The Internet makes us all pretty lazy

When I organize activities for our local homeschool groups, I now know that I’ll be getting at least 30 emails about the activities once I post them on our Yahoo group page. While I don’t mind clarification questions, I do get rather annoyed when:

1. People ask questions that I’ve already answered, either in the information I’ve already posted or in response to another person’s same question. I am guilty of this as well, by the way.
2. People ask me, “Did I sign up for that?” It’s your responsibility to track your own activities; it’s mine to make sure we have enough to meet minimum requirements or do not exceed maximum requirements.
3. People ask questions that can easily be answered with a quick search. When I (or anyone, for that matter) share a link about an activity occurring, there are people who ask for more information when you can easily check the link. If there’s no like, there’s also something called Google! I know this sounds snippy, but I see this happening every week.

My friend L tells me that everyone wants everything for free, and that includes the cost of time. The Internet has made people expect instant gratification at all times, and it makes us rather lazy. How many people have you seen on Facebook, for example, respond to a post about news, a film, or anything you can easily look up in less than 5 seconds and ask, “What/who is that?” or “What is that about?” I still shake my head remembering how many people either did not know who Nelson Mandela was or who thought that he was Morgan Freeman! Do a quick search, folks. It won’t cost you but a moment’s worth of time.

Then I also consider how people obtained information throughout the history of time without the Internet, and how, as Louis CK says, the amazing technology we have is wasted on us. I can’t even imagine what previous generations would have done with the Internet. Just think of civil rights, women’s rights and peace movements with online possibilities! Yet here we are, a generation of people who will text, “Who’s Nelson Mandela?” without bothering to search for information online first, which probably takes less time than texting does.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia