Lost in Cyberspace?

Picking up a copy of the Guardian yesterday, I realised it contained a new ‘Joined-up Media’ supplement reporting news in the digital world. A subject now requiring its own supplement, it reminded me of the speed of convergence technology and our ever-growing dependency with our lives online. Does this mean, as I keep on reading, a significant amount of our free time will be spent online wedded to our beloved www, Facebook and self-styled avatars?

Well, I’m not too sure. Splitting our daily time into chunks - work, food, sleep, switch-off, shopping, exercise, socialising, online etc – I think of my friends and family, and there are very few I consider willing to indulge in such extensive ‘time-online’ (say more than 3 hours a week). This is not because they are technologically incompetent but because time is simply precious to them.

It could be argued that email and Social Networking will lure us into more time online. Initially I agree, but after their initial ‘thrill’ phases - and the MySpaces/Facebooks and Hotmail have had these- they ultimately serve as more expedient ways of staying in contact (like texting has become to us nowadays).

So, for the majority (techies aside that is), I would expect the greatest benefit of online now and in the future is to help us free time rather than consume it, spending hours lost in cyberspace accompanied by our alter-ego avatar. It may well give me a few extra minutes to read more Guardian supplements too.