Internet just as important as air, says future generation

Know Your Meme

By Helen A.S. Popkin

In the latest survey to make you reflexively quit your job and start an off-the-grid alpaca farm with your lover in Vermont,?"one in three college students and young professionals considers the Internet to be as important as fundamental human resources like air, water, food and shelter."?

Ths updated hierarchy of needs comes courtesy?of the?2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report, which polled 2,800 college students and young professionals in their 20s in 14 countries. "More than half of the study's respondents say they could not live without the Internet and cite it as an integral part of their lives' ? in some cases more integral than cars, dating, and partying."

Well, there you go. Equate "dating" with sex, and we?can extrapolate what the future is willing to trade when it comes to humanity's basic needs, with the Internet joining breathing, food, water, sleep, homeostasis and excreting.

Live Poll

Can you live without the Internet?

Of course, that could be?an old-fashioned interpretation, as if one is equipped with Craigslist access, sex is still readily available. Even if one isn't considering Craigslist hookups, the importance of the Internet ranked pretty high in a recent survey conducted by London?s Science Museum. Among the 3,000 adults asked what they couldn?t live without, sunshine, Internet connection, clean drinking water, refrigerators and Facebook ranked No. 1-5 (in that order), while flushing toilets ranked ninth.

Seriously, with as much time as we waste on Wikipedia, we know that along with successful procreation, our survival has a lot to do with?the ability to move?our poo far, far away.

Plumbing is one technology that at the very least is just as important as the mobile devices (laptop, smartphone, tablet) which two-thirds of students (66 percent) and more than half of employees (58 percent) cited in the Cisco survey?as "the most important technology in their lives." And more than half (55 percent of college students and 62 percent?of employees) said they could not live without the Internet and cite it as an "integral part of their lives."

In keeping with other industry projections, Cisco found that "smartphones are on their way to passing desktops as the most prevalent tool from a global perspective, as 19 percent?of college students consider smartphones as their 'most important' device used on a daily basis, compared to 20 percent?for desktops."

In fact,? the 20-something generation may have a closer relationship with mobile devices than fellow?humans. "More than one in four college students globally (27 percent) said staying updated on Facebook was more important than partying, dating, listening to music, or hanging out with friends."

Well, at least the kids aren't watching so much TV. "Fewer than one in 10 college students (6 percent) and employees (8 percent) said the TV is the most important technology device in their daily lives."

Of course, that just means they're getting their entertainment on their close, personal smartphones. "As TV programming and movies become available on mobile devices, this downward trend is expected to continue."

Hopefully, that includes reading material. "One of five students (21 percent) have not bought a physical book (excluding textbooks required for class) in a bookstore in more than two years ? or never at all."

If college students don't have time to keep up on their reading, it's no wonder. "In a given hour, more than four out of five (84 percent) college students said they are interrupted at least once" by instant messaging, social media updates or phone calls.?

"About one in five students (19 percent) said they are interrupted six times or more ? an average of at least once every 10 minutes. One of 10 (12 percent) said they lose count how many times they are interrupted while they are trying to focus on a project. "

These constant pings can't be much of an imposition, or these intrepid students would just turn off their phones or log out of Facebook, right? Either way, staying plugged in 24/7 provides good practice to their awesome futures, in which the Cisco survey found signs that "the boundary between work and personal lives is becoming thinner."

Turns out, "seven of 10 employees 'friended' their managers and/or co-workers on Facebook, indicating the dissolution of boundaries separating work and private life."

As with everything that counts however, the United States. is woefully behind. "Culturally, the U.S. featured lower percentages of employees friending managers and co-workers," the survey found. "Only about one in four (23 percent)?? although two of five friended their co-workers (40 percent)."

Here's to the future!

More on the annoying way we live now:

Helen A.S. Popkin?goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook.?Also, Google+.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/04/8635349-internet-just-as-important-as-air-says-future-generation

clemency us supreme court cameron todd willingham death row naacp cheryl cole x factor forgetting sarah marshall