This is a screenshot at my desktop at the very moment I begin this post. This could also be a screenshot of my desktop any given day, if my computer has a power source and a relatively stable internet connection. My browser has at least 5 or 6 tabs open to various websites, which I switch between every few minutes. I constantly check my email accounts and respond to chat messages. You could have probably guessed it after reading my post about how I am suddenly in love with Twitter. I still maintain my blog on Xanga. I was on Facebook when it was in its infancy. Then, it was MySpace. Now I am on Blogger and Google+ (add me to your circles, yo)
Hello, my name is RJ. And I am a Seeker.
Emily Yoffe's article -- hold on, let me Google her real quick -- and the reading on Generation "M" spoke directly to my soul. My podcast is an oral history of my addiction. But then again, is it really an addiction? If we live in a wired world, why not be plugged in?
The arguments I have heard against over-connectedness are not unlike the arguments I have heard against video games, and they boil down to this: seekers and gamers could be using their time to do other, more productive things. I won't raise my hand against that statement. This is true. Instead of being bathed in the cold light radiating from your [insert device here], you could be [insert any other activity here].
Instead, I will offer an alternative hypothesis. Those other activities -- like running and dancing -- are hobbies. They are things that some people like to do during their free time. Some of those people might even attach those activities to their identity. One who runs might refer to themselves as a "runner." A person who likes to dance could say they were a "dancer." People associate themselves with people with like interests or shared values. It is the very reason why churches and clubs and furries exist. I believe that in order to realize our sense of self, we need to define what that means in relation to others. The internet has made the world a very big place and a very small place, at the same time. Therefore, defining yourself is both very difficult and very easy.
The methods of doing this are outlined by Klapperstuck and Kearns (pause while I Google). We use social networking sites to tell the world who we are and meet others like us. We keep in contact with our friends via text message and chat. We blog in order to make our thoughts and feelings public, hoping to somehow feel some empathy (and certainly not because we are being graded on it). Somewhere within all those servers and databases, in between the nooks and crannies of hashmarks and at-marks, is our identity.
We have become the internet.
P.S. Emily Yoffe definitely has more Facebook friends than I do. Did you know she took a vacation at a nudist colony?
As a runner I constantly get family and friends that ask why and how I can run and of course the run for Forrest run comments. Sure, I can spend my time doing other activities that would give me the same cardiovascular work. However, I love running. I have been running the majority of my life. It is a part of my identity.
ReplyDeleteI am also gamer. I get tired of the same comments that video games are a waste of time and make children violence. Heck, I played Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto, but you don't see me running around with AK47's, shooting prostitutes. I am actually a pacifist. I guess the researchers that come up with these studies will think I am an outlying data point. That is why I found last week's readings on the educational and skill building opportunities found in video games, so refreshing.
Emily Yoffe really took to her publicly private persona.
"They are things that some people like to do during their free time. Some of those people might even attach those activities to their identity."
ReplyDeleteThis is so true, when you offer parallels to other things, they are logically appealing, yet people still do not understand.
I agree that "we have become the internet" because if we were not there to use it, the web would just be connecting.. nothing. I really like your blogging style, it tells a story and is witty in its own nature without needing to produce puns (like mine). Thanks for being so open about your "addiction" or lackthereof for internet.
-dtan
Some say that technology is not inherently good or bad but that what it does is magnify what's already threre. So bad instructional design + technology = really bad instructional design. Good instructional design gets better when tech is harnessed well. So can we say the same about tech and society? Is our cultural adoration for reality TV and the embarrassments of others that different from ancient Rome, for example? Food for thought as you enjoy a month off. :)
ReplyDeleteRJ, I respect your efforts to look beyond the ostensible problem, and to see the possibility that something else may be going on, something perhaps much less worrisome. Given your personal interest *and* the fact that you're in the social networking Point-Counterpoint group, I want to suggest that you take a closer look at the work of danah boyd, who is quoted in the K&K article on precisely the issue that you raise. Check out her apophenia blog, as in this post...the two of you share some interests, to be sure.
ReplyDeleteGreat post RJ! I liked the question you posed - is it an addiction? But, times have changed, and with that has come these alterations in etiquettes and functions to how we conduct ourselves in our daily lives. "We have become the internet" - certainly hadn't thought of it that way before, but there is something to that. There are many ways that we have imbedded ourselves in the world wide web and I certainly don't know what to do without it. I will never forget the 5 days when I was in Egypt and the internet throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Asia was down. We all felt so disconnected and honestly did not know what to do with ourselves! Not to mention the numerous problems that faced businesses and governments. The Internet is certainly part of our society, but I can only imagine the ways it will evolve in the future!
ReplyDeleteI really like the title of this blog post. It reminds me of when my boyfriend's dad finally got a laptop, and he sent his first email to my boyfriend, and the email was simply signed "INTERNET DAD." That was the funniest thing he's ever done.
ReplyDeleteI just got done commenting on Charles' blog because he questioned what Generation M's idea of self is if everyone is constantly connected all the time. And I wonder what else it really means to "be the internet." Besides all the not-ideal stuff you (and our younger generations) are connected to, then, who are "you" to other people if everyone "is" the internet?
Your background image on your blog is oddly disturbing. Something about it doesn't sit right with me.
Also: "You must be the youngest seeker in..."
"...a century!"
There I said it. No one ever appreciates my HP quotes.
Rj, I really do hope you continue your blog because I love love love reading them! Every post has made me think in different ways and it is hard for something to get me to do that! Anyway, I think you have a valid point about the activity of internet. There are people who classify themselves based on their hobbies and to somehow describe yourself as a gamer has a negative connotation towards it (I definitely have given my thoughts questioning gamers at one point or another). Do you think that is true because technology including computers, the internet, cell phones, etc are relatively new? And because its always changing? When you are a runner, running does not change every three months. A new version of running does not come out every year, but with technology it is every changing. Have you ever heard of the mind set that people are afraid of what they do not know? We are in the generation that is making big strides in the technology world.. those that come before us are not. Do you think that they are not accepting and they are the ones making the stereotypes against gamers because they know nothing about games?
ReplyDelete