“Two Steps From The Move” (If You Want It): A passionate cyber hater encourages us to look “inward” instead of to the Internet
by Alphaville Herald on 04/08/04 at 1:45 pm
EleanaTobias
In case you haven’t noticed, there is a fairly substantial group of people who display a great deal of antipathy toward the Internet. In this interview (and if you think it’s easy to get someone who hates the Internet to agree to sit down for a piece appearing in an on-line journal, think again), we have the chance to find out what might be motivating some of this rage against cyber space.
EleanaTobias: Okay, you’re here today to share some of your feelings about cyberspace; particularly we’re going to focus on the animosity you feel for the Internet. You’re infamous for hating all things having to do with cyberspace, so let’s start there. Just what is your problem with the Internet, generally?
Cyber Hater: Well, I guess the big thing is isolation; I think it promotes isolation. This is especially true for people who have grown up on it.
EleanaTobias: Okay, we’ll get to the argument that it does promote isolation (some would beg to differ) but even so, if it does promote isolation, why is that bad?
Cyber Hater: (Laughing) Why is it bad? Because we’re human beings, we’re not robots, ya know. We have to have some interactive people skills and that takes away from that. If you’re just looking at a screen, even if you’re talking w/ someone, that’s a different type of communication. It’s not human communication to me. Say, you know, you play games and send e-mails to people; how informal? Anyone can type something up. It just feels impersonal to me.
EleanaTobias: This gets us into the argument about isolation. A lot of people play games on-line, they are constantly interacting with other people, perhaps more so than if they actually went out in the world and had “normal” interactions. Why isn’t this enough?
Cyber Hater: But you’re not interacting with others. You’re interacting with a screen. You’re typing in words and playing with your keyboard; I don’t consider that interaction.
EleanaTobias: I want to press that point.
Cyber Hater: Sure.
EleanaTobias: I think that a lot of people would definitely classify that as interaction, of a special kind. You’re right that it’s mediated through a keyboard instead of say, a phone. But it’s interaction of a sort. In fact, like with these games, lots of people invest substantial amounts of time and energy (a big part of their life) into their characters and people that they play with on-line. This is bad? Why isn’t this healthy interaction and why are you so opposed to it?
Cyber Hater: First, why create characters to play against other characters? Shouldn’t they look within? Have they lost themselves so much that they need to create another character? You can just log off if it gets too stressful for you and that’s that. If you could spend the rest of your life and never have to go out then that’s fine but that’s just not the way it works, and pray to god it never does. For people who are anti-social to begin with, I’m sure they find great comfort in this. In the long run, though, it’s sorta doing damage though, you know? Christ, what happens if we ever have a massive black out? That’s my biggest fear. Pipe bombs in the subway? Uh uh. You know some day someone is going to get a hold of our computers and “what do I do, what do I do? I can’t play my games any longer. I’m alone. They’re all gone.” But, who’s all gone? A whole generation, that’s all they know. Mind you, I understand the attraction to this, but in the long run, I think it’s detrimental.
EleanaTobias: Is it possible (containing laughter) that you’re being a bit alarmist? People have been using the Internet, gaming on-line, for a while and what are these horrible consequences that you speak of? Aren’t you a bit over the top? Let me add this: you talked about why people create these identities in games, on-line, like there is something deficient and deviant with such activity. There was something said about “looking within.” However, many see this activity (creating characters) as “looking within,” if you will, and then expressing it like in a movie or play or what have you?
Cyber Hater: Looking within may help create the characters but with no growth. We all create characters and personas but you have to deal with people face to face. On a computer there is no room for growth, because if someone calls you on it, you can log off and no one will know the difference. It’s just safe. Intellectually, even, ya know?
EleanaTobias: No, what do you mean?
Cyber Hater: Well, there is intellectual growth but it’s not in a way; ya know, when you’re talking to someone personally many things come up, you may be intimidated, a lot of dynamics come in and you have to learn to deal with them. Here, you’re just typing into a screen.
EleanaTobias: Well, what if one were to say that you can become “intimidated” for instance, on-line. And before you say that “well, you can log-off” and that’s a crucial difference, what about the fact that someone in real life could just as well run away from a situation. So what’s the difference?
Cyber Hater: You could run away, but you’d be followed. You’re going to have to develop a skill: a fast runner or some savvy. They might be faster than you. With the keyboard, press a button and you’re done. If you get used to that and you’re in the real world and you want to log off, you can’t log off. At work, you have to deal with them. If you want to be able to cut it off as the internet provides, then there will be more conflict in real life because you can’t deal with it emotionally or anything.
