I think the new forms of communication via the internet will affect society in a way that cannot be reversed. I view the internet as a a black box- we do not know, nor will we ever know the full extent of its impact to our world since it is weaved into our lives. It is actually a parasitic relationship but I cannot decipher who the host is. I sometimes think we are the host and the internet is the parasite since it sucks the life from some people and accounts for more hours of our daily lives that our family and friends do. At other times I think the internet is the host and we are the parasite because we have tainted it with the filth that exists in society.
When I consider the internet and the forms of communication it has facilitated, I automatically think of the tools I use most frequently in work and personal life. Tools such as email, instant message, online search engines and wiki tools. What doesn’t come to mind as “communication” instinctively are blogs, social networking sites such as you tube, twitter, myspace and facebook; however those are the most common items many of my peers names before email and im. I thought about that for a minute and realized quickly I didn't associate the items my friends did as communication because I characterized them as entertainment. With that being said, it means that many people are shaping their reality and preferences based on the informal, leisurely rants and status updates of the people they have chosen to follow. There is a great level of responsibility placed on each of us as individuals to understand the impact we can have on others. The crazy thing is that each person has a choice to make and there is no right answer so that means the impacts on one another can be as vast as the people that populate the world!
By nature I am generally a pessimistic person so I am fearful of the role the internet has in my life. I already have such a strong dependency on it; with each day it grows stronger. There are many technologies already available which I do not use because I worry about the fact that each technology we use we are forfeiting over a piece of ourselves and our privacy. I do have some lucid moments when I step outside myself and marvel at the incentives the internet brings and am amazed that we have made so much progress in such a short period of time. The ability to reach almost anyone almost anywhere. The privilege to share experiences and knowledge with people we might never have an opportunity to meet. I think the internet is a forum which encourages us to become a more tolerant society. I think the development in new snazzy channels of communication allure more people to give them a chance. Then I sink back into my anxious state and realize we are doing these things at the expense of reality. How do we know if what we are accepting as fact is not merely another person’s perception of fact.
Salvador Dali is one of my favorite artists. I thought the photo was appropriate because the sculpture was described as "Dali's homage to Newton, with an open torso and suspended heart to indicate "open-heartedness," and an open head indicating "open-mindedness"— the two very qualities important for science discovery and successful human endeavors." Reading this makes me think that I should make a more whole-hearted attempt to be open to the brave new world technology has to offer.
Sculptor: Salvador Dali. Photo of 'Homage to Newton' taken in 1985. Photo found via Wikipedia; originally uploaded by Marcus Lim and released under the GNU Free Documentation License-CC-BY-SA-3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0.
No comments:
Post a Comment