Staking out Offline Time

I've been thinking a lot in the last few weeks about the amount of time we spend every day on the web, both on our desktops at work and home, and on our mobile devices. The emergence of internet-enabled mobile phones (like the iphone) has dramatically accelerated the rate with which we check in on the web.

The Times has a brief article this morning about how this electronic tether is eating into morning rituals and family time.

This is morning in America in the Internet age. After six to eight hours of network deprivation — also known as sleep — people are increasingly waking up and lunging for cellphones and laptops, sometimes even before swinging their legs to the floor and tending to more biologically urgent activities.

“It used to be you woke up, went to the bathroom, maybe brushed your teeth and picked up the newspaper,” said Naomi S. Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University, who has written about technology’s push into everyday life. “But what we do first now has changed dramatically. I’ll be the first to admit: the first thing I do is check my e-mail.”

How unpleasant. How addicted of us. These trends are increasingly unhealthy and addictive.

Another blog post to come about how web services can be better created and tuned to compliment your life, not take it over.