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Welcome to The Age of the Web Hermit
tyroneking writes "Phil Hartup on bit-tech.net has captured the Zeitgeist of the web-aware generation: The
Age of the Web Hermit describes how some lucky souls can live their lives, earn money, buy necessities and even find love on the Internet. 'Is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more?'; not me!"
The Internet cannot get you drunk. I should know, I've tried.
Hades, PoD: Official Advocate
The internet: the only place where you can change your penis size.
I mean, if you consider "reading Slashdot" as "going out and socializing"....
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
... and incisive along the lines that I submitted the story and got to first-post it as well but I was beaten to the ... err ... post. ....
Oh well - I'm still happy to get a story posted and this will spur me on the become even more of a hermit
... then you're probably pretty much connected to the Real World. Running water, power, fancy new video boards... someone in the real world is providing those items.
I don't think this is any more isolation than a serious resident of the library used to be 50 years ago. And when people in NY figured out (decades ago) that they could, say, write books for a living and have Chinese delivered at 3:00AM... it's scarecely different. In fact, I'd argue that a lot people who used to be hermits (or would have been if they were born 20 years earlier) are probalby more connected to the real world because the internet exists.
Unless, as I suspect, I'm currently typing this text into a big, scalable, and very flawed Turing test machine. If a response is posted to this, its non-sequitor-ness will prove my suspicions. Go!
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
There have always been shut-ins. The net just gives them more to do behind their drawn curtains and locked doors. Some people may see this as cool, but in the long run we look as such people as kooky. We all need to interact with others, that is just our nature. We are social creatures whether we like it or not. Some more so than others to be sure, but still.
Can you live locked in a basement having evrything shipped to you and slid under the door? Sure, but to me that sounds very much like prison.
No thanks.
Apparently I have the right to be a web hermit. Otherwise this wouldn't be YRO, right?
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -Groucho Marx
The Web in particular and the Internet in general is a great benefit to those who are homebound because of illness or disability.
Wow, total story of my life!!!
j/k
I don't use the internet. What a bunch of suckers.
Just because you can do those things on the internet doesn't necessarily mean it's better to do them there. Humans, by nature, are social animals. There is only so much interaction a web page or an IM can provide.
I mean, when was the last time someone gave you a hug through your monitor?
The japanese hikkomori syndrome. ( http://www.jref.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-909. html )
When people start substituting real life with a digitall one it usually doesn't end to well.
Humans are by nature social beings, if the "old" ways fail one starts to look for an alternative.
Besides, real life interaction (think of sex ) will allways beat the "cyber" equivalent.
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
My cronjob web-based order to pizza hut should kick in within the hour. Automatic bill-pay for my bills, telecommute and direct deposit for work...but no, I'm not a friggin hermit. I'm running GAIM and posting to slashdot. I play games online once in a while...that's considered human interaction, right?
If you want a web hermit, go stick a picture of Stallman with the relevance of ESR and you've got yourself your posterboy.
Now if you can give me a dynamic World of Warcraft type immersive game where everyone else is AI, then maybe I'll be a hermit.
From the article: "...we have to ask ourselves -- is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more? Is a life of doing things and meeting people as our primitive ancestors in the late 20th Century knew it becoming redundant?"
Let's assume that a billion people on Earth have the money and time to be online regularly. (this is probably more than the real number) That leaves more than five billion without such a thing. There are significant percentages of people in rural parts of the world (from Africa to America and everywhere in between) who don't even have electricity, telephones, or real plumbing. And let's not even talk about food and medicine.
The upshot? If you have the capacity for living most of your life online, and you can take all that real-life survival stuff for granted, you are enjoying a life of luxury. And the best part is that, online, you will almost never encounter those poor starving folks, so you can safely ignore their existence (just like you do on your way to Starbucks). Enjoy!
Quick check: in terms of income, how do you rank globally?
(Go ahead, mod me as a troll... I've got karma to burn.)
