We know very well that the web has all its advantages and disadvantages. The ability to access fresh information in seconds converts us into better informed people but can also lead us to become saturated with aging data at incredible speed. The possibility that everyone can express themselves freely is wonderful but it has its risks, especially for the youngest, or for those who do not know how to discern between truly reliable information and those that have no basis. The phenomenon of bloggers has stimulated enormous competition on the net to the point that there are many sites that deal with the most sensitive and complex issues but which are fundamentally based on total ignorance of the reality they are dealing with. Sometimes the network turns into a "word of mouth", in which readers consume a story that is quite distorted in the corresponding waste of time that this entails. Everyone would like their site / blog to appear in the first places in Google search and in an attempt to attract more and more visitors, subscribers and readers, the news is converted into pure sensationalism and the blog themes are exaggeratedly general (some deal at the same time with Technology, Health, Psychology, Economy and Society). All-rounders are notoriously skilled at nothing! Perhaps this is the price to pay for total democracy, in a society in which everyone can express themselves freely we can meet the brightest ideas and those that make us smile or that sink into the absurd. What is certain is that we should protect ourselves, since surfing the net without specific objectives takes us an enormous amount of time. I must confess that I too sometimes let myself go aimlessly surfing the net but I normally consider that time is one of my most precious assets, and that's why I decided to go on a diet of information. In this regard, I submit some tips that I apply to myself to optimize the time I spend on the net: 1. Set yourself a goal, and above all: follow it. Setting goals helps us to focus on achieving them and this is also true online. We all know that the Internet is known as the network of networks and this note is not trivial, since all the sites are interconnected it is very easy to get lost. When I propose to surf the net I ask myself first what it is that I am really looking for, in this way I avoid wasting precious time in the most different sites that have no relation to the research I am doing. 2. Create flexible surfing habits. I don't like the word habit very much, but I still recognize that having browsing habits helps us save time. When I refer to browsing habits, I mean that, especially when I sit in front of the PC for the first time, I visit some sites that I consider to be of high priority in my daily life. I use the word flexible in quotation marks to emphasize that if one day we cannot access one of these sites, the world will certainly not end, but rather, it is quite appropriate to keep the PC off at least one day a week. A kind of detox. 3. Evaluate our feeds and what they bring to us. Sometimes we keep some feeds that we subscribed to years before and that now no longer interest us because we have come across new sites that offer us more complete and interesting information. It is time to unsubscribe from these subscriptions that unnecessarily fill our inboxes and rob us of precious time. 4. Give a hierarchy to each feed. Many people update their favorite sites every hour even though they know full well that there is no new information. When we become regular readers of a blog or site… we know: 1. How often the site is updated and, 2. How much new information appears. There will be sites that offer very little information on a weekly basis, so it is not necessary to visit them daily, while others we will have to visit at least every two days or we may miss important information. 5. Emails have their own schedules. Normally I check them as soon as I turn on the pc early in the morning, and try to respond to most of them immediately. On several occasions I found myself with the box full of messages to reply to, after a week I didn't know which ones to reply first. When I know I'm going to be away for a while, I have a habit of notifying important friends and family. 6. Disconnect from the network when writing. Unless it is absolutely essential to stay connected on the network, I consider that the best option to work with peace of mind is to disconnect. On many occasions I have experienced interruptions due to a message and therefore I have lost inspiration. So when I want to chat with friends who are away I usually set a day and time in advance. 7. Social networks like Facebook or Twitter are a means of keeping in touch, not a way of life. I have to acknowledge that I check my Facebook account about every 15 days and Twitter about three times a week. I use them above all to share information with friends from all over the world, but I don't want them to become a second reality that I have to be constantly dependent on. This alone saves me a lot of precious time. Organizing our web browsing habits will restore the effort to: 1. More time to dedicate to ourselves or to other more important things and, 2. Greater personal satisfaction. We know very well that the web has all its advantages and disadvantages. The ability to access fresh information in seconds converts us into better informed people but can also lead us to become saturated with aging data at incredible speed. The possibility that everyone can express themselves freely is wonderful but it has its risks, especially for the youngest, or for those who do not know how to discern between truly reliable information and those that have no basis. The phenomenon of bloggers has stimulated enormous competition on the net to the point that there are many sites that deal with the most sensitive and complex issues but which are fundamentally based on total ignorance of the reality they are dealing with. Sometimes the network turns into a "word of mouth", in which readers consume a story that is quite distorted in the corresponding waste of time that this entails. Everyone would like their site / blog to appear in the first places in Google search and in an attempt to attract more and more visitors, subscribers and readers, the news is converted into pure sensationalism and the blog themes are exaggeratedly general (some deal at the same time with Technology, Health, Psychology, Economy and Society). All-rounders are notoriously skilled at nothing! Perhaps this is the price to pay for total democracy, in a society in which everyone can express themselves freely we can meet the brightest ideas and those that make us smile or that sink into the absurd. What is certain is that we should protect ourselves, since surfing the net without specific objectives takes us an enormous amount of time. I must confess that I too sometimes let myself go aimlessly surfing the net but I normally consider that time is one of my most precious assets, and that's why I decided to go on a diet of information. In this regard, I submit some tips that I apply to myself to optimize the time I spend on the net: 1. Set yourself a goal, and above all: follow it. Setting goals helps us to focus on achieving them and this is also true online. We all know that the Internet is known as the network of networks and this note is not trivial, since all the sites are interconnected it is very easy to get lost. When I propose to surf the net I ask myself first what it is that I am really looking for, in this way I avoid wasting precious time in the most different sites that have no relation to the research I am doing. 2. Create flexible surfing habits. I don't like the word habit very much, but I still recognize that having browsing habits helps us save time. When I refer to browsing habits, I mean that, especially when I sit in front of the PC for the first time, I visit some sites that I consider to be of high priority in my daily life. I use the word flexible in quotation marks to emphasize that if one day we cannot access one of these sites, the world will certainly not end, but rather, it is quite appropriate to keep the PC off at least one day a week. A kind of detox. 3. Evaluate our feeds and what they bring to us. Sometimes we keep some feeds that we subscribed to years before and that now no longer interest us because we have come across new sites that offer us more complete and interesting information. It is time to unsubscribe from these subscriptions that unnecessarily fill our inboxes and rob us of precious time. 4. Give a hierarchy to each feed. Many people update their favorite sites every hour even though they know full well that there is no new information. When we become regular readers of a blog or site… we know: 1. How often the site is updated and, 2. How much new information appears. There will be sites that offer very little information on a weekly basis, so it is not necessary to visit them daily, while others we will have to visit at least every two days or we may miss important information. 5. Emails have their own schedules. Normally I check them as soon as I turn on the pc early in the morning, and try to respond to most of them immediately. On several occasions I found myself with the box full of messages to reply to, after a week I didn't know which ones to reply first. When I know I'm going to be away for a while, I have a habit of notifying important friends and family. 6. Disconnect from the network when writing. Unless it is absolutely essential to stay connected on the network, I consider that the best option to work with peace of mind is to disconnect. On many occasions I have experienced interruptions due to a message and therefore I have lost inspiration. So when I want to chat with friends who are away I usually set a day and time in advance. 7. Social networks like Facebook or Twitter are a means of keeping in touch, not a way of life. I have to acknowledge that I check my Facebook account about every 15 days and Twitter about three times a week. I use them above all to share information with friends from all over the world, but I don't want them to become a second reality that I have to be constantly dependent on. This alone saves me a lot of precious time. Organizing our web browsing habits will restore the effort to: 1. More time to dedicate to ourselves or to other more important things and, 2. Greater personal satisfaction.
