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Asia Buzz: Passing Trends
How the Net changed my life
By ERIC ELLIS
December 5, 2000
Web posted at 4:55 p.m. Hong Kong time, 3:55 a.m. EDT
What's the point of the Internet? Pretty dumb question, you might contend. Your
response: It's changed our lives. But has it really? Or is it just a fad?
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I was thinking of this, as one does in Bali at the weekend, after spending a
frustrating Saturday in otherwise paradisiacal Ubud trying to find 1) an
Internet cafe and, 2) one with a connection faster than 14K (thank you for
nothing Telkom Indonesia) to check a few e-mails and pay some bills.
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As my fuming wife asked if I "really need to do this," I reflected on what kind
of loser I was? Why couldn't it wait until Monday? The electricity will still be
connected then. So yes, the Internet has indeed changed my life. It's made me
more boring.
But dig deeper. How has the Net changed your life beyond the ability to write
letters (which is what e-mail essentially is) and pay a bill before you really
should (at the end of the billing cycle)? Sure it's great to read real
newspapers when you live in a city like Singapore. But that's only because
Singapore doesn't have too many real newspapers.
Britain's Economic and Social Research Council recently examined the Net
question -- and found that Net noise is mostly hype and nonsense. Dr Sally
Wyatt, the scientist who conducted the study, told London's "Daily Telegraph"
that her findings suggested the Internet was not as influential and pervasive as
previously predicted. "The claims about the ubiquitous nature of the Internet in
the future are grossly exaggerated," she said. "People have a reason for making
those claims -- to try to promote the Internet."
The study showed that users were bored and frustrated -- the World Wide Wait --
while many students said they wouldn't pay for access after leaving school.
This is all bad news for people like Richard Li and his followers and investors
who have staked their futures, reputations and fortunes on the Internet taking
off. Not only are they dealing with share prices as much as 95% off their highs
-- and all the bad investment blood that comes with that -- they are also
battling that most pernicious of corporate evils, the fickleness of fashion.
I got a note over the weekend from Singapore's alleged Net wunderkind Wong Toon
King, who basically apologized for the hype that surrounded his company
SilkRoute Holdings last year. He also assured me that he was building a long-
term, viable business -- and that the Net was not a passing trend. His optimism
is to be commended, but it will take more than that.
Far from changing people's lives, the British study found that millions of
people were simply logging off. And if my favorite little Net cafe in Ubud is
any example, there's another ten people who ain't logging on from various parts
of the global village like they were this time last year. Then, I couldn't get a
seat in front of a creaking box cranking out e-mails at 28.8K, let alone just
five minutes on-line. I had to wait, peg on nose, for all the Rastas, freakers
and dopeheads to send teary missives back to Dusseldorf, Peoria, Illinois and
Chiba Prefecture. (Or were they day-trading Softbank shares on their E*Trade
account?)
This year, Desa, who runs the cybercafe on 115K dial-ups at Jalan Raya Ubud, was
even offering me a discount to stay on-line, despite the stern look of my wife.
Maybe the tourists have dropped off. I don't think the Rastas bought laptops on
their broking account, not in this market. Or maybe, just maybe, the Net is
yesterday's fashion statement.
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