Patience and Slow Internet

There’s a running joke in my family concerning the poor quality of our Internet connection. It’s about on par with the Internet speeds in third world countries. This isn’t a hyperbole; my brother has measured it. Through gentle ribbing, we often give my mother a hard time about it.

My brother and I used to get really angry about the Internet’s slow speed. There were a lot of things we wanted to do on the computer, after all! It’s not like we have all day to do it either. But over time, I’ve learned not to get all bent out of shape over it. At worst, I just have this sort of mild annoyance at the idea.

Why did I change my mind? Well, a few years back, I came across Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, which detailed how the Internet has taught our brains to think. We’ve become accustomed to scanning through article after article at the speed of thought rather than contemplating deeply about a few things.

I can see this happening to my own mind, myself. It’s harder for me to read longer books nowadays. I think it may be because I spend a lot of time reading online articles. And even then, I usually stick to the shorter stuff. It’s a bit shocking, and, as a book-lover, it’s also disconcerting.

The way I figure it, there’s a sort of anticipation that is inside your mind that builds while the next page you’ve clicked on is loading and is released when the page finally loads. The feeling is satisfying. Do it enough times, and you get addicted. You get used to getting that dopamine rush with the click of the mouse.

This is bad enough when you’re on the Internet all the time like I am, and you’re searching around for articles. It limits your ability for deep thought. I’ve had to get into the habit of re-reading and re-re-reading in order to recover that capacity for deep understanding. But when you have such a slow and unreliable Internet, the effect is even more keenly felt. The satisfaction your computer trained you to receive with each new click is suddenly delayed, if not denied. You become frustrated as a result.

Obviously, we should strive to control our emotions. That’s the essence of adulthood. Losing control like that, especially over something trivial like slow Internet speed, isn’t a good thing. Plus, the feeling of frustration that follows is decidedly unpleasant.

In order to counter this effect, I began to let my mind wonder whenever I had a computer that loaded really slowly. As I said before, there’s only so much time in the day. Spending so much of it on getting upset over a dysfunctional tool is a waste, and it’s not like the computer will respond to my frustration anyways. If anything, getting upset might fill me with the desire to smash the offending machinery and make things worse.

Whenever my Internet became too slow to use, I instead used that opportunity to close my eyes and think of all the good things in my life. I let my mind dwell on imaginary world based on books that I’ve read recently. Or I could read a good book myself. Or I could just check on my family and see how they’re doing. Any of these is a far better use of my time than sitting around angry that my computer isn’t working.

So, the next time you find your Internet not working, take a breath, calm down, and don’t let your mind dwell on such an unhappy thing. Just be patient and think positive thoughts instead.