Halloween Trivia Fun

It’s one day until my favorite holiday - Halloween! I thought I’d offer up some Halloween trivia for all you scary recovering people out there. This was one of the only Halloween quizzes I could find that did not require you to enter a bunch of information in order to see your results.

I scored 75%. Can you beat that? Good luck ghosties and goblins. Have a safe and fun Halloween!

If you are feeling adventurous you can learn more about the history of Halloween, observed by many Pagans as Samhain.

Article Makes Big Claims About Internet Addiction

Talk about your sensational journalism. This morning I was browsing through headlines related to addiction and addiction studies like I always do. A particular headline grabbed my attention - Internet addiction plagues univ students nationwide. Sounds pretty intimidating right? After reading the article, I was a bit confused. There were a few statistics on possible negative side affects of spending too much time online, a reference to a fairly well known article entitled Is Google Making Us Stupid?, and a long, personal diatribe from the article’s author - Naomi Spector - on how the “virtual world is slowly turning us into zombies.”

However, the one important element missing is any real information that would lead me to believe that there is a “plague” of Internet addiction amongst university students nationwide. There are two relevant points:

• According to a recent Wi-Fi Alliance and Wakefield Research survey, almost three out of five students would not go to a college that does not offer free wi-fi. In fact, “nine out of 10 college students in the United States say wi-fi access is as essential to education as classrooms and computers,” says the study.
• [a different] survey states, “More than half [of the students surveyed] have checked Facebook or MySpace and sent or received e-mail while using their laptop in class.” I have seen, in my lecture classes, no shortage of high-achieving and academically motivated Brandeis students surreptitiously checking Facebook instead of taking notes. The temptation is strong. Is the Internet so addictive it prevents even the best students from concentrating in class?

and then one point that sounds like a silver lining to me:

• The survey even found that “If forced to choose, nearly half of respondents (48 percent) would give up beer before giving up Wi-fi.”

Here’s my point. I didn’t read anything that would cause me to believe there is a national epidemic of Internet addiction at universities. So what? Students want WiFi. So do I. In fact, I often choose hotels and restaurants based on their WiFi access, and have even not gone back to a hotel because the WiFi sucked. That’s just the way it goes. My livelihood is closely tied to this little black box that I carry around with me. Maybe this author should tone down the title a bit.

Google Reminds Us To Vote

This is just one of the many reasons that I think Google is a fantastic company. I’ve had the good fortune - working in the online marketing industry - of getting to visit the Googleplex twice. I could write a book on all the amazing things I saw there, but I won’t. Instead, I just wanted to share the message I saw in my Adwords Campaign when I logged in this morning. Thanks Google for reminding me to vote and giving me an easy map tool to find my poll location.