneous than written English. But the written form enjoys a far richer potential because of its capacity to hold and convey more nuance and detail from the writer to his reader. And it's not actually as much harder as you might initially fear. That's because no one requires you to type the same words that youd' use in a quick pub chat. In a written medium, you are free to choose your words more carefully, to play games with word order, and to compose sentences of a richer syntactic pattern than most of are comfortable doing in in a spoken medium. And you can clean up your mistakes, too.

There is much to be said for adopting a considered hand in all but the most ephemeral of written exchanges. There is no question that this requires more time, more effort. It's also true that in some contexts, such increased levels of care and attention are largely unwarranted. And it must be recognized that what one would consider writing using "written English" is hardly a skill that comes naturally to everyone, and that we must not discourage those who have a hard time with using written English from contributing their unique voices to the collective discourse.

That being said, if there is one thing I would dearly like to see is for our children to rediscover the enchantment of the written word. They must be challenged to read as much as they can. Of no less importance is their commensurate need to write as much they can, too. Literacy has plummeted in the United States over the last few decades from a place of honor in the world rankings to one of considerable shame. I do not pretend to understand all the causes, but a principal component to the solution is both simple and clear: more reading, more writing.

I do not know that the increased penetration of the Internet has necessarily helped this situation of our society's loss of the written word. I see scant little written English being written today in our on-line mail and news exchanges, nor in any other forum you care to name, this one included. Then again, I don't intend to blame the net for this, either. Our newspapers are written at a fifth-grade level; our weekly news magazines in America are little improved beyond that. It would not surprise me to learn that the majority of Americans would probably find not merely Scientific American but even The Economist too complex in word choice and syntactic structure for their diminished capabilities.

Do our children even recognize the written world they could be participating in on-line? I don't know. Probably they relegate that world of writing to their grammar schools. But the better they can write and the better they can organize their ideas and thoughts and then convey these to others, the better they will do later in life, largely irrespective of which particular career they land in. Communication skills help everywhere.

Why, after all, do you think that liberal arts majors are in such high demand these days? Not a small part of it is from their generalist training and their ability to communicate well, It is an area that the stereotypical geek is often not at his best, but it doesn't have to be.

So next time you jot out a piece of mail, especially if it's something that really matters to you, remember that the person on the other end isn't right there in the same room watching you, nor are they on phone listening to you, either. Consider the context they'll be losing, and try to make up for this loss by the quality of you writing.

And whatever you do, please read over your message twice before actually sending it. Remember: what you write once wil by others be read a million times, especially in this particlar forum. :-) Look for bugs, redundancies, inconsistencies, and awkward constructs in your prose just as you might look for these infelicities in your source code. People will be tacitly thankful you did. Best of all, you'll stand a much better change of getting your point across--which is, after all, why you're bothering to type something in the first place.

He's not a nerd

[chandoni]

This guy's mistake was trying to lead a normal life online. Corned beef sandwiches and beer? A daily newspaper? But if you're interested in the kind of culture that you can only find online (Q3 tournaments, slashdot, even day trading) then you could easily spend days on the net. Many guys I knew in college spent 5 semesters constantly being online, not just a mere 5 days.

JMC

It *does* replace human contact.

[Anonymous Coward]

It *does* replace human contact. I haven't left my room for days and I'm OK. The voices are quieter now, and only talk in perl....



-Dave Turner, AC of convinience

Not much of an experiment

[DiningPhilosopher]

This guy claims he's performing an experiment to find out what life in the connected future might be like. While it's a mildly entertaining story, the experiment is very flawed.

Come on - he laments the fact that he can't stand around the office water cooler? Is it obvious only to me that if everyone were out of the office they'd gather for meaningless conversation in some other forum?

He also complains about the inconvenience and expense of ordering items like food and hygiene products. Of course the items are hard to find and expensive - nobody shops for these things online yet. Once there's a market the vendors will come to it.

What he's actually writing about is how difficult it is to live with only an internet connection today, when everybody else is working in offices and shopping in grocery stores. Gee, thanks.

The need to talk

[Tom Christiansen]

In the original article, the captive writer said:

I need more intrusive technology. I need to interrupt someone's day with some questions. Now.

