I'd liketo start this short rant by saying how hopelessly lifeless life really is with out real human interaction. I do not consider words typed on a screen to be a legitimate form of expression. True expression requires so much more than empty words endlessly displayed on a large plastic screen. Even the best of communication over the internet is so completly lacking, that often the real meaning and expression of a thought is lost. Assuming that 60% to 90% of communication is done through body language and facial movements, this leaves a paltry 10% to 30% for verbal and written communication. Strip away any amount of verbal nuances gained from tone of voice or the pace of speach, and you are left with a less than 3% chance of accuratley conveying your thoughts.

This will of course explain why such a large majority of internet threads, discussions, and communities are reduced to foul mouth ignorant comments and endless flames and arguments. If you take into consideration the fact that people tend to hide behind a fabricated online persona, which further skews any communication. What you are left with is a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the real meaning of any given thought. This is assuming that most people do not put a great deal of thought or effort (structural, verbal, or plain meaning) into their responses. There are plenty of examples on just about any forum or in any community of petty arguments, miscommunications, mispellings(i think i spelled that wrong), and just plain stupidity. This makes me wonder, how exactly does the internet supposedly "connect" us all together? What is really possible to communicate to one another with a less than 3% chance of conveying your message? What is chat? What about the friends (and I use the term loosely) you meet online?

In comparison, talking face to face to a random stranger, you will have gained so much more information about what someone is saying regardless of whether or not you look them in the eyes or pay close attention to their gestures and facial movements. Even someone who is shy and prone to avoid contact with others will understand so much more just by talking to someone face to face. What scares me is how this is affecting out society as a whole. I've read plenty of articles and studies of the effects of the so called internet of human relatons; and most of those articles show that people today have less friends, even less friends they can go to for support, less people that they really interact with (in real life; not on the internet) .

Add to that the ability to filter out experiences and people that you do not want to face and you are left with a bleak picture of the evolution of the human psyche. We are becoming slave to our comupters, addicted to our internet, sheltered from the outside world and new experience. We learn less about life, create our own controled environments, amplify phychosies, and generally create our own misery. Add to that a 40-60 hr work week sucking up all of your time and a huge continuing debt for everything you own and life is suddenly a huge disapointment.

This of course creates lots of business for medical companies who want to put everyone on one drug or another to make them happy or fix whatever problem may or may not really exist. Forget a simple life, it does not exist except in remote 3rd world countries and parts of the "civilized" world where technology is not so idolized. I realize that I paint a dark and bleak picture of life, but it seems that all of the life has been sucked out of the so called American Dream, and its lifeless husk is rotting away.

For those of use who still have the courage to look past the veil that has been pulled over our eyes are few in comparison to the horde of masses whom are content to eat up the garbage that the media, gov't, and societal "norms" that are shoved down our throats on a daily basis. Even those of us who realize and understand any part of the truth are confronted with no better options. Choose to fight the system and you lose many oppertunities and advantages that are availible to you. It is difficult, and almost impossible to be a part of society without buying into all the consumerist garbage and other propagandas.

The choice is still there for now, but it is becoming harder to have any position except the officially sanctioned position. Shall I vote for the puppet on the left of the puppet on the right? It's two sides of the same coin.

For example, most people havea cellphone of some type. It is a primary way for anyone, no matter if you are 6 years old or 67 years old, to stay in touch. People who do not have cellphones are an anomaly in this day and age. There are few teenagers with out their own cellphone in their pocket. 10 or 15 years ago it was the opposite; the annomaly were those people who actually had cellphones. Due to their cost and poor service few people had them. If you couldn't contact someone on their home phone or work phone it was no big deal. You had freedom to go about your business. Today most people would feel naked without their phone, and people worry when they cannot reach you on your phone or email or internet or whatever.

How I long to throw away my cell phone and be free from its cold cold grasp. But of course I don't. The conveniance and nessesity of using a cell phone greatly outweighs not having one, if only because you lose out in many situations where someone else wants to talk to you. That phone call you miss may be your future employer calling you to tell you you've got the job, or a client who urgently wants your products.

This same type of pressure applies to many parts of our society. What was once optional is no longer even a choice we would consider. In this way we are slowly losing all of the traits that make us inatley human as well as compationate towards each other. Why risk pain and suffering to help another? Its inconvenient. We can just filter their screams out and pretend they don't exist.

Where will we be in 20 years? How will we communicate then? Just as artisans and craftsman are disapearing along with their trades and knowledge, so will real human interaction suffer and eventually be reduced to a fraction of what it is capable. Once our childrens children fail to learn proper etiquette, manners, and many other healthy behaviors which are passed down from one generation to another, what will we have become? Mindless consumers that are led by a select group of individuals no smarter than the average idiot who were born into power and take advantage of everyone else, caring only for thier own well-being. The spirit of man will have been crushed and ground into a fine dust, scattered accross the endless dunes of time. We will have lost ourselves, our darker half in complete control of our eventual and painful demise. That is assuming that we all live long enoungh to not wipeourselves in some massive pointless war...

9 months, 3 weeks ago by DM T.