I am far from alone in the conflicted feelings about the internet. Is it good? An open field of knowledge and connectivity? Or is it bad? Name-calling and people failing videos?
Of course it’s not one or the other, but both. Like an artisanal candy bar or a bottle of Prosecco — good but maybe not so great for you in bulk.
The problem is that it begs to be consumed in bulk. For my part, I may not be cycling through YouTube videos, but I do consume book news as if it was extraordinarily cute cat videos. New releases, writer interviews (especially process interviews, because I’m convinced that if I find the perfect process my novel will finish itself), essays about reading or writing or comparing characters in books…it’s endless.
Sadly, it takes time and these days time in my life is a more rarefied commodity than, say, red squirrels in our eaves or rats in the chicken coop.
Kate Staples 