That sounds pretty funny, until it happens to you. My friends and I have always used talk(1) for this kind of infrequent emergency, oh since something like back in 1984 or so. I at least haven't been tempted to use ytalk(1) for ages, but it's there if I really want it.

These days such calls are a lot less frequent an occurrence. I bet it doesn't happen more than once or thrice a month. This works out well, because we never know where each other really is geographically, so a phone call wouldn't work anyway. It's all nice and real-time. It probably helps that we all type at about 80 words per minute, or better. (And no, I don't know what that is in metric. :-)

the flip side to the paperless society

[Travoltus]

Actually I find the lessons behind Mr. Cribb's experience - that you cannot live solely by doing things over the internet - to be a little disheartening considering the incredibly positive environmental impact that the internet promises to have on society. Not too disheartening, but a little.

For one, if we achieve its true potential, we will have a mostly paperless society. This will shrink the market for trees (although houses will still be made from wood).

Air pollution would be drastically cut by the large scale adoption of telecommuting. (So why not take those extra few hours saved from the daily commute, and go out and volunteer or something like that?)

As for the Mr. Cribb's problem of trying to contact people via email, well stereotypically in a largely online age he might want to contact them via something like MSN Messenger, AIM or ICQ. That is, if they are online with it. The internet phone is right around the corner, and will flourish with the advent of widely deployed Cable Modems / DSL / wireless internet (Ricochet) service. He can just dial up someone on the internet, free of charge, and chat that way. But the infrastructure for reliable internet phone usage, is still a while away...

The main overlapping theme in his story is the expensive nature of the "grocery" services. This can't be solved. The 'online grocer' business probably won't survive for long, anyways. The cost of delivering goods is too high to justify delivering one or two items, for one. If all he ordered was a stick of deodorant in one shipment, no wonder it cost $14 (Canadian)! That is one unconquerable hurdle. The need to have your goods delivered ASAP, is another one the online grocer cannot handle. Need I go on with this??? heh.

Anyways..we also know alllll about the online chat versus the meeting people in person thing. Or.. wait a minute.. do we? Perhaps Mr. Cribb's social life is based on a large number of people and activities that are offline. If this is the case then leaving him stuck online is like putting him on a desert island away from his home town. But..... but....... suppose you're a 19 year old guy whose passions are comic books, japanese animation, Linux, and weird alternative music? Do you want to go hang out with people who basically go by the "comic books suck! you better do what I do for fun or I'll call you names and make you feel bad" school of (non)thought? Heck no! Once the online option is presented to someone like that, they're known to lock out the outside world except for work and grocery shopping. In short the online chat phenomenon is a godsend for non conformists seeking fellowship. (Much to the dismay of the researchers and military minds who first created the net...lol... talk about your classic indians and settlers conflict!) The drawback is that it is apparent, in Mr. Cribb's own experience, that showers become optional, and I'm willing to bet that also goes for brushing one's teeth. Can we say 'health hazard'? It is certainly proof of the well known fact that the net has certain socially and medically corrosive effects if it becomes an addiction. (To say nothing about a lack of an incentive to exercise.)

Okay back to my point. Robert Cribb's experience brought him full circle right back to square one: while the paperless office/society, and the promise of telecommuting, makes the net a valuable and eco-friendly resource, there are still some things in real life that it cannot replace.

This is ignorant

[roamer]

I am a student at Georgia Tech, and, like most tech schools, we are a good step ahead of "generic home user" as far as the technology available to us. What I have found is that the more wired I am to the web, the better I learn how to use it, and the more productive I can become in a shorter amount of time. There is no more spending a day at the library to research a topic- I can find more valuable information in an hour on the web. What I do find though, is that I have more time available to socialize with real people, because it takes me less time to do the things I have to do.
Also, I am much more able to work productively for longer periods of time when I really have to, because I use "personal" forms of communication (aka ICQ), so that I can talk to my friends while I work, with far less inconvenience and at far higher percentage of my productivity than if they were sitting there. It is true that it does lower how much work I can get done per minute, but it is amazing how much easier it is to stay motivated. Frankly, I think this guy was ignorant in how to actually use the internet, and trying to perform tasks that the internet is (currently) not made to do. My opinion, though, is that if the web was enhanced to do your grocery shopping for you so that you could spend 15 minutes to simply whip up your shopping list and paste it into grocery_pricewatch.com instead of a 4 hour trip to Kroger, you would be able to have that much more time to do other things (like socializing with your friends). Of course this would require a different delivery system than is currently used, so that competitive market would make it more convenient, but things like this would save a hell of a lot of time. Besides, imagine how much cheaper it would be if your groceries were not having to be shipped to a retail location, and you weren't having to pay for all the nice facilities and friendly service? Frankly, I am finding it quite a bit more convenient and savings from doing my hardware shopping online. I know that I for one will never shut myself off from the rest of the world- I am a total geek, but I have a life.

