Читать книгу Overcoming Internet Addiction For Dummies - David N. Greenfield - Страница 91

Dynamic is a way of saying changeable and interactive — and being able to interact with our devices puts some psychological skin in the game for us. It’s dynamic in that we are driving the interactive process by our clicks, and the cycle is complete when we are responded to by our screens. We self-guide our web adventure, and regardless of whether we are on our smartphone, laptop, tablet, or other device, our Internet journey feels like a dialogue. The AI (artificial intelligence) interfaces by Amazon and Google provide a voice to this interactive exchange, giving the cyber experience a very compelling feel. We now experience the Internet not simply as a source of information, but as having lifelike qualities, and the line between simplistic Internet algorithms and AI is fast eroding. I frequently laugh to myself as I enter discourse with Alexa on my Amazon Echo. I know full well that she is just a machine-learning interface, but she feels real and is thus imbued with the dynamism of humanity.

Most of us would be hard-pressed to admit that we love being online, but the fact is that many of us do. Some of us may find ourselves becoming addicted to a point that our lives are impacted, while others of us may overuse at times. As I mention in earlier chapters, much of this is not conscious. We are virtually swept away in a tidal wave of intensity, stimulation, interactivity, and endless intermittent reward. The problem with tidal waves, however, is that they can hurt us, and our excessive Internet use can subtly rob us of many aspects of quality living. In more extreme circumstances, once addicted, we see our lives becoming impacted in negative ways that we did not fully appreciate. It is this lack of awareness that blinds us to the slow erosion of our most cherished values, and excessive Internet use can mindlessly peel away our time and attention to a point that we forget what real-time living feels like.