“…a lack of face-to-face interaction leads people to devalue themselves and others and this leads to some wacky personal and social behavior on their part.
For example, war and other kinds of violence become easier for these folks to accept because they don’t have the empathy that comes with face-to-face interaction. Politicians and businessmen also get away with more because, if they are concerned about politics at all, people focus on broad political and social issues and virtual protest and not on the face-to-face social interaction required to really solve political and social problems.
Finally others suffer when face-to-face interaction is minimized. Kids are a good example. They need solid, loving personal interaction to grow into confident, effective, successful adults. That interaction doesn’t happen when one or both parents and maybe even the kid are almost constantly preoccupied with tantalizing electronic emanations from the Web and other media.”
Who Designed This Crap?
The Dark Side of the Internet
The Internet is a wondrous place that some misuse in a way that can be especially devastating for us all.
It seems its designers didn’t take account of the fact that it imposes a kind of level of abstraction – a depersonalization screen that removes us from the face-to-face interaction we might otherwise have with people.
Come to the dark side.
Be sure to read pages 4 and 5. Page 4 focuses responsibility for Internet misuse on a target that may surprise you. Page 5 is some cool feedback from a reader who sees things very differently.