Friday, September 08, 2006

Trust the Universe


And who can say otherwise when there are such breath taking sites in the world? If I was the adventurous type I'd just bungee jump off this but considering I'm not.. I'll just sit back and enjoy the view. Has the internet era taken us away from nature and reality as such?

The internet is a marvellous tool - consider its uses that we as lay people have: We can increase our knowledge (wikipedia), we can chat to friends for hours whereas if we had phoned them the conversation wouldn't have lasted that long nor been as multifaceted in topic (msn), we can search for flatshares (gumtree), we can meet new people (hi5, friendster) and we can post on forums and become this internet clique of friends (barficulture and etc).

If the internet never came about, I would never be writing this. I wouldn't have met SO many people that have made a difference to my life - either in a small or a big way, I wouldn't have a means of searching for a flat so easily, I wouldn't be able to check train times or the weather with such ease. The internet, to us, has become a tool of life. As necessary for communication as it is for knowledge. It helps us express ourselves in ways we otherwise could not have.

But how much are we relying on a piece of technology? And is that much, too much?

When the internet becomes more of a screen to hide behind and not face the real world, then I reckon we have problems. One of my friends, he's an intelligent, funny guy and he has been attempting to get a date (not with any low scheme in mind but simply for conversation and company - bc he gets a bit lonely) for a while now. Most of this has been through this forum that he posts on regularly and where they all know each other. But the impression we give of ourselves online - where we are less inhibited - and the impression we may give when we meet are two different ones. So he finds that when he meets the girl in person, she is either a moody cow or is not interested in talking to him as much as she would have been online. Either way, this hiding behind a screen situation would not have existed 40 years ago.

Our parents would have socialised with people that their circumstances brought them in contact with - therefore had mutual topics of interest, mutual friends etc. Now we have several billion people who would otherwise not have met, meeting! Its a great thing to make the world smaller, but at the same time are we bending the rules of engagement? Were we simply meant to stick to the people we know and thus not risk ourselves to the threat that might accompany meeting new people out of our cliched existence?

Before you think I'm biased or having a very antisocial outlook, I'd like to point out that some of my best friends Ive met through the internet, some of the people I pour my heart out to on postings such as this I ve met through the internet, my boyfriend I met over the internet - but when trouble comes my way it makes me wonder, has the internet changed the concept of fate or destiny? Or is it merely assisting it? Were we meant to meet or is this a bending of the rules as such because of the advent of the internet?

:D either way I love writing here! So I hope you ignore the rules and keep readin ;)

No comments: