This article about coffeehouses was on the L.A. Times recently: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cafe-wifi-20100808,0,1079612,full.story

Some coffeehouses are restricting their wifi usage or removing it completely because there were too many people parking themselves at tables all day with their computers, buying very little from the establishment, and creating a non-social atmosphere.

“Coffeehouses have always attracted bookish deadbeats who stayed too long and bought too little. But suddenly these shops were teeming with electricity- and table-hogging laptops, leaving trails of tangled power cords and hard feelings. Too many customers spread out at big tables for long stretches over a lukewarm mug, forcing cafes to turn away business. One New York cafe even had a customer who installed himself and his desktop computer at one of its tables each day.”

Turning off wifi also appeals to people who don’t like being distracted by the internet:

“Web designer Mike Kuniavsky, who has spent his career dissecting people’s relationship to digital technology, hangs out at Four Barrel Coffee precisely because he can disconnect from the Internet and concentrate on his thoughts. That’s where he wrote his upcoming book on consumer electronics design: ‘Smart Things.’ “No Wi-Fi is the reason I was able to write the book,” Kuniavsky said.”

This article got me thinking about how beneficial the internet really is. Sure, it’s great for research, keeping in contact with people, communication and news, but how many hours do we really spend doing something productive online? I’m obviously not the first person to think about this – there are even programs invented such as “Freedom” (http://macfreedom.com/) that you can purchase that will disable your internet for a chosen period of time. I tried the trial version, and I have to say.. I was a lot more productive. I don’t know if it was a psychological effect or something else, but with the internet off, I was able to clean my room and wash the windows (which haven’t been washed in like, a year).

My question is this: do the benefits of the internet really outweigh the negatives? I can do all the research I want now through JSTOR and such, but this also means I don’t go to the library anymore. I used to do research at libraries before all the articles became available online, and after getting the non-fiction books I needed for class, I would also check out the fiction section for stuff I actually wanted to read. Now there’s Amazon, but the feeling isn’t really the same. I used to be able to go on trips and not have the impulse of checking my email constantly. Now if I’m going on a road trip, I try and stop in places with wifi to update my email on my iPod Touch at least every other day. This dependency on the internet is far from healthy, and I’m not sure if I like the influence of it on my life. Is this technological advancement really “advancing” society, or just making things easier for us? Are we becoming lazier, and feeling more entitled as a result of having everything at our fingertips?

I think being connected all the time is making me a little insane. And I’m not even someone who uses the internet to play Farmville twelve hours a day. I truly fear for those people.

-Pauline Loh

(One last thought: Coffeehouse owner Nicola Blair Nook says, “I turn off the Wi-Fi and in 10 minutes all the computers are gone.” What would happen if the whole internet were turned off? There’s an episode of South Park called “Over Logging” about that. You can find and watch it legally online. I thought it was hilarious, but if you’re easily offended by vulgarity and everything else South Park entails, I would suggest not watching it.)