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New Technology Creating Isolated Loners = Old News
alkali sent in the link to a silly Washington Post story about how the Internet isn't the first technology that made people stay home alone instead of going out to socialize. Bread baking, vaccination, and plumbing are other human advances cited here that threatened to turn us all into sit-at-home loners. Ah, for the good old days when we all hunted and gathered (and sometimes starved and died) together!
Language has evolved over many thousands of years. We, humans, are social creatures. It is not too much of a stretch to assume that active personal communication is a fundamental element of mental health. When you hear a voice, that is a function of human evolution--it evokes emotions in the listener...many times, even if they don't understand the language. Whereas text based communication simply lacks this--it is a strictly intellectual abstraction.
These online chat methods are not merely the same human emotions and discussion over a different medium (text). One key difference is that, on all these online forums, the user only conveys the sentiments or emotions that he POSITIVELY asserts (e.g. types). Additionally, online communications are essentially one dimensional--it lacks the depth. Think of how many ways a simple word, such as "yes", when uttered in voice can be interpreted. It can convey depression, happiness, cluelessness, etc. It resonates in the human mind...internet/text based communications do not. Additionally, the very nature of discussion, and who you talk to online is vastly different. While online communication may be great for intellectual pursuits, there generally isn't that same emotional content there. You might talk about computers, your favorite sport, your job, your girlfriend, etc, but it is a generally a rather shallow coverage (despite what many will say). Nor are you talking to those whom really know you in person (e.g., family, friends, co-workers, etc).
The internet has both positive and negative potentials for society. I can easily see, how a person who is unable to communicate sufficiently in person (e.g., hearing problems, speach impediment, horribly disfigured, freshly moved, diseased, you name it), may find comfort online (I certainly did at one point...more of an intellectual/thrill seeking kind). But for the general population, I think the net effect of frequent online discussion (say, >2hours a day) is largely harmfull. Even those with problems, may be better advised to avoid online chat entirely. My reasoning is, that, most of these people are just partially "flawed" (you know what I mean), yet they have a hard time communicating with others in "real" life, due to lack of experience and confidence. What mediums such as IRC allow them, is an easy out. While IRC may not rise to the same heights of real interpersonal communication (they might not necessarily have much experience with this), it is EASY. It is a form of instantaneous gratification.
Any time, day or night, IRC is there...essentially the same any time. It is consistent. It is risk free (well, in the short term atleast). When one gets bored of one channel, or forum, they move on to the next, many times juggling more than one in an attempt to maximize pleasure. It is "sticky" in a way...enough to keep the user (addict?) on his console at odd hours. Unfortunately, enough to keep the user from going out, and trying to develop something of a social life.
I call this addiction--it ruins lives. What many people fail to realize, is that even though this behavior may ultimately result in being LESS happy/healthy, many users continue on. Much like the lab rat wired to recieve electric stimulation if they push one button, and food if they push the other,...the rat starves itself by focusing just on that stimulation. Or like, what i'm sure many of you are familiar with, in your approach to exercise. Most people understand on some level, that if they exercise enough, they feel much better throughout the day. Yet most people are too lazy to exercise regularly...exercise hurts...and sitting in your ass is, in the short run, much more appealing. Likewise, these people become socially sedentary, to the point where socializing is difficult, yet they continue on their same path.
I believe time will tell. In five to ten years, society is going to see a whole new crop of addict, of social problems, resulting from this kind of internet usage. People who're on IRC now, for 4+ years, are most likely going to be on IRC (or the equivalent) years later. Think about what kind of parents these people will be if they're still involved in IRC heavily. I wouldn't at all be suprised if it results in record numbers of sociopaths. Even though society may not initially identify heavy internet usage as an addiction, or an unhealthy thing (might possibly be equally enamored with the "geek" of today), it will feel its impact. While most people aren't going to have MAJOR problems, it'll be a HUGE jump relative to other forms of addiction (not to mention that these people will come from many different classes and cultures). I think it's impact will be perhaps more severe than television (though many think TV is harmless, I think it's had some very negative effects on certain portions of society), both in penetration, and in who it sucks in.
The ancient nomads had much more leisurely lives than us. They worked something like 5 hours a day, and only 3 days a week at that. I haven't read enough about this to say with certainty, but I'm willing to bet that the number of hunter-gatherers that starved to death doesn't even compare to the number of poor and homeless that starve to death in our society.
*sigh*
As a native american whose grandfather grew up as a hunter-gatherer in the hills above what is now Fort Liggot along the coast in California, I know that anything could be farther from the truth.
