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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
... 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
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
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!
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.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
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 :)
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.
How is the internet any different to books and games? I'm like the guy above and before I got the internet I played my SNES on my own, before that I always played with toys on my own. That's just how some people are.
If anyone a "digital lifestyle" will save lives because it stops people from killing themselvs when they get depressed and lonely.
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"
a "digital lifestyle" will save lives because it stops people from killing themselvs when they get depressed and lonely.
That sounds logical but in my experience it's not true. A person who is depressed and lonely is still depressed and lonely while playing a video game. He's just temporarily entertained which keeps his mind of off it. But the underlying problem still persists.
Online socializing, however, does seem to help at least a little. As long as there is interaction with other human beings in some form. It's simply a human need.
Developers: We can use your help.
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.
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
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.
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
...every time I meet a woman from the Internet in person, she looks less like Sandra Bullock and more like Jim J. Bullock.
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