Life should be lived out in the open, not on the internet. The world is a beautiful place and should be properly experienced with wide eyes and phone away. Today a combination of people power and internet power conspired to inadvertantly rob me of a potentially exciting experiment and a day or two of naive happiness. It was not intentional, but the power of the web is such that the implications of our posts and uploads can have unexpected consequences. I don't blame people for that, I blame the technology which enables us.
We have created something we don't completely understand, and I think we need to acknowledge that, slow down, and think about what we want to use this power for. In our day to day dealings with people we all have an implicit code of practice - a way of living. Why do we so easily leave that behind when the laptop is opened?
This blog is not aimed at one person, and I want them to know that. It's aimed at any number of this community today, myself included. But I'm scared at how publicly we have come to live our lives, and how videos and memes have come to replace heartfelt apologies, declarations of love, passive aggressive anger - not complement the usual methods of communicating these things, but actively replace them. We are forfeiting our sense of reality; it's why I write my postcards, my letters - to remind myself of the real world. I am terrified that we will forget to communicate in any meaningful way with each other.
When I was married, I didn't use social networking at all. If I fucked up, I had to be creative about how I apologised. Armed with sincerity and a bit of imagination, I wrote letters, stood outside the flat with a ghetto-blaster, sang stupid songs...did all sorts of ridiculous-sounding shit until just how sorry I was was understood. My wife and I hatched mad-brilliant schemes to show our love, and when we hurt each other, we did it face-to-face. I'm conditioned to use the tools of the real world, and I wouldn't dream of using public platforms to deal in depth with private relationship problems. Every day I see the various social network media used in this way. But I'm scared that these will replace our traditional modes of expression or at least stunt our natural ability to connect with one another.
Today, the internet hurt me. I love it, but it hurt me. The internet can't apologise. It can't make it up to me. Isn't it awful to be so in thrall to such a passionless sociopath?
This weekend looks likely to be a good one. There may even be happy photos as a result. Maybe I'll post some, and maybe I'll keep some for myself. I might even buy a photo album. Grayson Perry would call that making a shrine.
Carry the fire.
Edit: Since writing this, I've thought of a thousand ways I've used public forums to air what should be private issues. That I'd forgotten terrifies me. It shouldn't be so easy.
We have created something we don't completely understand, and I think we need to acknowledge that, slow down, and think about what we want to use this power for. In our day to day dealings with people we all have an implicit code of practice - a way of living. Why do we so easily leave that behind when the laptop is opened?
This blog is not aimed at one person, and I want them to know that. It's aimed at any number of this community today, myself included. But I'm scared at how publicly we have come to live our lives, and how videos and memes have come to replace heartfelt apologies, declarations of love, passive aggressive anger - not complement the usual methods of communicating these things, but actively replace them. We are forfeiting our sense of reality; it's why I write my postcards, my letters - to remind myself of the real world. I am terrified that we will forget to communicate in any meaningful way with each other.
When I was married, I didn't use social networking at all. If I fucked up, I had to be creative about how I apologised. Armed with sincerity and a bit of imagination, I wrote letters, stood outside the flat with a ghetto-blaster, sang stupid songs...did all sorts of ridiculous-sounding shit until just how sorry I was was understood. My wife and I hatched mad-brilliant schemes to show our love, and when we hurt each other, we did it face-to-face. I'm conditioned to use the tools of the real world, and I wouldn't dream of using public platforms to deal in depth with private relationship problems. Every day I see the various social network media used in this way. But I'm scared that these will replace our traditional modes of expression or at least stunt our natural ability to connect with one another.
Today, the internet hurt me. I love it, but it hurt me. The internet can't apologise. It can't make it up to me. Isn't it awful to be so in thrall to such a passionless sociopath?
This weekend looks likely to be a good one. There may even be happy photos as a result. Maybe I'll post some, and maybe I'll keep some for myself. I might even buy a photo album. Grayson Perry would call that making a shrine.
Carry the fire.
Edit: Since writing this, I've thought of a thousand ways I've used public forums to air what should be private issues. That I'd forgotten terrifies me. It shouldn't be so easy.
