First of all I’m not against the interweb and by that i mean the pool of digital connection devices. They obviously serve an important purpose. Email and cell phones are how i connect with almost everyone. I don’t have a land-line and live on the south side. No one comes down here without some effort or needing a ride to the airport or wanting to shop. Almost all of my good friends aren’t even in the same state and some aren’t in the same climate. I need tools to keep in contact with these folk.
Second, i think I’m becoming the minority in aiming for personal interaction over interweb connections. But i got to reading this article and it made me think a bit.
The cell
sucks ass. I’m not much for talking on the phone and i don’t like being available at all times. The best part though is the built in caller id. I can choose which calls i pick up. This comes in handy when I’m not in the mood or it’s someone annoying as hell. The vibrate function is fantastic because i don’t have to disturb anyone else. I’ve also accumulated over a thousand “anytime” minutes so i can pretty much take a day and talk non-stop if i wanted. Which i don’t.
When a cell phone becomes a person’s primary form of contact they immediately lose the benefit of non-verbal communication. They talk loudly say on the lightrail in public places and somehow expect some sort of privacy. They interrupt person-to-person to start a cell phone conversation. They become annoyances on others and hurt their on value as an acquaintance. They become “those people” of which everyone talks when they bitch. They talk when they drive, eat, shit, and work because they don’t have the limitation of being in a static position.
Instant Messenger
is one of my favorites. I have a soft spot in the heart for it because it’s a way for me to avoid all the damn cell phone connections. If I’m online even if I’m away as i am 90% of the time people can bypass the usual waste of a conversation with a few quick lines directed at my clever quip of an away message. This is slowly being gnawed at by text messages because people know I’m around my phone even when I’m not at the computer.
The problem with instant messenger lies in it’s ability to choose friends. I realize everyone can choose their friends already. I also realize some people are more liberal with their buddy list. and by no means is this a problem exclusive to i.m. In every form of interweb lies a way to determine your own contacts. But where is the development of tolerance to annoying fucks or ability to interact with those you don’t enjoy the company of? If you’re left to make friends the old way, with social activities or sports or anything else not done in front of a computer or alone, you’re guaranteed to have a friend of a friend who pisses you off involved. The development of the skills to deal with that person are not only important, but i’d argue necessary. Today if you’re that annoying person you not only don’t know it, but don’t know how to change it, on top of being socially isolated because of everyone else choosing not to interact with you.
social networks: as in the Book or the space
are the natural evolution of our spiral into social disability. If it weren’t so easy to keep in contact with folk out of town with these things i’d likely disable both my book and space accounts in favor of sitting around watching my carpet decay. I spend as little time as possible on them, but use them to message or inform others. I rarely update the book, but have changed the space a few times because it allows more flexibility guess it just plays on my webplay aspirations.
This feeds into the worst of the worst. It’s like giving a cupcake to a kid on the way to his gastric bypass. You take narcissm, add exclusivity, and shake well; serve with a side of generic interaction and you have yourself the recipe for overwhelming success. It plays well with every other part of the interweb: cell alerts, blogs, and messaging, with the added awesomeness of showing everyone how great you are. No matter how you use the profile you’re advertising yourself. Some people go above and beyond to the point of being downright laughable see: digipic of yourself in mirror in various stages of undress used as profile picture. Not only can you choose your friends again, but on the space you can determine which are your favorites up to sixteen depending on who you steal some code from.
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television and the computer have led to a general decline in interaction that is likely irreparable. Not that people can’t avoid it, but they feel a disconnect without the interweb while the disconnect grows because of their using it. We’re surrounded by it. Working at a computer leads to even more saturation. The computer allows for multitasking like never before. I’ve seen my sister talk on the cell phone, chat with 4 people, check email, and play bejeweled simultaneously. There has to be some correlation between the increase in the number of channels, amount of interweb features, and the increase in mental disease including A.D.D., even if over-diagnosed.
All the pill-popping in the world won’t change anyone’s brain chemistry enough to avoid the interweb’s influence. We don’t have much choice and things won’t get better as our cars become more compatible with most interweb features: wireless internet, iPod plugins, dashboard monitors, etc. Most people don’t know their neighbors and developments are growing in a way to deter that further. We’re creating a general disrespect that’s growing exponentially. People are concerned less and less with the well-being of those around them. They concern themselves instead with their own wants, toys, desires, and, to a lesser extent, needs. This way of life cannot support itself and, more importantly, can’t be healthy.
i realize that this got long, and that by writing this here, on the interweb, I’m not exactly an advocate for change. Nobody’s perfect.