A day without the Internet

This revelation got me thinking about undergraduate use of the Internet, a thing that has become as important, if not more important, than the very buildings and libraries that constitute our campus. This observation raised the question: What would happen if we didn’t have the Internet? I’ve posed this question to several of my peers, to which I received the same response: our lives would come crashing to a halt. The wireless network has become such an integral part of our day-to-day existence that I can’t even fathom my life without it. But maybe this idea is something that I, and we all, should give some serious thought to.

Unlimited and ubiquitous Internet access has provided many academic and social benefits to Princeton undergraduates: increased ability to communicate with professors and preceptors, a reservoir of research and information right at our fingertips and easy advertisement of campus events and gatherings. But along with all of these benefits come a host of disadvantages as well: hours whiled away checking email or Facebook or nights spent wandering the vast expanses of the Internet rather than wandering down the hallway to say hello to a friend.

While speaking with a group of students and a pair of McGraw fellows down in Butler College last week on the topic of procrastination, the Internet was cited as the major avenue of work avoidance. The distance between the blank Word document and a cacophony of images, videos and pages upon pages of information is only a click away, creating a temptation that even the strongest-willed students cannot often overcome. I acknowledge that the problem of procrastination and distraction lies deeper than the Internet, but having such a smorgasbord of stimulation so close at hand isn’t helpful. Several companies have already developed programs with the express purpose of disabling the Internet for a window of time to encourage productivity and pursuit of offline interests — the most important of which is life.

One can’t help but wonder what would happen if Princeton was to lose its network for a day or for a week. It goes without saying that students would seek to fill their time with other pursuits, but whether or not these pursuits would be better or worse than whatever they were doing online is an unanswerable question. You’ve got to think that you might just see a little bit more of people than you currently do and that whatever community was lost by disabling the communication the Internet provides might be made up for in more face-to-face or phone-to-phone interaction.

I am by no means advocating the discontinuation of wireless Internet in residential areas but rather urging Princetonians to contemplate both the benefits and drawbacks of their own Internet use. If you ever find yourself staring at your computer screen and feeling that there’s something missing, it might do you good to get up and get out and think about how you really want to spend your time. It is your own to spend, after all. Sometimes people too-readily adopt new technology without thinking about the adverse effects it could have on personal and interpersonal levels. It’s pretty terrifying that I can consider the wireless network so indispensable after only six years of availability. What is important to remember is that there was life at Princeton before wireless Internet. Weighing what we as a community have lost, and gained, by this communication revolution behooves every Princeton student.

Nathan Mathabane is a sophomore from Portland, Ore. He can be reached at nmathaba@princeton.edu.