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
Does this mean that the typical /. basement crawler is now an endangered species as web hermits take over the world? Inquiring minds want to know...
I confess, I'm a hermit. I'm probably one of the very few people who goes to college and spends all his time in his room. I'm not a full-hermit, though, since I do go out to buy groceries and things like that, but my social life is basically non-existent. I don't even have friends in college, and I have maybe a total of 5 people I talk to through IM. Being a hermit isn't that bad, but most importantly, it's my choice. Some people may prefer to hermit themselves due to social anxieties or phobias. At least the Internet makes hermitting more entertaining. The biggest draw-back is probably the lack of physical contact. I haven't received a hug in years. I don't miss talking out-loud much though. As a matter of fact, since I haven't talked in so long, when I talk out-loud my throat gets sore. Ouch.
Yeah, get it on with your bad web hermit self.
I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who aspire to be a balding fattie eating delivery pizza every day and jacking it to internet pr0n. I hear guys like that drive the women wild.
I consider it natural selection -- self removal from the gene-pool.
Go Darwin go!
"Is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more?"
Nope, nothing at all. Certainly not a job. Instead of real work, create a web site, post a witty article there, split it into 5 pages, each with about 40% ad content, some of that being flashy annoying banners.
If I could get that angle down, I'd be there. I try to stay home as much as possible as it is (not getting pussy wether I leave or not, so why bother?).
And I can't do all that with it. I can just enlarge some bodyparts with that internet. I think I'll have to add more tubes.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
depression is more likely for people who don't get out much:
and heart disease but other than that, no, you should be just fine without a real life, er, I mean without real life.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
I used to go out all the time and I had a good amount of close friends. However over the past year I've been retreating more and more into my home. I leave my apt for necessary things like food and work but I never go out socially. I've lost touch with all my friends, I don't even know why I have a cell phone anymore. I don't know what happened to me. I know I have problems with depression and I take medication, but I guess the shit isn't working. Also my anxiety in social situations has increased alot and I guess I just avoid them in fear.
It's a shitty way to live and it's not like I dont want to change it. But I feel like I'm stuck.
"Some lucky souls can live their lives, earn money, buy necessities and even find love on the Internet."
Why, those lucky souls truly have everything in the palm of their hand.
Lame article.
This was all covered a few years ago by an MSN contest that challenged a group of people to live in a house and get and do everything over the internet. It's been a while and it might have just been a long ad campaign but it was explored pretty fully back then.
You could write the same article about the telephone - Some folks can work over a telephone, get entertainment over a telephone and order food over a telephone - big deal.
www.wildpad.com
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
Are you a hermit because your "digital lifestyle" makes it easy and comfortable? I guess what I'm asking is would you still be a hermit if the internet didn't exist?
If you would choose to be a hermit no matter what, then the internet is simply providing more forms of socializing. But if you're only a hermit because of the comfort of the internet then it might be a problem.
Developers: We can use your help.
I can't remember the name of the book; I read it some time in the 1960s probably. It foretold a world where there would be very little interpersonal interaction. People would return to their windowless apartments at the end of the day and find all their needs met. The author thought of everything. Smoking was a fire hazard so if you wanted to smoke, there was a tube that came out of the wall to provide cigarette smoke. If you wanted sex, you could have a completely real feeling experience with any movie star of your choice. Naturally, people became completely disconnected from each other and (IIRC) it all ended badly.
I was quite young when I read the book and wonder what I would think of it now. If anyone can tell me what it was called I would be most grateful. Thanks.
Anyway, people have been thinking about something like the internet hermit for a long time and I don't think many authors thought it was a very good idea. 1984 was quite a stark warning of how the state could use modern technology to subvert democracy by controlling people's minds. In that regard, as long as the state does not control the internet, the internet hermits might be better off than the mass of zombies who get their news from Fox. Hmm. Put me down as undecided.
Believe me! Sunlight is good!
