A focused, relaxing ride: Arielle Pardes on the “slow web”

Experts, authorities, and ordinary people in all walks of life have observed (and complained) that our gadgets have taken over our lives and attention spans. And, as always, there’s an app for that (dozens of them, actually), and many people offer those tech-based solutions. Others say quitting cold turkey is the only remedy. Arielle Pardes, senior associate editor at Wired, proposes a different approach in her July 2018 essay in the magazine.

Pardes,  “In the age of despair, find comfort on the ‘slow web’”

1. It’s not hard these days to find advice and suggestions for combatting internet overload, but Pardes offers a novel approach; what is it? What benefits does she believe her proposal has? Does it sound plausible to you? Why or why not?  
2. Pardes begins her essay with the now-cliché phrase “surfing the web,” but she builds the phrase into an extended metaphor of the internet as a watery medium. Identify three more phrases or images that reinforce the metaphor. How effective is the metaphor? Would Pardes’s essay have been more effective if she had omitted the metaphor and stuck to literal and straightforward description? Why or why not?
3. In her They Say, Pardes refers to two articles by Jack Cheng, and she both summarizes and quotes his ideas. First, identify where she is summarizing and where she is quoting. Then, compare Pardes’s moves with the ones presented in Chapters 2 and 3 of your text. How well does Pardes incorporate the quoted content? Why do you think so? Point to specific passages to support your conclusions.
4. Try one of Pardes’s suggestions: find a YouTube video of a train ride (Chicago, New York, and many US cities have posted videos of their commuter routes), a virtual walking tour, a bicycle outing, or similar real-time activity. Watch for at least fifteen minutes and observe yourself—anxiety level, attention span, heart rate, or any kind of behavior or effect. Write an essay describing the experience; does it require, as Pardes claims, “mental fortitude and endurance” and a “capacity for boredom”? Report on your experience.

Comments

[Matthew Derengowski]

The article called In the Age of Despair, Find Comfort on the 'Slow Web' it tells me a lot about how people have taken a look at technology all wrong. It tells us that even when the internet makes us think less and have shorter attention spans we can use the "slow web" method to help. The method helps by watching long relaxing slow videos. The method helps exercise patience. “This is an exercise in patience. It's all too easy to spend hours staring at YouTube as algorithmically “ This tells us that it is so simple to do this method and help with our obsession with fast internet content.

[Sevinj Mirzatagi]

The article about the term "slow web" reminds me of my high school teacher who always said to read between the lines and to take time and digest your information. This applies to internet surfing too. Hundreds of different facts and information are flowing through the internet while we surf, it is out job to discover which of these are facts and which are true. Taking a break for surfing is important, as mentioned by the article. The beauty of relaxing without it is an art.

[Catherine]

You write that we are drowning in what is call the deep web. I agree about having to take some time off from getting so many notifications a day because having a bring phone in your face, or hearing so many buzzes can drive you crazy. Just having a time to step back from all the drowning and mindless scrolling is important because, it help with connecting with the world around you, and letting yourself experience it.

[Jean Calvin Ahoume]

Nowadays, almost everybody has access to the internet, and with social media, it is really to connect with other. Another factor that increases the use of the internet is the availability of fast machine such as high processor computer, Iphone and smart phone. All those electronic gadgets do not mean that it is a bad thing to browse on the internet. However, it is a good place to do researches, communicate, and learn about the outside world. The only problem is that today there is more distraction available on the web than valuable information. In her article about "Slow Web" Arielle Pardes mentioned that "The "slow web" is all about experiences we can really savor: reading one long article rather than skimming a thousand tweets" in other words, the slow web is where we can find useful information.

