WASTING TIME INTERNET

What's better than wasting time on the internet? This book! What a phenomenal read - drawing parallels between the internet and surrealists and and and...Even though I LOVE wasting time on the internet all day long, I could not put this book down and that says a lot for a lazy reader like me. Highly recommended!!! HIGHLY

This is sort of interesting -- but it is not light reading.It is an attempt at an academic analysis of the impact that the Internet is having on the evolution of our culture.I expected an amusing, thoughtful but not heavy, read. I was way off.Goldsmith has an interesting thesis, I guess, but he reaches way too far trying to prove it. I am still not sure what "it" is, and I have a couple of Master's Degrees. I admit that I skimmed some of the chapters as they get repetitive. I was disappointed.

Okay read.

Kenneth Goldsmith could be considered as an expert for wasting time on the internet. When most people hear the concept of “browsing/surfing the web,” a negative connotation is hinted at. It seems to be that the consensus is that time on the internet is a waste; that our devices make us less connected to each other and less focused. Goldsmith had heard over and over as I’m sure we all have that reading endless indictments of the Web make us dumber. We feel guilty after spending time on our devices because we should have been more “constructive” and “productive” with our time. However, Goldsmith’s book contradicts this whole controversial view that the Internet is a waste of time.Goldsmith is proposing that there is no such thing as truly wasting time on the internet. He views web surfing as a form of self-expression. Every click we make, every button we press is indicative of who we are. Indicative of our likes, our dislikes, our emotions, our politics, and our world view. While surfing we are able to be both aimless and productive. Our lives have moved to screens, so why shouldn’t our learning styles and conversation do the same? People on the web are social all the time. We are reading and writing more than we have in any generation yet, but the only difference is that we are expressing ourselves differently---through writing, creating, studying, skimming, bookmarking, forwarding, reblogging, and retweeting all sorts of digital content. The only issue with this is that these forms of communication and collaboration aren’t recognized as literary yet. However surfing the web is the art of our age. Instead of feeling guilty, Goldsmith believes we should instead celebrate web surfing by joining together to celebrate all the internet has to offer us. “Wasting Time on the Internet” is a class taught by Kenneth Goldsmith at the University of Pennsylvania, which this book is based off of. Goldsmith initially hoped the experience of being forced to “waste time” online for a semester’s worth of classes would allow his students to write something interesting in the end. However this goal wasn’t achieved until the students stopped wasting time on the Internet as they normally would alone, but it was achieved when they started finding ways to explore the internet as a group, together. For three hours a week, students sat in a room with nothing more than their devices and a Wi-Fi connection. Although they all sat in the same room, their communication happened exclusively through chat rooms and social media. However this class is far from the normal structure that classes are intended to be. Instead of wasting time, they had been part of creating a culture of collaboration. Not only are distractions and split attention encouraged in this class, but it is mandatory. The students must aimlessly drift and intuitively surf the Web so they can get lost and emerge themselves in a digital haze until the class is over. They explored concepts like boredom and time-wasting through critical texts of various writers from centuries before our time and present day. Nothing is off limits in this class. Anything on the internet is fair game. They are able to simply hand in their browser history at the end of a session and present it as a memoir. Goldsmith’s goal of this class is to break down the internet and liberate us from society’s views that the internet is a waste of time. The book’s final chapter includes a class-generated list of 101 ways to “waste time” online. One exercise was to Instagram something with the intention of it being taken down by Instagram. Taking a screenshot of it. To Instagram the screenshot. Screenshot that Instagram, etc. Another exercise is to sit with a group of friends in a circle, open your laptops, pass them to the left; everyone gets to do whatever they want on your laptop for one minute. I thought one of the best games they came up with was racing to see how expensive a cart of goodies on Amazon you can rack up inside a 15-minute time limit. (The winner topped $23 million, interestingly by shopping in the rare postage stamps section of the site.) These are all activities that a normal person wouldn’t have even thought to do on their own. Some of the activities I know I do not at all have the guts to do. But each is intriguing and thought provoking in its own way. Goldsmith’s book isn’t a book that you will necessarily be intrigued reading about. But it is very intriguing to think about. I spent more time exploring the web for more information about Goldsmith’s class, books, and opinions beyond what the book had to offer, than I did reading the book itself. The reason why this book is so well viewed is because it is thought provoking. You will reflect more on the concepts of this book than you would reading the book itself, but I believe that is exactly what Goldsmith wants. If you are concerned about others around you or yourself as you find yourself wasting more and more time on the internet, than this book is a quick easy and informative read that you must attempt ASAP. This book doesn’t only alleviate your guilt but it makes you more mindful and curious about the vast knowledge the internet has ready for us. I agree with Goldsmith that the internet demands active engagement by actually making us more social, creative, and productive. The goal of Goldsmith’s course and book is to move us in the right direction by getting us to spend our time in front of screens in a more engaged and creative way, where we soak up as much knowledge and information as we can. This book lets us feel free to wander off into the depths of the internet again, reminding us that there’s nothing more productive than trying to produce nothing at all. What we view and post on the Internet is a reflection of ourselves. We are able to observe the data others have compared to our own. Our browser history is very individualized and personal. It is something we can use to learn more about ourselves and those around us.The fact of the matter is that we are all wasting time on the internet in one way or another. We must face the facts that it is impossible not to do in this time and age. So instead of condemning ourselves and everyone else around us, why not take advantage of this time on the internet? The internet is not going away anytime soon and we aren’t disconnecting from it, so it would be best if we learn to think about the internet in a different, more productive way. Goldsmith believes that we should leave behind the “guilt” that comes with surfing the Web. He proposes we free ourselves from all the shame society focuses on when “wasting time on the internet” and embrace the value of waste. Instead he believes we should explore and maybe even celebrate the complex possibilities the Web lays out for us. We should all take these various scattered parts of the internet and stitch it into one unified coherent way of learning and exploring more and more knowledge that we have the privilege of accessing right at our fingertips.

It is okay

Kenneth Goldsmith is so cute when he gets all excited about the internet. I wanted to give him a big hug.

sucks

el envío fue rapido y sin problemas. Llegó en muy buen estado.El libro ofrece una visión del Internet y de las redes sociales muy diferente a la que nos tiene acostumbrados. La visión apocalíptica de que la tecnologia va a acabar con lo más natural y "humano" se desmonta por completo. Plagado de anécdotas, la lectura es fácil y súper amena. 100% recomendable.

Bought this book for a university class, it shipped fast.