EleanaTobias: Well, even if one concedes that real life and on-line environments put different demands on an individual, can you help me understand your antipathy to cyberspace a little better? In games, there is a lot of interaction. A lot of gamers read this blog. Specifically, can you speak to any of that? What do you think of these gamers? Are they just wasting their time? Couldn’t they develop skills in game, interact with people, and come out into the real world, all the better for that time they devote in game?
Cyber Hater: They could develop technical skills. They could be savvier on the computer, and it may help them on the job. That’s about it. Are they ever going to get off their asses and go out in the real world and use it?
EleanaTobias: Well, they very well may “use it”— use what they learn. Let’s talk more about interactions on-line. So, as I understand it, your position has a lot to do with saying that the internet corrupts through isolation, but if people form solid on-line relations and it makes them happy, and then they *do* go out in the world and they’re, whatever, nicer to people because they learned positive interactions on-line, isn’t that a good thing?
Cyber Hater: That’s a good thing, but you don’t get that from playing a game. You get that from within. That will be you deciding that you’re going to be a nicer person.
EleanaTobias: But couldn’t the game facilitate that—- make it more likely that people will be nicer generally or whatever because of their identification w/ their character and those things they’ve learned from positive on-line interactions?
Cyber Hater: Well, no, I think that would only pertain to the people who are playing the game at the time. It’s a mistake to think that if you have good on-line interactions (however that is assessed) that it will translate into better real life interactions. You can’t go out in the world and say “I’m Zeus”— people would think you’re nuts. I don’t think it will help you when you go out with these supposed skills because if you’ve been in-game, you’re not developing that real person-to-person dynamic. I suppose it can influence you, give you a new perspective as anything can, but it all comes down to you as a person and this is often obscured. You will have to actually physically act out and gather information from the others’ reactions (in real life). If someone is rude to you, and you punch them in the nose, you can do it but someone better be calling the cops. Here, you just press the button and you’re out of there. Life is sort of a crapshoot. On these games, it’s not; everything is controlled.
EleanaTobias: Well, that may be, but many will object. I see your position more clearly now. Let’s move on a bit. What about convenience? Hasn’t the Internet made research, for instance easier?
Cyber Hater: I don’t like that either. You learn through the journey. In fact, I believe you learn more through the journey than the actual facts that you find.
EleanaTobias: Can you give me an example?
Cyber Hater: Half the fun of going out and looking and researching (to the library, to purchase stuff) is sometimes you find things that you weren’t looking for, and again it comes down to interaction. In the old days, when I wanted to go look for a record, I had to go places, and if you can just get it all at once then you have all this information and it’s so convenient, fast, easy; it takes away from what life is about, ya know? As far as gathering info, you just read facts but you have to interact with people to really research because not everyone is the same, ya know?
EleanaTobias: Well, take the example of looking for your record. What’s so great about that journey that you can capture by going to record stores instead of going on line?
Cyber Hater: You can talk to the person who works there and you’re interacting face to face. I have a good friend who owns the Record Store. I know what he looks like, and I’ve seen him change over the years. I have great memories associated with that, and I don’t think you could ever get such an experience on the Internet. For instance, all those records I got, I could have ordered them on-line, but it is no substitute for that real journey. I could tell you a story with each one about when I got them, the girlfriend I bought them with, what we did afterwards when we got home and put them on.
EleanaTobias: No, thanks, that’s not necessary to this interview. Really.
Cyber Hater: And it was a real person, ya know. That’s so important. Not someone on the Internet who could be anyone- male/female, you don’t know. You don’t know them. You might think you do, but?
EleanaTobias: Again, a lot of people would beg to differ on that point. They would say you could meet real people and form important relationships. Hell, people have apparently gotten married to people they’ve met on-line. You must have some thoughts on that business.
Cyber Hater: Once again, we go back to that actually meeting somebody. By chance, you could meet someone, and that’s half the fun.
EleanaTobias: Couldn’t you meet someone on-line?
