I was browsing through LifeHack in my Google Reader, an online tool which allow reading through multiple RSS feeds, when I came across this article. It poses the question: “Where would you be today without social media tools?”
Now, that got me thinking. It’s amazing how profound, and yet at the same time skewed, of a life is possible with the advent of internet. In such a large way, I feel spoiled by all of this. I type on my blog as if it were nothing, a simple tool that relays information from one user of the internet to the other. Yet, despite this view, it is the culmination of some software engineers’ dream.
Then to what extent can we really overlook such simple wonders as being able to type a few words, publish, and near instantaneously have others read from all over the world?
It’s so amazing.
Where would we be without these “series of tubes” that practically govern a vast majority of trades of information in our lives? I mean sure, the internet without the social networking would pretty much suck. But without the internet, what would life be?
While the convenience is most certainly present, to what cost can we attribute good to it?
I remember growing up in rural Philippines, near farms and quite a ways from all the luxuries and curses of a big city. I believe that was an amazing way by which to spend the first parts of life; running around fields, playing as children play, truly feeling a deep sense of connectedness to family, friends, and neighbors around me. I fear sooner or later such simple pleasures will not be as prevalent.
And yet, how is the next generation to grow? Will they run around the virtual playground? Pick fights on message boards? Will they take countless pictures of their faces, picking only the ones that look the best? Friend counts as a gauge of personal worth? Update user profiles as a definition of their character?
But maybe they’ll find Wikipedia? I sure as hell would have loved an encyclopedia growing up.
And then I begin wondering how individuals of the past were able to keep contact through great distances and still survive keeping a sense of connectedness with family, friends, and loves.
I mean, sure, it’s easy as hell to send an email or make a call. But a letter takes time to both write, send, and receive. This new age of instantaneous information will strip away a lot of the romanticism of the past. And in that way, I suppose it will create its own. Most certainly it will create its own.
I don’t think I could easily survive without the internet, and that disappoints me at times. Coming from a Computer Science major, that must seem odd.
But still…
I have heard the story of lovers sending letters across great oceans. I’ve yet to hear the story of lovers poking one another on Facebook.
