Internet

Rohan Jain

Kevin Menton

May 4, 2007

Untouched Connections

The internet has become an important part of our life in the United States; we rely on the internet for most of our day to day work. Not only that, but the internet is rapidly removing all other media as the medium of communication- it is fast, easy and affordable. But for some people it goes beyond all that. For some people it is life itself. For some people it's their social life. The internet seemed to have replaced the old coffee table chats with online chat rooms, trips to the mall with eBay, visits to grandma with emails to grandma@yahoo.com, and daily telephone gossip with AIM. Is the internet movement taking from us our social lives? - The very aspect which differentiates us humans from other wild animals.

John woke up at six in the morning, he got his chores done and checked his emails. He got into his 2000 model Honda Accord and drove to college. After parking his car, he went to his class. When the class finished, he either went to the computer lab or took out his laptop to check his emails, or went onto his Myspace account to chat with friends. He saw that Robert was not online, so he took out his cellphone and called Robert." Hey dude! Where are you? Come on AIM". Before John knew it, it was time for the next class. He hurriedly got over to the class and as soon as the second class ended, he was back in his virtual world. As soon as he arrived home, he is back on his computer. Does this sound familiar?

Unfortunately this is the life of most of our teenagers nowadays. Virtual is becoming reality now, separation is becoming proximity now and technology is becoming more human. Binary code is replacing our language and who knows; someday we might be talking in ones and zeros just to save our time and energy.

Human beings are a social animals and our capability to form social groups is what distinguishes us from other wild beasts. So why are we slowly stifling this aspect of ourselves? Why it is that forming human relationships is becoming a burden now? Why have we become so lazy that socializing is too much trouble? Why is it that "real life" people are not good enough for us? Why has talking become such a burden that next door neighbors e-mail rather than talk to each other? There are so many questions like this; all asking the same basic question-- why is the virtual world spreading like wildfire?

People have been flooding to websites like Chat rooms, forums and online communities. It has been a very noticeable phenomenon. Teenagers are seen less outdoors and more indoors. Computers are becoming their only pastime and social life consists of chatting online. I went out to a high school and asked a few kids the question - "Why do you prefer online chatting and Myspace to normal socializing?" Some of the answers I got were - "Its much cheaper", "Its easier and faster", "It is fun", "I like the emoticons", and "Everyone else does it". These answers show us how inbred the online revolution has become.

Many times people go online for the very need of socializing. People with small social groups or those who feel socially isolated find comfort behind a computer screen. Like when I came to the United States 8 months ago and I had left all my friends behind in the process. So when I came here I had no friends and no social life. That was when I started playing online games and taking part in online communities. It was enthralling at that time. But now that I am settled here, those things seem boring. I remember a recent discussion with one of the online groups -

"You know that all of us here have some problem or the other with our RL "

"Yeah! True, like my girlfriend and I broke up, Garric is trying to get back with his ex"

"And that funk has got no frnds"

"Same thing for vamp'

"Rust's school has been screwing him up"

"Looks like HWW has become a haven for people like us"

I was surprised to see that all of them were talking about their problems so easily- and especially how all of them had problems similar to mine. Those things made me ponder; is this really why the internet has become so popular? People who are unable to satisfy their social needs in their real world take on this virtual world to do so. In that sense the whole idea of online communities