To regulate their Internet usage, problem Web surfers use
Covenant Eyes, which
keeps track of the sites you visit and mails them to an
“accountability partner” you designate. Freedom is a productivity app
procrastinators use to keep themselves off the Internet long enough
to get some work done. At stickK.com, you can pledge to give
$1000 to a charity you support—or oppose—if you light up a
cigarette. “Anti-charities are apparently highly motivating,” Akst
reports. “stickK says they have an 85 percent success rate.”

And thus technology marches forward. Indeed, when Akst exclaimed
that technology has made everything cheaper, faster, and easier, he
was right—it’s just that everything includes organic bananas as
well as Big Macs, portion
control plates along with bottomless pasta bowls at Olive
Garden. And even the invidious forces of TV and the Internet have
incredible upsides. Shows like Trading Spaces and
Biggest Loser have transformed the boob tube from
electronic pacifier to America’s life coach, inspiring millions to
remodel their kitchens and renovate their asses. The Internet may
distract us, but it can also inspire preternatural focus in those
who use it. Before the Web came along, how many tweens were writing
10,000-word fanfics about their favorite characters from the
2,500-page
serials they spent their days and nights chain-reading? How
many adults devoted their leisure to crafting encyclopedia entries
on Spanish
heraldry or leaf-cutter ants?
Even in the Internet age, patience and diligence persist.