EXACTLY!!!

Isn't it wonderful!?!?!?!?!?

Last night as I realized what a ridiculously large amount of work I have to do if I'm going to eek out any kind of a decent grade for most of my classes this semester, I was very seriously contemplating the fact that maybe I should quit E2 for a while. But then I realized the most important part of how my schedule has changed this semester from last ...

Instead of watching TV, I node!!!!

Isn't it wonderful?

Back in the day, whenever I needed a break from work, I plopped myself down in front of the idiot box and languished in my own boredom. With the exception of a little news or MTV to keep me awake through breakfast, I haven't watched the damn thing once since I started noding. So instead of forgetting my problems and letting my mind turn to sop to dull the pain, I actually have to think through the things that are bothering me enough to write about them. I have to work to understand something well enough to explain it to others if I want to put up a factual writeup. I have to think in poetry to keep myself entertained!!! Even better yet, I read little snippets of real people's lives and learn all kinds of things about the random stuff other people feel like noding instead of vicariously living through the useless, constructed nonsense that sitcom characters pretend makes up their lives.

(Ok, so maybe I should still cut down on noding if I want to pass my classes, but at least I know now that I would have been wasting this much time on much more useless crap if I weren't spending it here. Woohoo!!!)

I realise this is probably going to be nuked into oblivion, but I feel it's a valid point that needs making.
I'm sorry, but I'm inclined to disagree.

Everything would not be the wonderful, interconnected web of ideas if we all merely noded without occasionally stepping back from the nodes, looking around at the nodescape and seeing that it is good. Everything is a resource for the entire internet community, as well as a meeting place for similar (and not-so-similar) minds. There is nothing wrong with reading nodes, following the softlinks and hardlinks, going off at a tangent, filling your mind with useless information.

It is true, from the simple nature of the media, that Everything is not a TV set. People are not going to sit with a blank expression on their face, staring into the cool tones of Jukka Dim. Some will come for a specific piece of information - the Encyclopedia Britannica will not tell you that the Finns eat Peasoup every Thursday. Webster's will not tell you the meaning of YIFF or TMTOWDI. Few reference sources will state the pros and cons of Depleted Uranium. With Everything's assimilation into the search engines, these will become common knowledge. Others will come to gain general knowledge, to learn contemporary culture, to understand the cultural differences which make this world, for the better, and for the worse.

Yes, Everything needs noders. It will always need us. But it still requires people to read it. Noders are readers. Readers become Noders. It takes all types to make Everything.

Everything is not a TV set! It is much, much more besides.

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