Nothing but Ice - For Five Days

[severed]

With another ice age on the horizon (20,000 or 30,000 years from now), I figured it would be a good idea to go to Antartica for five days and write an article about life in the frozen wastes. After all, this is what life in the future is coming to.

Monday 8:15 am. While walking out side to pick up my daily newspaper that I had air-dropped by the Air Force Search and Rescue team (1,013 dollars US), I found that a polar bear had beat me to it. Disgruntled, I knew that it was going to be a bad day but I decided to stick with it.

Tuesday 11:15 am. After deciding that I was starting to smell, I took a shower. Unfortunately, the water was realy realy cold, and I developed hypthermia. I wish that bear was back, he sure did look warm.

Wednesday 10:03 am. Accidentially got tounge stuck to water cooler that I brought with me, so that I could pretend to have conversations with co-workers.

Wednesday 4:15 pm. Sent letters via carrier pigeons to people that weren't good enough to talk to until now.

Wednesday 4:20 pm. Polar bear walks by window of my igloo with carrier pigeon blood on it's paws. Sending messages by carrier pigeon sucks, I miss my telephone.

Thursday 2:12 pm. Downloaded Fight Club from the Internet. Watched fight club. Looking around igloo for gasoline. Rethinking my strategies on how to deal with loneliness.

Friday 4:05 pm. The first rule is Igloo Club is You Do Not Talk About Igloo Club. The second rule about Igloo Club is you do not talk about Igloo Club. Take this writer. During the day, couldn't tell you the difference between true north and magnetic north. But when he's in the ring with that polar bear, beating the tar out of that artic fur covered mammal, he's a God!

Friday 8:00 pm. Wating to be airlifted back to the mainland. Have a suitcase full of soap ready.

(non geeks shouldn't lock themselves up in their apartments with a pc and think that they are going to be able to live like a geek. Strange how he not once considered the idea of reading a book, or watching a few movies (like the stand, followed by the postman, followed by all episodes of Babylon 5. Heck, he'd never even miss the outside world)

Is Saving Time Always Optimizing?

[cburley]

Several responses have indicated a strong desire among some to "save time" by not having to go shopping.

Well, yes, there are times I'd find that mighty convenient (especially in bad weather), as would my wife.

But give up the whole shopping experience? Ditto for other activities that can, at least theoretically, be carried out on a future Internet?

No Way.

I've run into to many friends and acquaintances in the supermarket (despite my relatively low lifetime frequency of shopping), and, hey, I met my wife in church, so "on-line worship" doesn't strike me as a wonderful alternative to being There, either.

The great thing about the Internet is that it opens up a world of possibilities for nearly everybody, vis-a-vis their often-limited assumptions about What Can Happen.

The dangerous thing about the Internet is that too many people will close their mind to the world of possibilities inherent in the everyday mundane activities of real life.

There's simply no substitute for the kind of playful shoulder-punching in the church foyer my wife and I engaged in while discussing some church business, a simple-but-effective precursor to the mating ritual society calls "dating". Even a Star Trek holodeck could not possibly recreate the casual trust and tenderness expressed by that sort of interaction -- forget about today's or tomorrow's real-world Virtual Reality.

Never underestimate the sublime joy of finding an attractive member of the desired gender in a supermarket, assuming a confused look (which is far more easily practiced off line than on), and plaintively asking, "Excuse me, but where's the toast?"

Nor should one underestimate the value of a warm smile to someone else, or to yourself -- or of a "have a nice day" -- when it's obviously not simply part of someone's .sig.