Saturday, April 25, 2009

Disconnected from the Web

(Disclaimer: I understand the irony of posting a blog entire about being disconnected from the web on the web. If I wrote this down with pen and paper no one but myself would ever read it. So there.)

I had the pleasure last week of being disconnected for the web. All be it I didn't really have a choice since we forgot to pay the phone bill. Being disconnected brought me back to the reality that for many years I never knew about email, Facebooking, or blogs. Yes, I know that it may sound like the standard old guy rant. I am one of the generation who witnessed the birth and growth of the Internet. It has been an interesting experience. I can now communicate with people I barely know or don't know at all in countries around the world. I could never have seen this as such a crucial part of my world when I was in elementary school.

But is the Internet really as crucial to the world as we think it is? I have theorized with my wife that really as people we don't go beyond our own circle of real friends on the Internet. That is to say people don't always really make the same friendship connections with people across the world on the web that they do with people in their own local area. I am aware that there are individuals right now who would argue with me that they have friends in many different countries. Maybe their right they do find those friendships. But I am speaking in terms of the people as a whole.

How many times have you joined a group of some kind on the web only to be shunned or ignored by the existing members? Many times even though we are interested in the same thing doesn't mean that we will accept people we are not familiar with. We are more often comfortable with those familiar to us. People get exclude others on the Internet just like they do in real life.

I have strayed from my original thought. Once I was forced not get on to the Web. I found that I felt relieved of some kind of burden. It seemed like life got quieter. The Web adds noise to life just like a television or a radio. You don't realize that until it is gone. The hard part now that I got back on the Web is finding a way to leave it turned off more often than turned on. Unlike the television which is easy to turn on and off. The Web has become a constant stream pumped into our lives. It is hard to shut it down. The Web has entangled it self into most facets of life. I need to learn self control to turn away from the Web and focus more on the real part of life. It figures that I would have to keep learning self control even at thirty.