My grandfather and his family lived largely on harvested acorns from nearby trees, along with the occassional root they could dig up, and the occassional deer they could fall. They would also gather wood for fires (it gets cold at night), along with gathering wood and grasses for building huts. From the furs of the deer they would catch they would make shoes and blankets for sleeping at night. And they would spend hours carving stone mortar and pestles for grinding acorns. (You just don't gather a few acorns and pop them in your mouth--unless you spend an hour or two grinding down lunch and washing the toxins from the mash, they're poisonous.)
What my grandparents were, was poor in a sense that someone on welfare in our society cannot begin to appreciate.
If you think they could live by gathering for only five hours a day, three days a week, I have a simple challenge for you.
Buy some dried beans from the store. Buy a mortar and pestle. Grind the beans down into a flour, soak it in water, then press them out into patties, and fry them up on a griddle.
Takes a while to cook this mess, doesn't it?
Now factor in the fact that you had to make the mortar and pestle from a couple of rocks you found by the river. Factor in the fact that you had to make the griddle. And factor in the fact that you had to gather the wood to make the fire, along with making the fire by twirling a couple of twigs. Ah, hell; and factor in the fact that you had to gather a bunch of twigs and tie them together in order to make a basket so that you could allow your flour to soak.
My grandfather and my mother and I are Salinan Indians. And there is no way in hell that I would trade my fast-food/car/computerized/grocery store/Gap life for my grandfather's constant battle against starvation and freezing cold.
Apparently the /. crowd is not the most humor aware in the world, so for the benefit of some of the posters:
The article is a joke. It is made up. None of this really happened. There is even a Point to it that you may be able to figure out.
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathemeticians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell. -- St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa.
I mentally replaced "mathematician" with "hacker" as soon as I read that. I think this wise man understood as far back as 400AD the danger of people coming in direct contact with the wrong kind of information. He tried to warn us.
So why is it that television, a relatively new technology, doesn't get blasted? I think it's because television does bring us closer together. It offers a limited amount of pre-digested knowledge that everyone can see the same way and learn at the same time without exerting an effort. The Internet OTOH leads people to information and ideas that are raw and varied. The poor Netheads drift away from the mainstream pool of knowledge until they become downright dangerous and wierd. For example, they might rant about some obscure norwegian teen's legal problems, but have no insight into more pressing issues such as who won the "big game" on Sunday and why.
Please, for your own sake, spend some time in front of the television and get back in touch with your fellow man!
numb
In all civilizations some people at least have tried to answer such questions as: How did the universe come about? How old is the universe and the earth in particular? How large are the sun and the earrt? Is man an accident or part of a larger design? Will the solar system continue to function or will the earth some day fall into the sun? What is light? Of course, not all people are interested in such questions. Food, shelter, sex, and television are enough to keep many people happy. But others, aware of the pervasive natural mysteries, are more strongly obsessed to resolve them than any business man is to acquire wealth and power. -- from Mathematics for the Nonmathemetician by Morris Kline, 1967.
Years ago, an old & fairly large IRC channel I belonged to since it's beginning hosted maybe 40 regulars from all over the world. Every day about 3 pm, my time, I would join to exchange opinions and dissect the news. Over the years we all got to know one another's jobs, locations, intellectual positions and often... new job offers, spouses, divorces, new babies etc. There were Net Administrators, National Health Service Administrators, CIS students, Girl Scout leaders, and housewives. One regular, a musician became quite ill. While undergoing Chemo towards the end he was connected to Health experts by our National Health Admin. so that he received 'the best' and newest 'pain managment' A channel home health nurse contacted his 'local area' and arranged 'Hospice Care' to help lighten the load for his wife. The home health care hospice folks notified the channel of his inability to be comfortable in any position but sitting up and recommended a lounge chair which the families resources were not capable of providing. The channel rallied together, contributed the resources and within 1 week a new lounge chair was in his home. These people had never physically met, did not share physical space and probably would never even have spoken in a 'local city/town' because they had little in common besides their interest in #politics! ( like all good irc channels, it eventually faded away after about 3 years) BUT...Isolated, Loners? I think it more reasonable that.. the web/net provides MORE access to human intereaction for like minded people because it alows them to gather and share in ways that life today simply does not provide.
and btw/ no news agency, no horn tooting.. just people reaching out to people..Because! (I choose to believe that things go on like this every day, all over the world and aren't the fodder of interesting 'NET NEWS'
ah! the internet!! we may still screw up the world but NEVER again will we be able to claim IGNORANCE