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KENNETH GOLDSMITH is a poet and author of ten books, including Seven American Deaths and Disasters (2013) and Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age (2013).He is the founding editor of UbuWeb, an online archive, and senior editor of PennSound, a website for digital poetry recordings based at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches writing.In reality it's a befuddling mix of the stupid and the sublime, a shattered, contradictory, and fragmented medium.The way Internet pundits tell it, you'd think we stare for three hours at clickbait--those articles with hypersensational headlines--the way we once sat down and watched three hours of cartoons on Saturday morning TV. But most of us don't do any one thing on the Internet.Am I wasting time if I look up the latest presidential polling numbers, but not if I'm communicating with an old friend on Facebook?Our time spent in front of the computer is a mixed time, a time that reflects our desires--as opposed to the time spent sitting in front of the television where we were fed shows we didn't necessarily enjoy.This essay, first published on August 12, 2016, for the Los Angeles Times, is from his book Wasting Time on the Internet (2016).The notion that the Internet is bad for you seems premised on the idea that the Internet is one thing--a monolith.Internet detractors seem to miss this simple fact, which is why so many of their criticisms disintegrate under observation.Am I wasting time if I watch cat videos, but not if I read a magazine story about the Iran nuclear deal?When I click around news sites, am I wasting time because I should be working instead?

KENNETH GOLDSMITH is a poet and author of ten books, including Seven American Deaths and
Disasters (2013) and Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age (2013). He is the
founding editor of UbuWeb, an online archive, and senior editor of PennSound, a website for
digital poetry recordings based at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches writing. This
essay, first published on August 12, 2016, for the Los Angeles Times, is from his book Wasting
Time on the Internet (2016).

IS THE INTERNET A WASTE OF TIME? It’s not so easy to say. When I click around news sites, am I
wasting time because I should be working instead? What if I’ve spent hours working, and I need
a break? Am I wasting time if I watch cat videos, but not if I read a magazine story about the
Iran nuclear deal? Am I wasting time if I look up the latest presidential polling numbers, but not
if I’m communicating with an old friend on Facebook?
The notion that the Internet is bad for you seems premised on the idea that the Internet is one
thing—a monolith. In reality it’s a befuddling mix of the stupid and the sublime, a shattered,
contradictory, and fragmented medium. Internet detractors seem to miss this simple fact,
which is why so many of their criticisms disintegrate under observation.
The way Internet pundits tell it, you’d think we stare for three hours at clickbait—those articles
with hypersensational headlines—the way we once sat down and watched three hours of
cartoons on Saturday morning TV. But most of us don’t do any one thing on the Internet.
Instead, we do many things, some of it frivolous, some of it heavy. Our time spent in front of
the computer is a mixed time, a time that reflects our desires—as opposed to the time spent
sitting in front of the television where we were fed shows we didn’t necessarily enjoy. TV gave
us few choices. Many of us truly did feel like we wasted our time—as our parents so often
chided us—“rotting away” in front of the TV.
I keep reading—on screens—that in the age of screens we’ve lost our ability to concentrate,
that we’ve become distracted. But when I look around me and see people riveted to their
devices, I notice a great wealth of concentration, focus, and engagement.
5 And I keep reading—on the Internet—that the Internet has made us antisocial, that we’ve lost
the ability to have a conversation. But when I see people with their devices, what I see is people
communicating with one another: texting, chatting, IM’ing. And I have to wonder, in what way
is this not social? A conversation broken up into short bursts and quick emoticons is still a
conversation. Watch someone’s face while they’re in the midst of a rapid-fire text message
exchange: it’s full of emotion—anticipation, laughter, affect.
The Internet has been accused of making us shallow. We’re skimming, not reading. We lack the
ability to engage deeply with a subject anymore. That’s both true and not true: we skim and
browse certain types of content, and read others carefully. We’re not all using our devices the
same way. Looking over the shoulders of people absorbed in their devices on the subway, I see