internet outsourcing

Today in "The Guardian" you could read an interesting article from Bobbie Johnson about outsourcing. He is comparing all the time saving helpers we have, going all the way back to the washing machine, kitchen helper machines (refrigerator, coffee maker, toaster) to computers. All these devises help us to outsource some work so we can spend time with other work or activities. Outsourcing has a long tradition and is not something new. In fact when you have a look into history, outsourcing was done for hundreds of years. People found other people to do some work for them, that is how jobs came into place. A carpenter, doctor, farmer, fisher man and all the other jobs are nothing short of outsourced labor, isn't it?! Bobbie Johnson points out that the internet as a new technology does not work like these traditional labour-saving devices. He points to the modern communication units like email and SMS. As you might expect the work with them would free more time, but it is the opposite there are more emails and SMS each year in the US alone. The internet is now a two way street, we outsource to the internet and at the same time we insource to ourself, getting extra work we normally would not do. Since the internet is global it might be true that it is the ultimate work creating device. With the internet we imagine to have control over the type of work we do. Again we sit in the bus, street car, train or subway digging our nose in Timothy Ferriss's Four Hour Workweek, the latest manual for productivity junkies and dream to finally quit our jobs. The future is here , let us see how it will unfold for us.