I am waiting for a new computer to be built for me. My home version, I purchased a few years ago, was plenty to handle the Internet and the tasks I required at the time but my new job has really slowed it down.
In order to work at home, several very large programs have been added and it is just too much for this little machine to handle. The paper I work for is an offshoot of a computer service and sales company as well as an Internet provider in both dial up and broadband.
I'm sure my new machine will just whisk along as I do my work. But for now, I am reliving what it was like to have a slow computer with an old-fashioned slow dial-up internet service.
It makes me aware of many things that I didn't have to pay a mind to previously and it shows me that too many websites have become enamored in the bells and whistles rather than their initial mission.
There is an important aspect to a website that might be more important than any other. It is called the "Weight" of the page. What it means is how much "stuff" is on the page and how long at a specific speed does it take for the entire page to be available for viewing.
At the Lincoln Daily News, we have our own server and although we have all kinds of fancy programs available we use them judiciously. We always look at our pages and make sure that someone on dial-up doesn't have to wait a long period of time for our newspaper and its various pages to completely appear on the screen. We do this because we believe our mission is to deliver news and information. It is not to have all kinds of other, unrelated things popping up or zooming across or saying "Program is loading, please wait."
It appears a great many news and information websites don't think like we do and instead have allowed the "Techies" to go wild on their pages.
Locally, a print paper's internet version has a White pages ad that is fine on larger screens and newer computers. But on an older computer, the ad runs right over the top of the top story of the day. I guess they don't see that. Or maybe they would rather have the pennies from clicking on the directory than have their text not be distorted.
Just north of us, a big city paper, has a disgusting drop down ad that lands right over what you are reading and says "Hey you. Yes you, the one who dropped your subscription with us. Sixteen weeks for only blah, blah, blah. In that case not only is the drop down aggravating but the wording is insulting and sophomoric. How does a real newspaper man approve that bit of arrogant interference with the reader?
The Chicago Sun Times seems to be losing their way lately. They used to just tell us the news. Now they have all these media screens that have snippets of nothing really important. I wonder why they think they have to be in the television business now. For centuries we went to papers to read them, not to hear something or watch something. All this additional "stuff" also has pushed the Sun Times to the point it isn't worth the full minute it takes a slow connector to wait.
I wasn't sure about this "weight" problem so as I went around I asked people if they just sit there and wait for a site to come up, or like me, just go somewhere else for their information. Almost everyone said they just say the heck with it and go somewhere else.
I appreciate new technology as much as anyone but there has to be a point where people start asking what their mission is on the web and does the new technology enhance that mission or just distract and make them nothing more than a sophisticated video game.
You probably have noticed that Searchwarp is a writer's community and outside of pictures of contributors that is close to the extent of the graphics on their pages. I'm quite certain that the folks who run this site are capable of including all the "swell" new stuff that software people keep inventing but they don't use it.
You don't see media screens all over the place. You don't see pop-ups or drop downs bragging about three pizzas for the price of two.
Instead when you come to Searchwarp to write or to read that is what is offered and nothing else that doesn't have a thing to do with those two interests.
I wonder how the newspaper business lost their way on this simple concept. After all, giving printed information with a picture or two was what caused their creation in the first place. It wasn't a little airplane flying by with a cartoon character telling people to "Eat at Joes".
Freelance writer, columnist, author and writing coach, ex-Chicagoan Mike Fak presently resides in Central Illinois. More information about Mike's services are available at his home website www.mikefak.com
Mike currently writes primarily humor columns for searchwarp bi-weekly and is the managing editor of www.lincolndailynews.com
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