TheWayoftheWeb

Stress is one of the big factors in working and living in the 21st century.

So why have we started using the internet to increase our stress, rather than using it to make life easier?

I took a day off from the internet last week. It was a conscious decision to take a break and rest, and I ended the day feeling reinvigorated, and with some interesting ideas and topics to discuss here.

So why has it taken five days since then to post on the blog?

Net Stress.

Obviously before I could do anything I needed to check Facebook and my email for new messages. Then I needed to update Twitter. And catch up on the popular blogs via RSS. And then I remembered I’d started a Shelfari profile and hadn’t filled it in. And then there were more Facebook messages. And some people IM’d me on MSN. And then there were more emails.

And just the same as taking a holiday from the day job, spending 24 hours away from the next has left me more stressed than before I took a rest. And it’s all self-inflicted.

Should I be worried about internet addiction?

It appears that even the American Intelligence community feels the need to contact old school friends and connect with glamour models, as it’s set to launch A-Space, a Myspace style community, according to the Financial Times.

“Thomas Fingar, the deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, believes the common workspace – a kind of “MySpace for analysts” – will generate better analysis by breaking down firewalls across the traditionally stove-piped intelligence community. He says the technology can also help process increasing amounts of information where the number of analysts is limited.”

Obviously they haven’t used Myspace, or seen the emergence of Facebook as the preferred social network of those that actually use them for communication, rather than spamming. I’d love to be able to search on the ‘CIA’ network on Facebook, or maybe the ‘Classified’ network.
I’d also suggest they’ll need to be very careful about security, but the comedian in me can only imagine how it’ll look to have Uncle Sam as your first A-Space friend, rather than Tom.

I just hope they don’t get too much criticism for building a ‘walled garden’.

I’ve said before that I try and stay away from blogging too much about my day job, as I want my opinions to be clearly independent from Emap/MCN, and I also don’t want to post anything that seems like advertising.

But sometimes I can’t avoid it, particularly when I came in to work today to find MCN’s site on the front page of The Register.

It’s the inherent danger of serving ads via keywords, and it’s hard to avoid. All you can really do is react as soon as it happens.

I’ve said before that I try and stay away from blogging too much about my day job, as I want my opinions to be clearly independent from Emap/MCN, and I also don’t want to post anything that seems like advertising.

But sometimes I can’t avoid it, particularly when i came in to work today to find MCN’s site on the front page of The Register.

It’s the inherent danger of serving ads via keywords, and it’s hard to avoid. All you can really do is react as soon as it happens.