Geek Policing
There is an interesting conversation/ debate going on over at Sepia Mutiny on the wisdom of authority figures cutting off dorm room internet access to students at certain IITs. Clearly my response to this is very conditional, tending towards the Luddite camp than the Free Love one. When I was at one (in Kharagpur) years ago internet was a rare commodity, and access to it was conditional at best - you had to know hackers who had access to certain labs that were better wired than others - with typical blazing speeds of 50 bytes/second. Email for a long time was via Grex on CRT terminals; ones that glow green and don't do Windows.
While this was frustrating at times (especially when I wanted to access image heavy art pages), I don't think the overall quality of life suffered too much because of this. Further, given the amount of time I waste on internet distractions now, I think such time was better spent then consuming books. Something that would be interesting to look at is the correlation between internet speed and the book circulation numbers from the small but excellent libraries that each hall/dorm has*. An initial hypothesis: these numbers are inversely related.
* Some of the most ferocious readers I have met were those who used these libraries; there were long waiting lists and jockeying for position when the latest literary novels arrived.
My Daily Notes
... comment
CloMe
I for one, am grateful for that little internet you had. We met afterall - on the tubes.
- CloMe
... link
Books and the net
It's funny that I seem to "remember" reading more books before internet than afterwards -- or at least longer books; Dr. Zhivago and Anna Karenina both come to mind. But when I look at it categorically, I'm still reading about the same amount. It's just that the books have changed, and they're mostly school-related now. I'm still reading, on average, one book a week.
So let's not blame the internet, let's blame the educational system. ^__^
... link
Of Internets
Yes, indeed CM - praise the Lord for those 5 bits/sec connection for our subsequent real life connection!
See Blue, you yourself have already admitted, provisionally, that you would have been reading non-school related books even in your current free time sans internets. But then, in that scenario, this blog's readership would dwindle into the negative numbers! ;-)
... link
Hmmm... but...
Okay, but in the past few months I have read (in addition to all the school stuff AND the internet/blog stuff) The Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, The Inheritance of Loss, and the (thoroughly captivating) monolith that is Suitable Boy. Not to mention the cookbooks. Dare not to accuse me of ignoring literature! ^__^
... link
Oye! We exsist
Blue, because we read. So far from me accusing you of neglecting to read. And btw of that list of four books, only The Boy will be re-read (and has been twice) by me.
... link
... comment