"Certainly that (the internet) has made a huge difference in how people express themselves. You can now talk or share profiles with someone on the other side of the world...or have your blog entries read by anyone."
I thought it was a very good comment made by my friend Joe. The internet has made us all grow closer together, but it somehow made us further apart. With AIM, facebook, e-mail, etc. you sometimes get a false sense of who you are and who other people are. For instance with facebook you may add someone and then forget about them. It may look like you have many friends, but when you get right down to it...you have many people you have met, but are not close to. AIM and other such instant communicators allow you to be close to people and yet can help you avoid personal contact. People may be less likely to be close to someone. They may opt for the lack of face to face interaction of the internet. Last, I really fear the rise of role playing games, which seem to give people a second life on the Internet. Overall, I think the Internet has done many great things to bring us closer together, I'm merely pointing out some ways it can hinder us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I like that you brought up the negatives of the internet. In the business world, email has often replaced phone calls and face to face communication. At the same time, web cams can do everything a face to face conversation does without wasting time, money, and fossil fuels flying around the country for business meetings.
I think Joe is right, the Internet has brought us closer together, but at the same time, the opportunity for anonymity behind the computer screen has sort of pushed us farther apart--leaving us connected to everyone but often trapped alone in our bedrooms.
There will never be a perfect substitute for meeting someone in person. Except maybe holograms ;-)
I do like those new fancy webcams they have. I think the Internet is really changing our worlds, but I think we will inevitably be trapped in our rooms communicating with many people, but no one really at all or leaving our rooms and talking to few people, but really talking to them. The Internet is still an amazing tool for keeping in touch with people who are far away but still important, but still treat those people as real people. Keep it simple people, keep it simple.
Good discussion here. I would like to add an interesting comment I heard from a friend. Apparently a decent number of people who play mmorgs are military personal. They are stationed halfway around the world from loved ones but they can still go online and actually do something together with their significant other.
Post a Comment