Thread: One for the geeks...

***From a series of articles I wrote for disaffected twenty-somethings, a year or so ago - PR***

A life lived in cyberspace is neither a life nor a life lived. How can you live - touch, feel, smell and see the things that make life whole if you are trapped in a universe of cables…a parallel dimension?

A very wise person once told me that without cyberspace the lives of millions would instantly become boring. Quite true, however, where do we draw the line? When does too much computer cancel out what is natural and human about our behaviour?

I have been trapped in this cyber universe with many friendships, and I can give one bit of advice - hold on to reality for dear life, because it will always be there whether you want to hide from it or not.

It occurred to me the other day, while I was pouring over the photo album of my best mate, that what I was looking at was completely foreign, that I was seeing his history for the very first time. It was a rather poetic moment, and it reaffirmed the reality of him as a friend to me, and separated him from that pile of emails that he had become. You get to a point where all you have out of a friendship is a pile of emails. I actually printed out the emails, simply because I needed to feel like there was more substance there…as if a pile of paper would make him more real.

So what is so enticing about the Internet? I think it acts as not only as a tool for expansion and exploration, but also as a means to be that 'Great and Powerful Oz' - it is the curtain you can hide behind and create your alter ego. Unfortunately you may find that no matter how hard you try, Dorothy will always be there to give you a reality check.

This curtain allows freedom and expression; people open up and pour their hearts out to complete strangers, because they know they are protected. Sometimes you may come across a person who is not as sincere as they seem and to let down your guard would be folly - the number of times this has caught people out is countless. But then there are the darlings, the ones that make this new way of meeting people worthwhile. And this is where living your life in cyberspace becomes a whole lot more complicated.

When I was 15 I was in a 'Haven' (a chatroom you telnet to), and met a girl in Canada…seven years later I have yet to meet her in person, yet I treat her like a sister. And I suppose that when I do finally meet her it will be remarkably weird, because all I have ever known of her is her written and spoken manner; adding body language and mannerisms will be a bit of a revelation really! The easy thing about this particular relationship is that because of our geographical distance, I will settle for an email friendship. Cyberspace friendships only become a problem when you have experienced them in person and don't want to go back to just email…After meeting her in person I very much doubt I will be satisfied by a mere email!

Despite how instantaneous and convenient email is, it breeds a feeling of distance. It's sad that we end up emailing someone who sits next to us. In a way it puts distance between people because it discourages human contact.

My question is - how long can we survive with this lack of contact? Will we evolve to handle it? Will we evolve into a race of introverts? Where do we draw the line…when is too much cyberspace, too much?

For me it was when I realised that I had thirteen email addresses of my own, couldn't go a day without checking my emails, and had a collection of friends (printed off emails) in a box on my shelf. It all seemed rather pathetic, and I wondered exactly how long I could go on with friends that came in a box? After all I had met most of them, one was my best mate, yet they were just apparitions most of the time. The only substance was the screeds of A4 paper they inhabited.

This lead me to expand my definition of reality somewhat. I grew weary of trying to fight this new form of reality, so instead I am learning to live with my boxed friends. With one condition - that they do show their real face on occasion and not always hide behind their 'Great and Powerful Oz' emails.

I have one problem with the abundance of emails and the lack of letter writing that naturally ensues - no one keeps their emails! Well, us chicks do, I tell ya, I need thirteen email accounts just to store all those messages! But I wonder sometimes how much history disappears into the ether these days? With one click of a mouse whole email conversations can be deleted…and lost from our memoirs forever. That is why I still write the occasional letter, and hope like hell that the person I am writing to actually cares to create some tangible history and keeps the bloody thing!

"There is a powerful tension in our relationship to technology. We are excited by egalitarianism and anonymity, but we constantly fight for our identity." - David Owens.

Where is our collective identity heading? Are we stuck with this new reality? Are we destined to be defined by our server IP addresses and piles of emails in boxes on shelves? As we grow more anonymous perhaps our natural human instincts of interaction are changing. As we rely more on technology to be our senses perhaps our own are becoming sluggish? Have you seen people's handwriting lately? As soon as the computer becomes your source of communication, your handwriting deteriorates. This is a terrible shame as your handwriting has the potential to be a unique identifiable mark, an expression of your character…substance. The proliferation of technology is sapping us of substance.

Don't get me wrong, I love technology, in fact I am a certified computer geek, and by no means do I suggest we revert to quills and parchment. But looking forward to a time when instead of school textbooks and old diaries we have archived pst files and freshly burned CD's with our history on them. Does this not strike melancholy into the hearts of anyone? If you can condense your entire school career onto one CD-rom, (aside from convenience) do you not feel a lack of substance there? Is convenience that important? Perhaps we are all in such a rush to get where we are going, that we may not value enough where we have been.

I remind my apparitions, my friends in a box, that they must see me on occasion (if physically possible) if I am going to keep sane. I am a visual learner, so to see my friends is very important (you'd think that'd be the case for everyone, but apparently not, apparently some can go weeks and weeks with just the company of their computers). Not even the fanciest email in the World could satisfy my desire to look people in the eye, and to read their body language, and I know it never will.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." - Albert Einstein.

I have one last irritating question to throw into the ether: Do I have to deal with the Wizard of Oz scenario forever? I have visions of me playing the part of Dorothy in many a friendship in my lifetime. I will be the one who lifts the curtain on you 'Great and Powerful Oz', I will come and find you, make you step into the realm of the hand-writing, history-making, face to facers, even if only for a moment. That computer won't hide you forever I'm afraid, not from me anyway. I will be the one to casually drop into an email one day "Give it up Oz, I can see your feet…"

-PRChick.

wow. Something to think about there even tho i disagree with some of the points

That was great, it does give some things to consider and think about. That was a great article!