Social Bookmarks
my love hate relationship with the internet
It’s one of the greatest inventions of all time. It revolutionized the sharing of information; similar to the way Guttenberg did with the invention of the printing press. It’s literally changed the way we gather information, we interact with each other, and even in many cases, the way we date people.
I’ll straight up say it, it’s awesome, but… I hate it.
And, I love it.
Why?
The internet has brought great things into my life, without the internet I probably would have never discovered Emergent, without Wikipedia I would have probably shot myself from boredom at my last job (I came away with a ton of pointless information), without the iTunes I would have no where near the same amount of exposure to music that I do. It’s brought great changes in my life, and I know that I wouldn’t want to go back to a stage where I didn’t have access to it. Honestly, I could write an entire blog about how it has impacted my life for good, but where’s the fun in that.
But at the same time I have to acknowledge the problems brought about by its incorporation in my life. The main one? A lack of relationships.
Think about it.
My personal network of people I’m acquainted with and, even moreso, the number of people I consider friends, is far higher than it would likely be if I didn’t have access to the internet. Web 2.0 applications like Facebook, Myspace, and Xanga (if you want to get old school) enable us to meet people we’d likely never see in our “real” lives. Even through the outlet of blogging I have discovered people I am nearly positive I’d never see in real life. (Andrew Martin for instance, a frequent commenter on this blog, and a great blogger himself).
At the same time my “network” is growing, the depth of these new relationships is about the same of the latest Hannah Montana song.
The same problem is popping up in our personal lives. We now have the ability to carry on friendships that we make in person both over the phone and online. In fact, when my wife and I started dating, we really never saw each other too much, but we talked on the phone for hours (a few times all night- but who hasn’t done that?) and on-line (AIM not iChat, that was the dark ages before I met my first mac). In a sense the internet made interactions between the two of us easier, and was probably the best way for us to interact, considering, that at the time, we were too young to drive and thus couldn’t see each other face to face without the cumbersome act of convincing a parent to drive us. While the internet enabled my wife and I to have a relationship before we could drive to see each other, real depth came through face to face interaction.
Another issue that I’m struggling with surrounding the Internet is conversation. One of the greatest parts about face-to-face conversation is fluidity. While there are certainly breaks in conversation, topics flow naturally from one to another. Face-to-face conversation also allows for thought to be expressed as it is happening. So when a friend and I are discussing a subject we can both keep the conversation going from issue to issue within a shorter course, and bring up items as they flow free form into our thought processes.
Not so with the Internet. Instead conversations are often disjointed, with breaks in ideas, or multiple people carrying different conversations at the same time on the same forum (Forum meaning chat room, actual forum, blog comment section). Then there’s the problem where conversations are not happening now, they are happening over a long course of time, which is a frustrating experience when you are so enthralled with what you’re discussing.
I feel like I’m getting long winded, but I wanted to get some of this off my chest, as always your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
comments
One Response to “my love hate relationship with the internet”
Leave a Reply
Hey Matt, thanks for the shout-out. Yes, this blog-relationship thing is wierd certainly. It’s a bit like those folks who play chess by post. Except that you are in a chess game with an indeterminate number of players and pieces, and the moves don’t happen by regular turns, but when ever people feel like it.
I prefer to imagine the conversation as being like a chat in a crowded pub (but I’m not sure that analogy works for large parts of North America… certainly not in the place I’m sitting right now… but that’s another story.). You get a bit of conversation, then the noise and other people take over for a while. The conversation may resume days later. I guess that’s good for careful thought, and avoiding quick offence, but I agree, can leave an awful lof of things hanging in the air.