..it inolves leaving the house to buy merchandise and to ship crap. So, my question to you lot is; what other ways are there to make a living off of staying at home if you're not a web developer, that is.
I do everything except the very frequent things (bread buying etc) from the net.
'Net' is our country, we are its citizens. We are the 'Net'.
As an added bonus, i can opt to go out and 'socialize' in the old fashioned way, in the manner and time i choose.
Isnt it fantastic ?
Read radical news here
The ultimate limit on your online time is when you get bedsores on your ass.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
I have an imaginary friend, doesn't even matter if my internet it down :)
Sounds a lot like the pilot of Star Trek (TOS of course).
Moral of the story? If you are a modern day hermit, atleast take the time to introduce yourself to the pizza man incase your stalkers find you out and erase your IDENTITY.
Alternatively, when being chased by phychopaths who want your data, remember to back it up on a trusty floppy disk. NOTHING can hurt those!
Alternatively, always choose Macintosh, the only laptop that effieciently upload viruses to alien space crafts and save the planet.
Alternatively, if you are as hot as Sandra Bullock and are also a modern day hermit, I would like you to have my ICQ#, I'm here to help ANY WAY I CAN.
I hate people that are just smother you, wanting to hang on you all the time...but, I guess it just is some people's nature to be one way or the other.
I've actually never understood people who just HAVE to be around other people...or they get lonely. I've seen it with guys...like they HAVE to be married, or they don't function right...never understood that. I've seen friends come out of bad marriages...and they just cannot seem to have fun being single...going home alone at night at times just seems to really bother them I guess. They'd be single for a bit, and get right back into marriage, often in bad ones again, they were so desperate to not be alone, they'd jump on the first piece of trim they hit and get married.....
I prefer the single life...because at some point...they or myself...goes HOME.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I'm a hermit, haven't been out the house in over a year except to the field across the road from me and to the hospital in an ambulance.
I don't really like people very much, they're noisey and too active for my tastes. I like things quiet and peaceful, if I must talk I'd rather talk with my fingers in a text basis than with vocal words.
I don't really feel I'm missing out on anything, as a kid I was very social, but then I don't have to deal with the huge bunch of idiots screaming and shouting.
We live in an era where everyone seems to want to be equal, we forget some people are just quirky and have no intrest in social activites. Some of us don't want to be a pop star, a footballer or whatelse is popular these days. We're happy to sit in the corner, do our own thing and just wish to be left alone unless we approach you.
I don't think I have a problem, I don't need you going "OH LOL YOU FREAK! YOU NEVER GO OUT!". All I need is for people to understand that they arn't the centre of the world and that people have different feelings and levels of social activity.
I like muppets.
Okay, the title "web hermit" brought forth images of a guy 80 lbs over (or under!) weight, hairy beard, and beer cans around his desk top computer doing nothing but surfing.
Pure FUD. Oohhhhh, feel fear/pity/shame for the weirdo who spends all day at the computer! It's a stigma, as the article says, and it's become more and more acceptable, as the article says. That's because using the web makes sense. Hell if you work from home all day, why not have your groceries delivered? Accepting a delivery takes 10 seconds while going to the store could take an hour. That's one more hour to make money working, or kill farm mephisto in Diablo 2 five more times and hope he drops that's unique you've been looking for, thus achieving a little more happiness than the fool next door who barely understands a computer.
The whole point of the web is more freedom, independence and opportunity. People are taking advantage of this. No one said everyone online is creating a bomb shelter with a fiber link or that once you surf the web for 4 hours you become Agoraphobic. The article doesn't even have any good facts or figures. Who says you aren't going out to meet people? Who says you aren't socializing with neighbors? Who says you aren't exercising 3 three times a week? The only fact the article states is that more and more people are using the web to get the things they need, and it suddenly jumps to the conclusion that everyone who does this is a "web hermit."