[Jeffrey Vasquez]

Her approach involves slowing down and following the methods of Jack Cheng. His methods make you close all "junk" apps like Facebook, Instagram and force you to stop "power browsing". You should read long articles or check your mail at your own pace instead of swiping past endless tweets and posts. Pardes states,"My personal "slow web" preference? Watching train videos on YouTube." This is her method of "slowing down" and watching videos "mindfully and slowly". She believes this "slowing down" method can help bring peace of mind and prevent tech overload. She says it is a nice way to get away from the constant bombardments of notifications. Her method seems a bit odd, why would you stay on the web in order to try to escape its problems? I think you could easily just get off the internet and go outside and do these things in real life and not through the internet. Of course some will say, but you can't visit these places because you might not have money or time, or, this is about slowing down the internet not getting off of it. If you're really having despair and can't find peace of mind due to all these notifications then maybe the best solution would be to take a break from your computers and phones. I guess these methods could help out but I still find them a bit funny.

[Elizabeth Robertson]

The approach of slowing the use of our technology today is very interesting. I myself am always on my phone, checking social media, instead of out there experiencing the world. I believe the generation behind mine will be the most affected by technology. They are going to give their children cell phones at the age of 6, they're going to be the ones holding their phones instead of holding a conversation with someone. I agree with all my heart that everybody needs to try this "slowing down" method, look up from your phones, and live your life!

[Cameron Jones]

I agree with what Arielle Pardes approach about "slow web" It is so easy to pick up an electronic and spend hours and hours watching or playing something on the TV or on your phone. It's easy for people to sit and play around with something interesting than sitting around doing something that doesn't interest you. I myself does this a lot such as spending hours scrolling up and down on my phone than doing something more productive, and I wait until the last minute to do things. It's also taking a tool on your youth because parents give them cell phones at a young age instead of giving them toys to play with, and I think that's why "Toy's R Us" is out of business because nobody is buying toys but they're buying electronics.

[Amanda Martinez Rojas]

In the article A focused relaxing ride on the "slow web" by Arielle Pardes is really interesting. Her proposal in this article is to slow down and spend some time doing, for instance, watching videos on youtube of train rides or watch videos of flowers blooming in slow motion or checking emails, reading the daily news. I think her alternative is really useful and it gives a chance to slow down, because as she said most of us spend a lot time scrolling up and down on the phones screen that we cant really concentrate in doing one thing at a time without getting distracted.I watched the video of the train ride that was linked in the article and i can say it was relaxing and comforting, i felt really concentrated and different because i normally spend lots of time scrolling up and down on my phone and getting distracted by notifications and tabs popping out of my screen. It is true that it requires mental endurance and fortitude because it is hard to concentrate when you have a load of things in the internet that can distracts you.

[Internetserviceproviders]

I really relished every bit of it and I've marked to ensure that the blog post certain thing new.

[Morgan Terrazas]

This article is very eye-opening as it discusses several issues in today's society: cell-phone or other electronics and social media usage. I think this is a good wake up call for me and hopefully other people, young or old. It is important to realize that even though smartphones have been advancing for years, human beings need to interact with each other and use these electronics in a helpful manner. This means taking beautiful pictures of your family and of your travels, rather than using your storage on countless amounts of selfies. It would be beneficial for people to slow down and enjoy the life we all live in with the internet as a mere aid to better our experiences, rather than taking over and consuming everything. So let us start a new wave to appreciate real life while still utilizing advancing technology!

[Connect Cox Internet]

Thank you once again for your love and willingness to share your feelings

[Thomas Brostowin]

The novelistic approach that Pardes introduces is one that keeps us on the web but is focus us on one thing whether it is an article or talking to friends. She even suggests watching train videos that have no music or narration it is just hours of video footage of a train. Pardes believes that this approach can help people when they are feeling flustered with to much information. I feel that no internet usage is the best way to stop internet overload, you should leave the device and go out, sleep or read. Why keep the person on the internet if that is the problem? Pardes uses water as a metaphor for the internet overload in multiple sections in the article. Some examples are “It’s no longer catching a wave and riding it”, “Spend some time bobbing on the calm waters” and “Now? It’s a bit like trying to surf a tsunami”. These metaphors bring the article more life, you can clearly see the relationship between water and the internet that she is trying to depict. It is highly effective and makes the reader want to read more of the article. Pardes is definitely on the right track that information overload can be a problem and some people do not notice it. But I feel that the best thing is to leave the internet and give yourself time away from the internet. Pardes’s suggestion instead is to watch a 7 hour train video to relax oneself but I feel that there are more productive and better options than keeping you sitting on the internet watching a video.

