I recently read a somewhat nauseating statistic. The average person spends approximately six and a half hours a day on the internet, which means, if trends continue, that typical high schoolers today will spend somewhere around 17 years of their lives online. Seventeen years. It seems an impossible amount of time. I'm hardly a purist. I use and (mostly) love the internet. It's full of information and beauty and life. But still — 17 years? Doesn't the sheer immensity of all that time raise the question: Are wasting our lives scrolling on our phones? Unlike me, Patchett actually is a purist. She does not have a cellphone or use social media or watch television. And as the author of more than a dozen books, I would argue that she has made more meaningful use of her time on earth than most of us. And yet even she sits up late at night staring down an ever-refilling inbox. This tension between the incredible power and incredible time-sucking mindlessness of technology is, I think, a central and unavoidable conflict of modern life — and one often discussed in the pages of this newspaper. We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Games Here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle and Spelling Bee. If you're in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Forward this newsletter to friends to share ideas and perspectives that will help inform their lives. They can sign up here. Do you have feedback? Email us at opiniontoday@nytimes.com. If you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other issues, visit our Help Page or contact The Times.
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Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Opinion Today: Ann Patchett writes, “I love email, and I hate email”
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