Cyber Hater: Sure, but it’s still not going to be enough. You see someone (in real life) and then there is a spark, there’s no substitute. You’re going to have to make the leap to human contact eventually. The Internet just impedes this and at worst, I truly think it hurts society. If you’ve just been isolated on a computer all your life, it’s just going to make that leap harder, ya know? You won’t learn about the person on-line, really. You could say anything on the Internet but if someone says it in person, they could be bullshitting you but you can learn that in a way that you can’t otherwise. It’s just part of the journey. Without face-to-face contact, it’s just words on a screen. And if you run into them again on the Internet you’d never know. Where, on the street, you could say, “yeah, I remember him/her.”
{Editor’s note: At this point in the interview, Cyber Hater, was invited to help himself to some Cola on my desk}
Cyber Hater: If I spilled a little of this on your keyboard where would you be? You spill a little of this on me and I’d just go change my clothes. You’d have to go buy a whole goddamn keyboard.
EleanaTobias: I think I have enough of this interview to?
Cyber Hater: to make fun of me in front of legions of people?
EleanaTobias: Definitely, but that’s not what I was going to say.
What I’d like to do is hear some of your proposal for changing society for the better, as it involves this topic- the internet, on-line gaming. So, you’re given free reign to make policy. How would you change things? In your ideal world, what role does the Internet play?
Cyber Hater: My ideal world? I’m not that much of an optimist. It’s too big; it’s too complex. You can’t say “if we do this, everything is going to be Nirvana; Internet or non— it never was and it never will be.”
EleanaTobias: Maybe I shouldn’t use the term “ideal world,” but if you can get on board with this: I’m asking you what role you would envision for the Internet if you were in control of the land.
Cyber Hater: I’d pull the plug on the fucker completely. Basically, it’s back to books, you fucking ignoramuses. At least, you have to touch the pages. The dust in the books might make you sneeze and we’d get some kind of interaction going. Like learning all this information on the computer is fine, but as I’ve already stated it’s lacking the great journey part of the learning; the mistakes, consequences and all that. In life, you can’t delete or quit, you can’t log off. Your actions will have consequences.
EleanaTobias: “Pull the fucking plug”- since your proposal is so drastic, let me push the idea that there might be some middle ground; some way that we could still utilize the internet alongside everyday person-to-person interaction. What’s wrong with that? Why can’t people play their on-line games like they watch movies, to relax and have fun and *not* a substitute from life?
Cyber Hater: They can, as long as it’s not a substitute for life. That’s true for anything.
EleanaTobias: Yeah, so why pull the plug?
Cyber Hater: If you put the carrot in front of the rabbit, he’s going to be running for it. Ya know what I mean?
EleanaTobias: I don’t know what you mean. Could you bring that metaphor down to earth for us?
Cyber Hater: Oh, now this is challenging. Okay. Humans, by nature, are going to take the easy way out, or a quick way. And that’s what the Internet is. Then people bitch about how no one has patience anymore. Well, if you grow up on the Internet, you expect instant gratification. “Why isn’t it happening now?” This makes human communication even more difficult because you can’t react as quickly as you type. There are just obstacles in life that you don’t encounter on your little screen there.
EleanaTobias: So, do you think that the Internet, these games specifically, are ill-preparing future generations?
Cyber Hater: Well, let’s see. How about instead of playing Internet games, you could get a group of people to come over and play board games, join a softball team, have them watch movies together. If we’re just on line, they are just letters on a screen and you can’t get past that. I think this medium is very limited this way.
EleanaTobias: Let me really play the devil’s advocate: I want to ask, what about someone who wants to respond to you with: “who the hell are you to tell me that the Internet is stifling my growth. What if I don’t care? What if the majority of people I’ve met are pains in the ass and I prefer this gratification to real life? Screw you.” What would you say to that?
Cyber Hater: I would say that’s your choice, your choice in life, you fucking douche bag, if we’re going to get nasty.
EleanaTobias: Well, but here you say, “it’s your choice” yet you would support measures to eliminate the Internet? So, isn’t there some tension there?
Cyber Hater: Sure, there is some tension. That’s the point. I’d like world peace too. No crime, but I’m not going to get it. So, I’m going to have to deal with the Internet. Since, it’s here, it’ll be my choice to use it or not use it just as it’s my choice to rob someone’s home. I think it’s a destructive thing to do just as I think the isolation of the Internet is destructive. If all you do is play on the Internet, it eats away your life. I mean, this is specifically true for people who devote a lot of their life to the Internet.
EleanaTobias: Okay, so your position is that people should be free to choose whether they use the Internet or not. The “plug-pulling” comment was your expression that you wish it did not exist, but since it does, you have to learn to live with it and you’re not actively seeking to abolish it (which would be a tough project, I imagine).
