The Internet Makes Me Unproductive

Smart phones have really escalated the connectivity we have to the internet.  As smart phones become more and more the standard (they are - so don't get left behind) we start to notice how often people are staring at their phones and not each other.  At any moment the phone can chime or chirp or whatever sound effect you have your phone make and you are instantly distracted.  Interrupted.  You stop what you are doing and look down at the shiny screen to see a breaking news story, a weather alert, a text, or whatever.  You have stopped being productive.  

It's not just smart phones either, it's the entirety of the internet, specifically the black hole known as YouTube.   It doesn't take much to sit down for "just a minute" to read the news and before you know it you are watching a moose in a swimming pool (LINK).  Don't ask me how it happens, it just does.   

So the question is if I didn't have the internet would I be more productive?  Tech journalist, Paul Miller, tested that theory for us last year.   He left all forms of the internet for one year and he has now rejoined the internet to tell us what it was like on the other side.   

So even without the internet people will find new distractions.  New ways to delay what needs to be done.  It's not the internet's fault.  It's not YouTube's fault.  It's just a simple lack of self control and discipline.  

Why didn't someone tell me that before?  I could have been getting so much more accomplished.