When was the last time you say something you now regret? I’m not a gambling man, but I bet that remark was made on the medium of the internet. It has become the place for so much of our communication. Even in public in real interactions with other people, people will spend a disproportionate amount of time on their phone. Instead of engaging with those around them, people opt for the online virtual world, text messages preferable to a long drawn out conversation.
Yet we are not ourselves online. Despite spending such a large amount of time looking at screens, this is not reflective of who will really are. I gather this is ironic, given I’m typing on a screen. Yet despite my best attempts to replicate my voice and spoken word, I am fully aware my blogs would sound different, with different phrasing and maybe even different views were I speaking them out loud. The question is why does this happen. Are we being manipulated by the technological overlords of Silicon Valley to adopt a different persona online? Are we just doing it subconsciously, unaware of how our behaviour differs from that of reality? Or do we secretly like the adventure, enjoy being someone else for a temporary period of time? I don’t know the answer, but it is something I have come to notice more recently. Most people are definitely harsher and ruder online. You hear every day about the abuse MPs receive - be it on social media or letters to their office - with people making the foulest of remarks. It is like they feel immune to the consequences of what they are saying. That barrier of the tweet or letter, not actually physically seeing the individual, makes them feel anything can be said. This of course, includes remarks that an individual would never make in person. Interestingly, I am the other way round. I differ from the majority. I am more likely to take the time to think about what I say online. This is because I’m aware that sarcasm and remarks made in jest are harder to detect on the internet. In person, I try to make it clear when I am joking or having a laugh, see the need to make a funny remark to move the conversation forward. Maybe because I’ve written a blog, and am used to editing my remarks, I feel the need to be clear and authentic about what I think online. I am certainly more articulate and feel more coherent in this medium than in the spoken form. We hear all the time about people presenting an artificial interpretation of their life online. Instagram photos can be highly selective, with people aspiring to match those who they follow. It is of course important to remember that nobody has or should desire the perfect life. We all live flawed experiences with events going wrong. It is understandable that people may not necessarily want to represent these online, but this should be balanced by not overly representing life’s perfections. Again, in person, we’re willing to highlight everything going wrong. In the nuanced world of the internet, it’s far harder. What is the future for the internet? Who knows. It looks set to be an intrinsic part of the modern world for many years to come. And that should be celebrated. It had connected lives, exposed injustice and allowed a breadth of knowledge to be understood. We should always be aspiring to connect up more people to wifi so they can engage with others. But it is vital to remember that the internet is not everything. There is much beyond it. If we want to discover the truth in society, we should stop gazing in a zombie-like daze at our phones and look up at the real world, warts and all.
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Author:Noah enjoys writing a blog and drinking tea Archives
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