My sister and I had a long talk about cyberspace and the effect it has had on society. It's amazing how big and powerful people feel when they have virtually (hah, pun intended) no one to answer to. People slander each other in the worst of ways, simply because they can, because there are no real consequences. I know of one particular person who marched to the front door of someone who trashed her on the internet...but a) she's psycho in many other ways, and b) for the most part, if you see something bad written about you, what can you really do about it, short of something illegal that will put you in jail or on a black list? You sulk about it, and move on.
Plus, the internet makes people narcissists and stalkers. Facebook and blogging make it so that we must all be intimately involved with the details of each other's lives without even really interacting. Talk about a major shift in the social scene. I can think of quite a handful of people that I know plenty about - their career goals, their relationship status, who they partied with last Saturday - without having talked to them for months, maybe even years. And then in return there are people who know these things about me, because I've chosen to make it public information It's so....wrong. So not the way I want to live. But I can't help it. I'm a victim of the 21st century :)
However, all I can say is that at least I got into all this internt culture "late", i.e. in college. Facebook didn't exist until my sophomore year of college. And I still consider myself to be a part of the Facebook generation. But man, 5-year olds can make Myspace accounts. That's disturbing. And what's more disturbing is how easy it is for adolescents to get addicted to these stupid online communities and make it their second life. And then you get stories like that 13 year old girl killing herself over a completely falsified online boyfriend. Falsified by a friend's mother who was avenging this girl for having beef with her daughter. People are crazy! There are so many things wrong with that scenario: poor parenting, online addiction, etc. I'm a big fan of "knowledge is power," but a part of me wants to hide computers from my children until they are 18.
On another note, my sister mentioned some article about blogging culture in Japan versus Western countries. Apparently in Japan, everyone blogs with the intent to conform, to fit in and prove that their life is equally as mundane and normal as everyone else's. No one will say anything negative at the risk of becoming a pariah. Whereas in the States and Europe and probably Latin America, clearly that is not true. The blog is our virtual soap box/photo album/diary, and we will pontificate until we drop if it means we can garner an attentive audience. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, at least by our standards. It's very interesting how a simple communication tool can really demonstrate fundamental societal differences.
I realize there's nothing too riveting about this post - but I'm horribly bored at work and it was an interesting topic. Now I shall dismount my soap box :)
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