And most importantly, no one said you aren't bangin' your girlfriend every 4 hours because you work from home and have plenty of time for impromtu sex! Who cares if you found your gf in a bar or two states away playing the same online game as you. If you like her, and she likes you, and you have a healthy sexual compatibility (provided she moves in with you - this is important), then fuck the world. You are most definitely still in the gene pool.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
College and grad school were great for socializing in person. There were people all around me who were interested in intellectual things, and it was even pretty easy to find people who were interested in the same intellectual things I was interested in. We were at the same stage in our lives, and although it seemed like we were working our butts off in school, the truth was that we had a lot of free time, because we didn't have kids, or pets, or lawns to mow.
The real world is a whole different deal. Nothing against my neighbors, they're nice people and I enjoy shooting the breeze with them now and then, but we just have nothing in common. Parenthood, work, and living in suburbia just aren't very conducive to making contact with people who care about books, or jazz, or free information.
Internet relationships tend to be shallow and temporary, but if I didn't have e-mail, usenet, and (I admit) slashdot, my opportunities to have any kind of an intellectual life outside my own head would be extremely limited.
My family and I just spent three weeks in Greece and England, and it was an amazing contrast with the kind of alienating suburban environment I live in here in the U.S. In Athens, extended families go out together for dinner in sidewalk cafes at 10 in the evening. In little farming villages in Greece, the older men hang out in coffee shops and talk. In England, people hang out and talk in pubs. The U.S. is just pathetic, especially where I live (Orange County, CA), in terms of giving people spaces where they can interact with the rest of society. Everybody just drives places in their air-conditioned SUV's. Maybe shopping malls are the closest equivalent we have, but I just don't enjoy them as places to hang out, people-watch, or run into friends.
Find free books.
Why has this been modded +5 funny?
Interestingly enough, this was initially published to Slashdot fifty years ago, with the headline:
Phil Hartup on bit-tech.net has captured the Zeitgeist of the phone-aware generation: The Age of the Phone Hermit describes how some lucky souls can live their lives, earn money, buy necessities and even find love over the telephone. 'Is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more?'; not me!"
I recall near the begining of the dot.com a guy who was going to spend a whole year in a house living off of stuff ordered from the net. He legally changed his name to DotComGuy. He was going to make living via selling advertising and webcam feeds. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dotcomguy http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,40940,00. html
I am trying to remember the exact title (googling doent help because Isaac wrote hundreds of stories). But the story was about planet of people who lived mostly alone on plantations run by robots. They would communicate with each other constantly by immersive television, but almost never met in person. (I wondered what they did for physical romance?). I recall the plot conflict was about solving a murder of one of these recluses.
http://www.umich.edu/~engb415/literature/cyberzach /Asimov/naksun.html
I've lived in places that make the Internet seem like a great place to spend one's life. A town in South Central Missouri comes to mind, where people believe the earth is 6000 years old, George Bush is a great American president, and soon the immigrants are gonna outnumber the humans. Unfortunately, these people seem to have followed me onto the Internet. You can find them at any right-wing website. Oh, well, I've since moved back to downtown Chicago where those same immigrants are considered friends, the Earth may have been made by a god of your choosing, but it has nothing to do with the truth of evolution and George Bush is a great American turd. Finally, back among the human race. But I don't blame those Missourans, many of them count the livestock amidst their family trees.
You are welcome on my lawn.
"But I'm too low level to survive in the Real Life instance!"
Those that cannot communicate (verbally) will never go very far in the real world. Only so many jobs exist that you dont need to effectively talk to people. If you are in college and living like this, stop ASAP. Go to bars, go to parties (yes there are many parties that are not just a drunkfest). Get involved in something otherwise you might as well get used to the lifestyle including the budget size of a college student.
The number one problem with people in IT, they cannot talk to non IT people. Ever wonder why the person that has very few uber l33t skills is pulling down 90K a year and the top knotch programmers are now having trouble cracking 40K
College is never just about studying, that probably comprises less than half of what college teaches you. Social interaction of all kinds will shape your personality to be able to communicate with others in the real world.
