The Internet

Today I was thinking about social media, and the power it plays in our lives.

Within the internet we often create an alternate personality, and in so doing, we can feel dissociated from reality - or our actions online. In itself, perhaps this isn't so bad. People - like me - can vent or speak about issues they don't dare talk about in real life, and we can only do so through the feeling that our identity is protected.
However, this disassociation can also have negative connotations. I would like to compare it - in the extreme - to the infamous 'Milgram Experiment' which occurred in 1961,  the scientist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of tests when one test subject would administer electric shocks to another test subject in another room. Each time the second test subject got their answer wrong, the shock voltage went up. The test subject being shocked would begin to complain, scream, then bang on the wall in protest, then finally, go silent. Although the test subject administering the test would begin to question the experiment, with assurance from the one administering the test, they would continue to what would be fatal or at least very worrying levels. Of course, the shocks were not actually occurring at all, but they didn't know that. Although this experiment was to ascertain the power of authority  (a reaction to the question of guilt in the Nazi trials that were occurring at this time) I also believe that it was in part due to the powder of dissociation. They could not see their 'victim' only hear him. In a way, the internet is the same -it allows you to see only certain reactions, certain parts of a person. You do not see the reality, and thus you can ignore it, continue past the breaking point because you don't actually see the direct consequences of your actions.

Perhaps the link is too tenuous.

What about isolation due to the internet?
We are so often so busy talking to our friends online, we ignore those right in front of us, or miss opportunities completely. I think most of us have had the incredibly annoying experience of visiting friends and them having them distracted, too busy checking their phones to properly talk to you.

I think I see it most when travelling. When I first started off, full of my parents stories of the people they met on their travels, the conversations struck up in youth hostels, buses and coffee shops, I was full of hope for the travel companions I would meet.
But on my travels I was met by an almost imperceptible wall of silence, broken by the clicking of technology, the invisible messages sent to and fro, the communications taking place across countries and continents. And surrounded by all these people, I was alone, facing a wall I didn't know how to break.
How sad that we are surrounded by humankind, yet so alone. What experiences are we missing, simply because we don't look up?

No-one can argue that this isn't the way of the future, and to shy from it is to fall behind, but I don't think we fully realise the power in this invisible world, nor the impact it has on those who grow up surrounded by it.

Technology is a beautiful thing, it offers us opportunities we couldn't have dreamed about thirty years ago, and it is growing exponentially, like a living thing. I can't imagine life without it, nor I suppose, would I want to. But I think it's important to realise that everything, even the most beautiful of things casts a shadow, and the internet is no exception.