Cyber Hater: Yes, like nuclear weapons, they’re here to stay and I realize the Internet is too although I really feel a responsibility to caution people about it and I’d be thrilled to live in a world without it. Realistically, a person has to learn to live with it. The Internet may not be as destructive as a nuclear weapon, mind you. Still, I really think the world is better without it.
EleanaTobias: Thanks for your time today.
Cyber Hater: You are welcome. I know that when you print this you’re going to put my name and address. I’ll have all these tech-head people showing up on my doorstep—- “I think the Internet is a very useful tool.” Get a life. Really.
Cocoanut
Aug 4th, 2004
My goodness! I must have missed the name and address part somewhere, which robs me of the real-life, more meaningful pleasure of showing up on this person’s doorstep!
Not really. Although I think most of us would agree that we can spend too much time on the Internet (since we never seem to get to the end of it), I would take issue, especially, with the part regarding research.
If I can save the gasoline and the time required to go to the library to get a particular bit of information and find it on the web instead (which you will have to assume I can do capably, as a researcher), then it is not only better for me to do it that way, it’s better for the environment.
Cyber Hater him/herself, if he/she is a collector of records, would find E-bay an exquisitely exciting place to hang out. I have found a vastly better selection of piano music that meets my own tastes than I could find anywhere in this big city, and I pay less for it, too. Ditto rubber stamps.
And I do have a pleasant relationship with the (real) people who sell these things, because in most cases, we have these interests in common. I think my relationship with them is probably just as real, enjoyable, meaningful, or long-lasting – if not MORE so – than my relationship with a clerk in a physical store who sells me these things. Though I have met small store owners who share the passion with me (for rubber stamps, for instance), too often the clerks are just working there, you know; they could care less about what stamp or sheet music I am excited by.
Because virtually everyone has to work outside of the house or go to school outside of the house, I don’t think we are in much danger of becoming isolated in our homes or socially inept because of the Internet. I think what has happened instead is that other leisure activities – such as watching TV – have been somewhat supplanted. The same thing happened to radio when television came along.
And for people who are handicapped in any way, by age, illness, or a lack of money to get around and do much else, the internet is a godsend.
The fact that SO MUCH (legit) information is available at the touch of your fingers – and SO MANY people from all walks of life and all interests are right there for the meeting – makes the computer one of the greatest advances of civilization.
coco
Cocoanut
Aug 4th, 2004
Need to add – my friendships with people that I play on-line games with, likewise, is just as meaningful and rewarding as my real-life friendships with, say, other Girl Scout leaders, people at the old folks’ home, or people at church.
coco
blaze
Aug 4th, 2004
People build characters that have relationships and seniority. To simply log off or quit the character, is to lose those relationships and seniority.
In real life you can commit a crime, declare bankruptcy, change your name and move to another city or country. In fact, many many many do.
eBay where you have a feedback rating or web forums where number of your posts are counted are examples of how you can not simply ‘log off’ without losing everything you’ve built up. In fact, quite often, there is far more accountability in these mediums than you can ever find in real life. The fact is you need to learn interaction skills of a sort on the internet.
The fact is, the internet is a medium like any other medium. You can get a job where you are holed away and rarely ever have to speak to anyone. Like, you can be a lighthouse keeper or something or live or take a vow of silence and live in a monastery.
The disadvantage of the internet is that you do not physically see the people you are talking to. The advantage is that you are exposed to ideas, cultures, and concepts far far superior to those that you can only interact with locally.
If Cyber-Hater bothered to use the internet and read this blog he would have an opportunity to interact with opinions and ideas from all corners of the world. Unfortunately, he seems to hate the concept of doing this.
urizenus
Aug 10th, 2004
CH sounds a lot like Hubert Dreyfus his book On th Internet. There,s a review of thar somewhere on this blog.
kale
Aug 10th, 2004
Yeah, here’s that url:
http://www.alphavilleherald.com/archives/000004.html
I’m not sure CH’s philosophy is that evolved (although, who am I to say it’s not; could be). At any rate, I think it’s fairly interesting that there are a large number of people who do display an antipathy toward certain aspects of the Internet, and I don’t think the point is moot. There could be something to it, and at any rate, I like to understand why some may feel that way. It’s easy to overlook the potential downside of this medium, perhaps, when we’re so immersed in it (for better or worse).
urizenus
Aug 10th, 2004
there is room for criticism, but much of the existing criticism is uninformed boilerplate technophobic jibberish.
humdog
Aug 11th, 2004
i am not a technophobe but i think CH has a point.
there is a sinister side to all of this phosphorescent superficiality, and when i feel
better i will write it down.