[Mike B]

I Choose to talk about this article, because I can relate to it alot. Pardes talk about how we as a society cannot go 5 minutes without opening our phones, and going on twitter or instagram. That is an undeniable fact. The more technologically advanced we have gotten, the shorter attention span society seems to have. Me personally, I Have a lot of trouble sitting down to do any kind of work. My mind is always in the clouds thinking about who knows what. Even when I do sit down to do something, it takes all but 5 minutes for me to be 6 tabs deep into some weird topic. It starts with a wikipedia page and then I start clicking on all the links to other articles. Frankly, it is a huge epidemic for my productivity. So reading Pardes’s article I felt that she was talking about me funny enough.
So, I choose to take Pardes’s advice and find a relaxing train ride video to sit through. I will be honest, I did not get far into the video, maybe 5 minutes, before I was completely bored, and opened up my phone to do something else. I told myself I would finish the 15 minutes of the video. Too bad that is was a complete struggle. I could barely focus on the video at all. My eyes were always wandering about my room with random thought going through my head. While Parde’s has some solutions to relaxing and slowing down our attention spans, I guess that these solutions only work for her and a few others. Honestly, I knew it wouldn't work, but I had to try any way.

[Grace]

In the article "In the Age of Despair, Find the Comfort of 'Slow Web'", the author states how in society today we can find ourselves feeling overwhelmed by all the notifications popping up on our devices. She explains even though we find ourselves getting caught up in the "surfing", it isn't necessarily a bad thing to be sitting in front of our screens. If we use our time wisely in front of the screen, it could actually be very relaxing and beneficial. Her favorite thing to do is go on YouTube and take a virtual train ride through many cities. I personally think this is a great way to utilize the internet. Instead of getting so caught up, and getting so stressed with today's social media and today's world, sometimes we need to slow down and use the "slow web" in a way that is relaxing to us.

[Makenzie Saunders]

In this article, "In the Age of Despair, Find the Comfort of 'Slow Web'", the author brings up an intriguing point about how the internet has vastly changed over the years. She explains that 'surfing' the internet use to just be about riding the waves, but has now turned into individuals just trying to keep their head above water. Social media has engulfed and destroyed our sense of time and we are found scrolling carelessly online for hours. The author states that in order to stop the overwhelming waves, we need to stop "power browsing" and start slowing down our time on social media. Rather than jumping and reading tweet to tweet, to try reading a long article. She states that we need to forget "junk food" apps like Facebook and focus our time on better, more relaxing content. She states that by taking time to do watch long relaxing videos or reading educational article, we are slowing down our minds. Personally, I liked this article. I agree that society spends way too much time drowning in "junk food" apps such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We should be using the internet to slow down and relax our minds.

[Johnny]

Pardes explains that many people are caught up in and overwhelmed by the intensity that is the internet and offers her personal remedy. She claims that by taking the internet at a slower pace one could better utilize it and fully immerse themselves. In the article she provides examples of the "slow-web" in the form of a virtual train ride across Norway. I often find myself in a similar situation where I will use the internet as an escape from my own reality. Recently I have watched a series of biking excursions across Japan to experience something different.

[Creig Lovin]

The Article the "slow web" is a very interesting read, that brings up great points. I believe that technology has gotten a little crazy especially in a short frame of time. The speed that the world is changing is crazy. Technology is a good thing but sometimes in can dehumanize us in a way. We have all the answers we could ask at our finger tips and technology has helped a lot but people are being consumed by technology via cellphones, social media, and video games. I myself am guilty of this but not as much as others, people spend way too much time on their phones rather than living in the moment.

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