How much time do you spend online? Reading this Slate article, which recounts a primitive internet back in 1996, it’s amazing that our lives have changed so much since that time. Well, at least some of us. My wife does all she can not to sit in front of a computer when she comes home, but I’m very content to put the laptop on my lap. But how much is too much?
From Slate:
In 1996, Americans with Internet access spent fewer than 30 minutes a month surfing the Web, according to Steve Coffey, who’s now the chief research officer of the market research firm the NPD Group. (Today, we spend about 27 hours a month online, according to Nielsen.)
27 hours a month seems like a good amount of time, but I think it’s more telling when you break it down to daily bites. So, if it’s safe to round up, we can say that today Americans spend about an hour a day on the Internet. This isn’t all that much. What we don’t see are the increasing number of information workers who spend 8+ hours a day at work connected, and a competing amount in the evenings. I would say that I spend a good 7 hours on the Internet, conservatively, each day.
How bad is that, would you say? What is a good balance between online vs. offline life? Personally, as long as I get a good 35 minute run at the gym in, I can go back online without breaking a sweat [pun intended]. Life means living it fully and you cannot do that when you are forever hitting the send/receive button. Today’s assignment: Get out and do something.
