Are we paying too high a price?
I am going out on a limb here by asking this question: is it really worth it?
The first ‘it’ is the incredible benefits high tech and the Internet give us.
The second ‘it’ is the price we are paying for it.
Don’t take me wrong, I love the Internet, I find it hard to imagine living without it. Almost infinite amount of information (and disinformation) at my fingertips, the ability to communicate with friends all over the globe, friends I would know nothing about without the Internet, and our used book business (montland.ca ) that could not exist without the Internet.
On the other hand, the world never seemed crazier than it does now. I have 74 years worth of memory, so this statement does have some weight.
When you consider young people’s total addiction to internet based communication and gaming, and their exposure to all the hate-tainted ‘shaming’ and entertainment (let alone the well documented harm of too much screen-time to their mental development), the massive amount of misinformation that is warping adult people’s minds in one direction or another, the widespread internet-based fraud and blackmail, the international intrigue prevalent on every continent to corrupt other nations’ democracy and mutual relationships, you can’t help wondering about the price we are all paying, one way or another.
When I grew up, life was a LOT simpler and a lot more natural, We actually talked to each other, face to face, we knew how to use a library and read books, we found our way to unusual places by consulting a map, printed on a paper, and did not need the disembodied voice of the GPS lady from the sky. We had actual friends we could debate with, instead of the ubiquitous internet forums where anything goes and people feel completely free to be as mean and toxic as they please, without fear of retribution.
As an illustration, I’ll post two of my poems on the subject: one a short haiku, another bit longer.
Evolution
While thumbing his phone
he walks into a lamp post.
Evolution sighs.
Phantom people
Phantom people fill the ether,
circle the globe at the speed of the light,
bounce around from antenna to cable,
light up so many screens in the night.
Electronic Oujia boards push letters around
as we talk to ghosts in cyber space…
…unsubstantial opinions abound
in this incorporeal race
to win an argument, put down a foe,
have, finally, an opinion heard,
display a brave, scintillating show
to impress our peers: the forum-herd.
I lived in this phantom world
for twelve agonizing years,
compliments and insults hurled
at my poor head, awash in tears.
Time to cut my losses, rejoin my race
in real life: friends, neighbors, lovers,
deal with each other in person: face to face,
touch and be touched like sisters and brothers.
Today is my birthday, a new year begins,
full of plans, promises, adventure,
I will have a life again, among the living,
and abandon this ghostly venture.
That was the day when I stopped participating on Internet based Philosophy Forums.
(PS. Of course, I am aware of the irony: I couldn't have posted this blog entry without my internet connection.)
The first ‘it’ is the incredible benefits high tech and the Internet give us.
The second ‘it’ is the price we are paying for it.
Don’t take me wrong, I love the Internet, I find it hard to imagine living without it. Almost infinite amount of information (and disinformation) at my fingertips, the ability to communicate with friends all over the globe, friends I would know nothing about without the Internet, and our used book business (montland.ca ) that could not exist without the Internet.
On the other hand, the world never seemed crazier than it does now. I have 74 years worth of memory, so this statement does have some weight.
When you consider young people’s total addiction to internet based communication and gaming, and their exposure to all the hate-tainted ‘shaming’ and entertainment (let alone the well documented harm of too much screen-time to their mental development), the massive amount of misinformation that is warping adult people’s minds in one direction or another, the widespread internet-based fraud and blackmail, the international intrigue prevalent on every continent to corrupt other nations’ democracy and mutual relationships, you can’t help wondering about the price we are all paying, one way or another.
When I grew up, life was a LOT simpler and a lot more natural, We actually talked to each other, face to face, we knew how to use a library and read books, we found our way to unusual places by consulting a map, printed on a paper, and did not need the disembodied voice of the GPS lady from the sky. We had actual friends we could debate with, instead of the ubiquitous internet forums where anything goes and people feel completely free to be as mean and toxic as they please, without fear of retribution.
As an illustration, I’ll post two of my poems on the subject: one a short haiku, another bit longer.
Evolution
While thumbing his phone
he walks into a lamp post.
Evolution sighs.
Phantom people
Phantom people fill the ether,
circle the globe at the speed of the light,
bounce around from antenna to cable,
light up so many screens in the night.
Electronic Oujia boards push letters around
as we talk to ghosts in cyber space…
…unsubstantial opinions abound
in this incorporeal race
to win an argument, put down a foe,
have, finally, an opinion heard,
display a brave, scintillating show
to impress our peers: the forum-herd.
I lived in this phantom world
for twelve agonizing years,
compliments and insults hurled
at my poor head, awash in tears.
Time to cut my losses, rejoin my race
in real life: friends, neighbors, lovers,
deal with each other in person: face to face,
touch and be touched like sisters and brothers.
Today is my birthday, a new year begins,
full of plans, promises, adventure,
I will have a life again, among the living,
and abandon this ghostly venture.
That was the day when I stopped participating on Internet based Philosophy Forums.
(PS. Of course, I am aware of the irony: I couldn't have posted this blog entry without my internet connection.)
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Aptly expanded metaphor! I'm personally pessimistic — as you might have guessed ;) — but sometimes history brings its own solutions.
There is, of course, a positive side to social media. People who, back when we talked to one another in person, didn't have anyone to talk to: the elderly, the handicapped, the phobics, the shell-shocked and all manner of folk who lived in rural isolation had no access to the library or even feedback for their ideas. Not to mention the oppressed millions behind curtains of metal. Now they can communicate and support one another. My guess is, that's breaking even between cost and benefit. If you add the few who are rescued from dire situations by their GPS signal, or from other kinds of harm by instant notification, we can call it a small net gain.
Where I see the more serious danger is the international arenas of politics and economics. Used to be, when a king or prelate pissed off a pope, it would take the nuncio three months to arrive with his holiness' reprimand, which gave you time to prepare or get lost. Now, you can be excommunicated via Twitter. Your international intrigues can be broadcast to the whole world in six hours. Your whole country can be bankrupted with the click of a mouse half-way around the world.
I'm being flippant, but you know what I mean. Everything is intricately connected in the world-wide-spiderweb. Too much information is whizzing around the globe too fast and being manipulated irresponsibly for trivial interests by too many madmen. The really big irony is, the mechanism that finally brings down the politico-economic network will collapse in the same operation.
It's probably an effect every generation has to deal with, though what is different now is the global, pervading thrust of the internet.
In all cases (internet or TV, radio or affordable printing), I think the medium doesn't create the problem; it only reveals it.
In other words, the internet acts as a giant amplifier. People that are intellectually curious, creative, polite, tend to focus on finding information, creating things, communicating with other people in a constructive, engaging manner. Conversely, people that are - well, I could've used many words, but what came to my mind first is - bastards, focus on superficiality, frivolous arguments, annoying others, and spending every moment of their miserable existence masquerading the fact that they hate themselves so much.
I dare say, I knew such people even before the internet, and I'm sure you did too :)
It's just that the internet has allowed these people to be (even) louder, and that is indeed a real and mostly current problem.