EleanaTobias
Aug 11th, 2004
Humdog— yayyyyy! I think there is something to Cyber Hater’s philosophy too, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. During the interview, I kept being distracted by his hypnotic old-school guru wisdom (“look within” and “it’s in the journey, ya know?”).
I think you’re just the person to lend clarity to all this. Feel better soon, dear!
Ian
Aug 11th, 2004
YES HUMDOG TO THE RESCUE!!! whew, all we need is her…
Maria laVeaux
Aug 12th, 2004
C.H.: First, why create characters to play against other characters? Shouldn’t they look within?
I know CH will not be reading this, so the Question is Open to all,,,
Isn’t “Exploring Within” EXACTLY what we are doing when we create these alternates?
In the Surreal worlds of TSO, and Second Life. Aren’t people, Free from many societaly based Prejudices, and Stereotypes Far more free to explore various facets of their personality?
I myself, and Most others i know, when we discuss just what it is we are doing, Agree that we are trying on many of the “What If’s” that society and the realities of our life have prevented us from examining so far. For some, it has meant being Awakened to Parts of themselves that have layen dormant for most of our lives. For others, it has meant taking to the real world, the Confidence, and Self Acceptance that has been Nurtured On Line.
Some have gained an awareness of their sexuality. Others have dived fully into Lifestyles that are out of their reach in RL. Politics, Mafia’s, Religious Orders, Open Relationships, Big Business, Sports, Entertainment, Academic Acheivements. All this, and much more.
Looking Within, Self Exploration all done safely in these environments WITH the assistance of others on a similar journey.
C.H.’s endictment of the net, saying it promotes Isolation is not a very well thought out, or researched opinion. “I sit alone in my room on the computer, therefore i am Isolated”. No. In RL, I am Painfully shy. Expressing myself in the way i do here, is very difficult for me. I Hid behind books my whole life using them as a shield to avoid speaking to others. (Poof goes the “Book” arguement that C.H. put forward, Sneezing from the dust Isn’t a Social Interaction, it is an Allergic reaction) Then i discovered TSO, and On Line, within weeks, i was out of my shell, and this HAS carried over to my RL as well. The Net has Ended my isolation, Not promoted it.
It’s Huge,, the Internet,, Everything, and i MEAN Everything can be had in it at the touch of a few buttons. Intellectual Materials on every subject, Brain Candy to suit any Palate, Access to Markets that span the globe, Music, Literature, AND People one would Only see in RL if one posessed Huge personal resources.
The sheer size of the thing scares people. The Lack of Boarders Intimidates them. ALL the walls people put up around themselves, or have had put up around them by others MELT in the On Line Environment.
For many, this is simply terrifying.
At one point in our History, All books were hand written, and available in only a limited range of subjects due to the religeous outlook of the only people with the ability to write. Then Johannes Gutenburg Invented the printing Press, and Movable type. NOW, the Intellectual world Exploded with possibilities and opportunities. There were many who felt this was an evil thing, and predicted No good coming from it. I see the same pattern with Every new form of disseminating information that has come since. Telegraph, Radio, Telephones, Televisions The list is huge, and in Every case, there can be found people like C.H. who are afraid of the change, and mask it behind calls of “This will destroy society”. Well, We have had printed books for 600 years, and society is still here. Changed,, But still here. The Internet is a NEW form of communication, A Wider, and less restrictive form, and for those people who Truely believe, as Macheavelli did, that the masses Are not fit to decide things for themselves, This sort of freedom is as Mortifying a concept as possible.
If you think the net is not for you, I won’t try to change your mind, But you don’t have ALL the information you need to make that value judgement for Others. Saying things like, “If i were in charge of the world, I would shut the net down” speaks more of your Fears than of any well founded Intellectual disagreement with the principles of the Internet.
You call for “Looking Within” Then Look within yourself, and try to see the REAL reasons that the Internet scares you, Not the rather flimsey arguements you have used here.
You are not being held to Ridicule, as you fear, But your Ideas are being challenged. THAT is a fundamental of Interaction.Let’s see if you can embrace the process.
