Internet's Firm Grip

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When I was directed to GQ’s second website, GQ Videos, I once again met links to all of GQ’s social media accounts and was given more offers to subscribe to GQ. The top of the page contained a collection of rotating images that led to current, popular video on GQ’s video site. Underneath the popular videos is another attempt from GQ to use sex appeal with their tab, “Women of GQ”. The last portion of the site has categorized lists of videos that were recently posted. When I finally clicked on a video another pop-up offer to subscribe to GQ appeared. After saying no again, I started watching the video. I was enjoying the video, but halfway through it the video paused to offer me once again to give my email to GQ and subscribe to their newsletter. I declined once more and continued to watch the video. At the end of the video GQ did not give me a chance to choose another video to watch; rather, it automatically moved onto the next video without giving me a choice to stop. Beneath every video was a comment section that would naturally post your comment along with a link to the video on your Facebook. To the right of that was additional share buttons to Google Plus, Facebook, and Twitter. The rest of the page was filled with new and recommended videos in attempt to keep me on the site. GQ also provided a feedback button on the bottom of the page to let readers inform GQ what may prevent them from staying on their website. In turn, GQ uses this information to improve their website in hopes to keep readers on their site even longer.

The distractions on Gentlemen’s Quarterly’s website were not the only diversions that I came across; in addition, tabs to sites such as Facebook, Youtube, and Tumblr were always opened on the side. Whenever a notification were to appear on one of those tabs I would leave GQ’s site to check what was occurring on one of my favorite social media sites. I would attempt to stop this distraction by closing the tabs, but I would be notified on my phone for the same sites along with apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Yelp. It’s as if there is no escape from these distractions unless I were to shut off my wifi connection completely.

While I reviewed GQ’s site and was constantly pulled away from it by social media outlets it was clear that publishers on the internet do all they can to keep you online. Nicholas Carr’s argument, that the internet strives to keep us online while it slowly shortens our attention span, has become a serious issue in this age of paperless media. The internet has become a great tool for many, but with its the growing consequences I too fear the day that “our own intelligence … flattens into artificial intelligence.” (Carr 340).