I Recommend Wikipedia
Have you ever pulled your phone out of your pocket to do something useful, like check the weather forecast or Google the business hours of a restaurant, and then, 10 or 15 minutes later, you:
OK, me too. I would draw a humorous visual representing this exact scenario, but I believe there is no way to improve on this piece by Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal:
Look, I am not here to talk shit to anyone about their social media usage, or habits, or addiction, or whatever we’re calling it now. I am not the regular at the bar who shows up every night and drinks eight beers and then looks across at someone and says, “Now, THAT GUY is a real alcoholic.” But why do I feel so, I don’t know, not that great after I spend a few minutes scrolling through social media? Like I realize I’m hungry, and I should eat a sandwich, but instead I eat like 10 M&Ms, as if that’s a substitute? Social media isn’t all bad, obviously. Every once in a while, I find something inarguably fun, like this video of the most perfect slide ever recorded in a baseball game.
And that was great. But most of the time, instead of getting a sandwich, I get 10 M&Ms. But it’s not like grabbing 10 M&Ms out of a bag—more like sitting down in front of a big bowl of dirt and digging for a few minutes and eventually finding a few M&Ms. I don’t like eating dirt, but I like M&Ms, and somehow I’ve convinced myself that hours and hours of digging in dirt is worth it for a small handful of candy. And some days, it feels like I don’t even find a piece of food — I just spend all day eating dirt. You’ve probably seen dozens of headlines about quitting social media, or going on a social media fast, or other sorts of drastic options, such as announcing to all your followers on a Saturday that you’re taking a long break from Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, and then posting just a few times, really quick, the following Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I don’t have any hacks or tricks that have changed my life. But I did, several months ago, delete some apps from my phone and then download the Wikipedia app, and move it to the home screen. Now, why would you do that? Well, let’s just say you have a few minutes for some Internet stuff (and we have already established that you do, somehow, quite often, have a few minutes, RE: previous paragraph about trying to look up a Useful Thing on your phone). A question for you: Would you rather:
If you answered a), Wikipedia is for you. Another question: Do you think life would be more fun in general if we all said more sentences that began with the words “Did you know …”?
Because all that stuff is on Wikipedia, which literally has a section on its home page titled “Did You Know?” Some things that are not on Wikipedia:
But, you might say, Wikipedia has lots of issues. And you would be correct—there are problems, many of which are documented on the Wikipedia page titled “Why Wikipedia is not so great”.
I’m not saying replacing Twitter and/or Instagram with Wikipedia is going to transform your life. But I can definitely vouch for spending some time following your curiosity, instead of an algorithm. If you liked this story, please consider supporting my work via Patreon, which enables me to keep writing and drawing, and will also make you feel good (and get you a bunch of members-only stuff, including discounts to my shop). —Brendan The post I Recommend Wikipedia appeared first on Semi-Rad.com. Via Explore http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://thejustinmarshall.blogspot.com/2021/10/i-recommend-wikipedia.html October 21, 2021 at 11:50PM
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