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
I wish I hadn't used all my modpoints. What a ripe opportunity. This is serious stuff. Here I am at almost 7PM, watching the news on TV, and I'm wasting my time at Slashdot! Damn.
You know, I just came to the realization that I've never met a stupid introvert. Every stupid person that I've ever met was extroverted, and usually extremely so.
I remember a 1960's era play about a family working from home, on terminals, and never having to go anywhere, and how it affected life. I believe it was on NET (National Educational Television), a predecessor of PBS. Anybody else remember this? Perhaps a reference?
That is why I have taken to metamoding all Redundant mods as Unfair.
It's called Fu-Fme
Since June 1 I've been collectinfg the signatures necessary to Get on the Ballot as a candidate for the United States Senate, challengeing the clueless incumbent Herb Kohl in the Democratic Primary.
As of today, it's official, my 2198 signatures are sufficient.
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary
How about a 2004 movie called "Napoleon Dynamite"?
9/11 Eyewitnesses to Explosive WTC Demolition 1 of 2
i want BJ via high speed internet connection!
I find going out and socializing while not drunk is not as painful as it seems. The problem is that when you are out, surrounded by people, it is natural to feel a lot of social stress, this stress is actually rooted to instincts that we have developed thousands of years ago when social failure meant an end to your family tree. It was very serious back then.
Now when you go out to the bars, you really still can feel that social stress, and there are several ways to aleviate it, the most popular being alcohol. However, simply fighting that stress and interacting with others does the trick too. It's like jumping off a diving board, once you do it a few times it loses it's not as scary and becomes very natural.
I really think that our society has lost many of it's social skills, and that is somewhat sad to me.
You take it, I don't want it...
That sort of trip will just increase the sense of isolation and the depression. Unless you are an extrovert travelling by yourself is not fun.
I for one don't welcome anybody, overlord or not. Go away!
Table-ized A.I.
Is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more?
Fresh air.
Oh, wait, the air's probably fresher indoors these days.
I object to that article, and to the next reply.
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
That's odd, I don't remember posting that.
Also, my handle is wrong.
I better report this problem.
Hats off for that one. I nearly spat coffee all over my keyboard.
Hermits, by nature, are anti-social beings. And they have always been so.
They make a clear choice to live outside of society. In the past they had to support their basic needs by hunting, fishing, agriculture... or perhaps even trade their 'deviner-abilities' with a few commoners (for food or money). Now they have the option to earn their living through the internet.
The article however describes a totally different kind of person (one who lives in the parental basement and such). Though there is some truth in the fact that there probably is a kind of hermit that lives through the use of the internet, without being addicted to it, and without trying to substitute his real life.
Albeit that people that medidate alot, another possible hermit habbit, tend to use that as a real life substitution.
Tip: Don't swallow everything you find on the internet.
...every time I meet a woman from the Internet in person, she looks less like Sandra Bullock and more like Jim J. Bullock.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
If you get bored being an internet hermit - take a road trip to the beach, the mountains, the state parks, Las Vegas - whatever.
Earth is a Big Place - actually getting in you car (or a bus, or an airplane) and going someplace different is a very healthy thing to do.
Take 3 vacation days, bump them up on a weekend, and take a 5 day break - longer if you can manage it.
Learn a trick from the retired folks, visit all 50 states if your in the USA, or visit all of Europe if you live there, etc...
If you can find someone to go with you on your vacation, that's ok,
but the Freedom you have when you travel to different places is fun too.
Oh, and leave the laptop behind, just take your camera and swim trunks/skis/phat-loot/surf board/hiking boots/bicycle/skateboard with you.
It's Summer time!
Go Out And Play!
NOW!
In Soviet Russia, pussy gets you.
.. web hermit life)
(sorry I just had to say it once in my
You sound pretty introverted.
I can lead a real life on second life if I want.
http://secondlife.com/
'nuff said.