Post again chere.
Maria.
Mafioso
Aug 12th, 2004
I always look forward to your posta Ms. laVeaux. They are well thought out and intellectually pleasing
Mafioso
Aug 12th, 2004
posts* damnit
humdog
Aug 12th, 2004
re isolation:
yes. i agree with that comment — the net does encourage isolation, and xenophobia. in 1993 or so, when stuff was mostly unix and before usenet was destroyed by advertisers and publicity hounds, i was learning to play JS Bach’s ART OF THE FUGUE. this is a difficult and obscure work for keyboard. i thought, with big stars in my eyes, that it would be fun to talk about the work online. so i made my little post. i didn’t expect many replies etc. but i got six of them — all people on different continents. right then i realized that by using the net, “boxed” social worlds could be created so that nobody would have to deal with any challenge or newness or diversity unless they wanted to. since that time i see that occur over and over — voices sort of clump together on the net in a way that they are unable to clump together in daily life.
because of this ability the net has to box social interaction, to sort of shrink-wrap relationship,and because there is most always a cost of entry attached to electronically mediated communication, i tend to think that all of the hype about smart mobs etc is deceptive –
unless you want to spend your time hanging with people who are mostly from the same demographic universe.
a good place to visit if you don’t believe me is
http://www.well.com which pretty much reflects a social world view common in marin county, usa, and projects that world view onto the rest of the world.
humdog
Aug 12th, 2004
re handwritten/codex v printing press
ms la veaux has horrifically over-simplified
the situation with the spread of knowledge
during the middle ages. true books were handwritten. but books were also available for rent, there were other manuscripts called glosses, (commentaries) and professors travelled a circuit. also terms like “information” and “knowledge” have different definitions for the pre-printing press individual than they have nowadays. people used DIFFERENT PROCESSES to create and learn than those used now. it is
usually not a good idea to project present day cultural patterns relative to the spread of ideas and knowledge on to other, dis-similar cultural groups.
thank you i feel better now.
humdog
Aug 12th, 2004
re handwritten/codex v printing press
ms la veaux has horrifically over-simplified
the situation with the spread of knowledge
during the middle ages. true books were handwritten. but books were also available for rent, there were other manuscripts called glosses, (commentaries) and professors travelled a circuit. also terms like “information” and “knowledge” have different definitions for the pre-printing press individual than they have nowadays. people used DIFFERENT PROCESSES to create and learn than those used now. it is
usually not a good idea to project present day cultural patterns relative to the spread of ideas and knowledge on to other, dis-similar cultural groups.
thank you i feel better now.
EleanaTobias
Aug 12th, 2004
Rock on, humdog! (btw, glad you’re feeling better and getting that off your chest seemed to help— keep on the mend; thoughts and good wishes are with you
)
I think that there is something right on about legitimate fears having to do with ‘net usage, but those who have written here about actual gains in their lives from the on-line world, show that the issue is a lot more tricky than this interview certainly does, justice to, and that’s entirely my fault— late night interview, a little punchy, kicking back w/ a few beers and such (As light bulbs flicker in the minds of all our bloggers here— horrific insight into how the Herald staff conducts business. I know, I know, but…).
I believe it’s really hard to dispute that the internet can have pitfalls. Further I think that zoning in on the charge that it may lead to isolation, poor personal skills and a turning away from others, as humdog’s illustration nicely illuminates (I like the phrase “boxed social worlds”— right on, I think) is perhaps one of the biggest downsides. Yet, I don’t believe that to be an entirely damning criticism as many here have pointed out: one can find many many varieties of escapism (or methods of “boxing”) and escapism isn’t always a bad thing anyhow, perhaps. What I find so interesting is that on-line environments are so seductive because they present a unique way of shutting out the world. The ‘net is so vast that one could have the illusion that they are making great social connections and developing (and by “illusion” I don’t mean to imply that they aren’t doing so to an extent, but my concern is that the individual is *over* estimating the skills and growth that they’re receiving on-line) when they are missing out on a lot of whatever else the world may offer to them as a human being. If there is such an illusion, it’s a hell of one; where else can you find that kind of environment? It’s especially enticing, all these seemingly dynamic wonderful experiences, so much so that it may be hard to see the damage being done to the individual (arguably, of course). I find that fascinating.
Anyhow, since CH’s philosophy seems superficial to many, are there any good reads out there addressing this issue that people care to share?