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Decided I don't like the Internet. Hah, llke I'm actually going to give it up. Hell no. No matter how it drags me away from school stuff and hinders my writing like nobody's business. I truly admire those netters who can just give it up for a few weeks or even a few month so they can catch up with things. For me, that would be the equivalent of withdrawal. I'd probably break into cold sweets and have nausea and everything.
But no, distraction is not my main issue with the evil Interweb. It's the mindset it establishes. So many peole from the net have fitted themselves in total seclusion without even realizing it. The net made it easier for people to find friends, share pictures, send presents, keep in touch, and share their every day lives with. The downside is that except for people with money, access to cons, or some other means/reason for travel, few of these people actually spend RL time together. What does this lead to? Psychotic states of loneliness and attempts for attention. I don't blame the netters who suffer from it. On the occasion, I have as well.
It's hard when your entire social life is centered upon something lacking physical contact. Yeah, most netters have one or two RL friends that they see once in a GREAT while but it's hardly satisfactory. This is why we get the insanity of Friends Only crap and LJ drama resulting from cyberstalking or someone you thought was a friend saying something truly hurtful. The relationships over the net have become so intense that they are as deeply felt as one a person would have with the outside world. People form cliques (my definition of Friends Only) and they decide they want to separate their net life from their real life (my other definition of Friends Only and also my current existence). But unless one spends every waking moment on the net, there are times that he or she feels alone. This drives them to depend on internet friendships even more. When things go wrong in the net world, they lose it because that loneliness suddenly returns and they have nobody outside the net to turn to. Some results of this are the big, 'I don't know what to do with my life' posts that exist for two purposes: getting the ugly feelings of the poster's chest and also getting the attention they NEED. Again, I'm not mocking anyone for doing this. I have done it as well. But it should be recognized as what it is. A cry for attention. An attempt to chase away the loneliness so many netters embrace. I also blame this rift between RL and netlife for the huge increase of depressed indivudals beyond the teenage years.
It's not as though I or anyone can recommend a cure. Telling someone to go out and make RL friends is easier said than done. People are too accustomed to the net friends; they understand them better than most people they know in RL. It just seems to be a dilemma that will surely get worse before it gets better and as means of communicating without physical interaction increase so will the warped loneliness that so many people experience.
But no, distraction is not my main issue with the evil Interweb. It's the mindset it establishes. So many peole from the net have fitted themselves in total seclusion without even realizing it. The net made it easier for people to find friends, share pictures, send presents, keep in touch, and share their every day lives with. The downside is that except for people with money, access to cons, or some other means/reason for travel, few of these people actually spend RL time together. What does this lead to? Psychotic states of loneliness and attempts for attention. I don't blame the netters who suffer from it. On the occasion, I have as well.
It's hard when your entire social life is centered upon something lacking physical contact. Yeah, most netters have one or two RL friends that they see once in a GREAT while but it's hardly satisfactory. This is why we get the insanity of Friends Only crap and LJ drama resulting from cyberstalking or someone you thought was a friend saying something truly hurtful. The relationships over the net have become so intense that they are as deeply felt as one a person would have with the outside world. People form cliques (my definition of Friends Only) and they decide they want to separate their net life from their real life (my other definition of Friends Only and also my current existence). But unless one spends every waking moment on the net, there are times that he or she feels alone. This drives them to depend on internet friendships even more. When things go wrong in the net world, they lose it because that loneliness suddenly returns and they have nobody outside the net to turn to. Some results of this are the big, 'I don't know what to do with my life' posts that exist for two purposes: getting the ugly feelings of the poster's chest and also getting the attention they NEED. Again, I'm not mocking anyone for doing this. I have done it as well. But it should be recognized as what it is. A cry for attention. An attempt to chase away the loneliness so many netters embrace. I also blame this rift between RL and netlife for the huge increase of depressed indivudals beyond the teenage years.
It's not as though I or anyone can recommend a cure. Telling someone to go out and make RL friends is easier said than done. People are too accustomed to the net friends; they understand them better than most people they know in RL. It just seems to be a dilemma that will surely get worse before it gets better and as means of communicating without physical interaction increase so will the warped loneliness that so many people experience.