Sta.sh
Isn't that what the internet is all about- being connected? Your single computer linked up to the whole world, hundreds of millions of other people. Everything you do on the web seems to be about communication. Everything you create and upload is because of a wish for others to see and appreciate- if this wasn't the case, why would you put it online?
Members of this site are well known for craving page views and comments. OI think I am not the only one here who draws pictures while imagining the response it will get when submitted. This could sometimes even be the greatest motivator behind hours of work- "people might not like it unless I perfect this last detail..." - I wonder if what drives internet addiction is actually a form of loneliness, a desire to be acknowledged, appreciated, liked? Some make online friends that they may even talk to more than friends in real life, connected constantly by instant messaging programs. People post journals confiding their deepest feelings to the world wide web, when they feel unsafe to say such things to their own parents or loved ones. Many profiles I've seen describe the user as shy, quiet, introverted - maybe they have a need to be with others, talk with people they feel they have something in common with, a need far easier to satisfy online while hidden behind the safe anonymity of the web.
Have you ever found yourself in an idle moment going back to the computer check messages again and again, comments, favourites, watches, likes, reblogs, anything? Instead of being on the internet to share art or music or videos, I wonder if they such people just want someone to talk to them, to like them. Most have friends they could talk to in the dial of a phone number- but why are they so fascinated, so fixated by this online world? Does that unknown person behind that computer screen all those miles of optic fibre away have a certain glamour to them? After all, they could be absolutely anyone. Is it the thrill of feeling you have something in common with someone you have never met? Maybe it's the ability to put something out there that potentially huge numbers of people could see. Is there such a powerful desire to become 'popular' online, even to be almost worshipped by thousands of followers, because one feels mediocre and underappreciated in real life?
I have gotten to wondering whether anything can be done for its own sake, instead of so it can affect, be used, or appreciated by others, which is not merely to satiate the various strange urges of the human body.
Maybe this question is self-contradictory.
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I admit, the third paragraph applies to me a lot. It's an obsession I can't explain. Damn me and my social anxiety. :c
this will be relevant to your interests: [link] sorry for linking ya
Ah yes, TV tropes. great page, thanks
Good points, all. I like these deep, thoughtful thoughts of yours.
And I think I agree. What I think is really tragic about the internet is that there are all these people out in the world who feel so tragically alone in the real world that they use internet and social media and social networking as a way to make up for what they're missing in real life. But in the process, we kind of lose more and more of our ability to interact in the real world; we become withdrawn into a virtual alternate reality, that has all the same advantages, disadvantages, and intrigues of the real world but without any of the physical contact or connection that makes the real world unique.
Of course, I love the internet. It's benefited me in terms of my confidence (three years ago before dA, I NEVER let ANYONE see my artwork. Ever. I was way to embarrassed of it), my art, my ability to keep in touch with people who live far away, and it's introduced me to many people who I've never met but considered very very close friends.
The tradeoff? I spend long hours on the computer--probably at least 3 every day-- both online and offline (writing, mostly). Is that too much time? Yes. Does it affect me negatively? Probably, mostly in physical and time-management ways. Does it mess with my priorities? Definitely. Judgement? Yes. But do I want to stop using the internet? No no no no no no no no.
Maybe there's something to the thrill of total anonymity? A certain allure to the idea that the person on the other end of the fiber optic cables of internet communication could be anyone, but then again, you could be anyone too? And even if you're completely honest about who you are online, there's the chance that while in reality you could never find people just like you wherever you happen to be, the internet is limitless. There's always someone who thinks like you, right? Someone somewhere.
I think, in a sense, that you're right-- there's something unendingly wonderful and tragic about how people post and write and draw and blog for the world to see i hopes that they'll make it big. It's like having a second shot, in case making it in the real world-- where you can see and hear and feel the competition-- never really quite comes to be.
Yes, a phrase I heard once was all these people sitting by themselvse in their rooms talking on the internet are "alone, together". It's not quite alone, but it's not the same as being with real people either, and in a way it might be worse because of the illusion of company, the person has even less motivation to go out and break through the barriers they put up around themselves.
yes, the internet is extremely beneficial if you use it properly- access to information has never been easier. Research must have been a huge pain without internet, having to search through piles and piles of books to get the answer to a simple question.
I was also embarrassed of showing it to people, but finding a site like dA where everyone did it, it was somehow easier to just put it out there x3 ah, I think I'm guilty of spending even longer than that on the computer >_> totally messed up my priorities, judgement of time (an hour goes by in the blink of an eye) and also my self-control. I am ashamed I have let the computer take control of me, in a way. I'm still trying and failing to reduce this amount of time- there's just so much you can do. I haven't been reading nearly as much as I used to
That is true. The shame is that if you do, it is unlikely you'll be able to meet them in real life. The friendships are not entirely natural- I did once meet someone I knew mostly on the internet, and it was a bit strange and very different to talking to them online, and I do wonder if we would ever have become friends if we were, say, in the same school.
The instinctual desire for recognition can make or break. More often than not it fails- but it is like buying lottery tickets- the prize is unimaginable and the price, although at first deceptively small, can over the days and weeks and months end up mounting to far more than it should.
"Alone, together" is the phrase I was looking for. It's the way that everyone can be talking to each other and sharing thoughts with maybe thousands of people at once, and yet... they're kind of totally alone.
It's like when people text each other while they're in the same room. Sometimes they could be sitting right next to each other in a casual setting, and will still be texting each other. I mean... ???? I don't understand that one.
I remember having to do a research project when I was much younger-- probably only 9? 10?-- when we were forbidden from using an electronic device to do research. It wasn't all that weird at the time, but it was enough so that I remember flipping through encyclopedias for many long hours trying to find the information. It makes the research more... intimate, I guess, but the time cost is HUGE, by comparison. But I guess the practice is good-- for all I know we might "forget" how to do physical, flip-through-a-book research, which would be a problem for studying classics, history, and literature.
Yep, for the most part my time management is non-existent. In part because I'm easily distracted and in part because I'm used to the instant-gratification aspect of modern living (I want it now, I can get it now) and therefore I overestimate my ability to work. A task often takes me twice the time I expect it to take and then I fall behind very easily.
I wonder about that too. I always hope that I would be, but it's another weird thing about the internet where you have total anonymity, so it's almost easier to admit a secret because there's no face-to-face. I like to think I'd be friends with all of my internet friends in real life.
Well phrased. And then of course, you're stuck. Because you've committed all this time to it, failure is not an option, even though it's kind of inevitable. But then again, that's where hope and optimism come in, but I don't know how far into that I want to go because I could ramble about ethics for a very long time.