In Defense of The Internet

Many people lament the historically recent technological shift in our culture. "They" say that it has imprisoned people in a reflection of reality (disconnecting them from the actual) and dehumanized them. Instead of interacting with people proper, so the rhetoric goes, people are now engaging with a screen that only encapsulates a whiff or an echo of humanity.

Of course, some of this is true. The internet and its outdated predecessor the television can be seen as compact psychological cages. To me, however, it seems that people who hold this view forget the painful, madness-inducing isolation paramount in this world. They must be city-folk who have a healthy social atmosphere for intellectual, social, and pleasurable endeavors.

For most of the population, of America at least (the only country I can speak for), who are suffocating in traps that parallel the technological ones like slave-driving bosses, miserable and self-indulgent neighborhoods, and ignorant relatives, the internet can be a utopian window for cross-state relations. Instead of one being stuck in a sleepy, dull area, one can converse about favorite artists, authors, musicians, etc. through forums which house engaging discussions. One can experience bright and life-affirming personalities through comedic videos on Youtube. One can elevate one's mental faculties by browsing the latest political commentaries on Rollingstone.com or CNN.com (and local papers or libraries are no substitute...the former are often concerned with dog shows and the latter, highly selective). One can learn about anything at the drop of a hat. (What do I want to learn about today? The baboon spiders a.k.a. tarantulas of South Africa? Done).

Of course there's a lot of bogus information out there but one just has to be smart about sources. When in the history of the world wasn't there a lot of bogus information out there? Woody Allen said, "Everything our parents told us was good is bad. Sun, milk, red meat, college." How many parents force their children to eat everything on their plate? This enforcement leads to enlarged stomachs and tendencies that encourage obesity. Where did they get this "method" from? It wasn't the internet. Everything my father's mother told me, God rest her soul, was B.S. and she never owned a TV or a computer! She believed in fake illnesses like "Liver Groan" (you catch this from jumping in the pool too much--and don't think she was just using this as a method for instilling fear...she actually believed in her diagnosis because her mother told her about it).

I'm more terrified of isolated information handed down from generation to generation than an information free-for-all that, when surfed right, can be enlightening. This new transferral of information may be wreaking havoc on the nervous minds of scholars but screw 'em. Don't get me wrong. I have a lot of respect for good professors (several of them have enriched my experience of the world and made me a better and smarter person) but many of them seem to be more concerned with tooting their own horn, puffing themselves up, and social positioning. Maybe the internet's insistence (I realize this is grammatically wrong) on collectivity (not that the literary world wasn't already heading this way) will force them to concede a little ego.

If Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead in today's world, someone would have posted a video from his cell phone on Youtube.com showing the behind the curtain switch of the dead body with an impostor. It was easy to deceive people who had no other source of information but word of mouth.

Anyway, people who regret the technologically-centered incarnation of reality that we live in for the reason that it is socially isolating and an information bedlam don't really understand that such a state is the nature of the world and that this version helps people who would otherwise be completely cut off stay in the game.