Category Archives: Internet

Is modern society turning us into self-indulgent twats?

This is a question I’ve been pondering lately and I believe unequivocally that the answer – for the vast majority of under 35′s – is Yes. I beleive I am a prime example myself, and I’ll tell you why …

It seems as life has drifted further from the analog world into the digital world, people too have made the change and adapted to their new virtual environment. People with their laptops, PDA’s, GPS’s, Blackberrys, iPhones etc. are spending more time accessing information and communicating digitally rather than face-to-face. What used to take hours, weeks or months in the past century now takes place in a matter of minutes, moments and seconds. The end result is we have less time for people in the ‘real world’ and instead want instant gratification, right now God damn it! We’ve become a society of impulsive, attentionally defecit, instantly gratifying consumer whores. And, I’m as bad, if not worse, than most.

It’s always existed and has gradually increased over the decades in volume and magnitude through images, innuendo and ideas via mass media, advertisements and other mediums. Thinking about other people is not cool. Go out and buy that new car that makes you look cool, God damn you! That’s been changing somewhat with the greater attention paid to the environment and less fortunate peoples’ plights elsewhere these days, though largely people still do gratify themselves first and think about the consequences to themselves and others later, if ever.

Furthermore, with the invention of cell phones, the Internet, blogs, messenger systems, Skype, YouTube, webcams and social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, we can communicate, transmit information, pass ideas, pursue and keep relationships, or pass gossip instantaneously to all points of the world. – This is particularly true for someone like me who lives overseas away from his established network of family and friends back home.

The end result, of which I am more than guilty – a poster-child in fact, is a society of people obsessed with being noticed in the cybersphere, who seek gratification by being noticed in cyberspace by using various platforms such as weblogs, social networking sites, YouTube or messenger systems. We have upcoming generations who are more active in their cyberworld than their real world, as it’s easier to fake in the cyber world and it’s easier to create a new, more intriguing personality online than it is in person.

Furthermore, the end result is largely self-indulgent drivel that doesn’t really move the human race as a whole any further but rather is just replacing, or indeed enhancing, established traits and behaviours via new modes and mediums. Perhaps I’m being a bit utopian – particularly as I find myself being swept in by the whole phenomena of wanting to be ‘noticed’, wanting to be ‘seen’ on the Internet. I guess a lot of it comes from never being all that popular in person and wanting to be noticed, to be seen, to be ‘approved’ of. There are many exceptions of course and many who keep blogs, use social networks, and other mediums largely do so to serve their community and the causes they support. Two examples off the top of my head here in Korea are Robert and Brian.

Clearly, these new technologies and modes of communication are highly useful, entertaining and addictive. A case in point, we’ve had reports recently of Barack Obama having to wean himself off his Blackberry as it’s seen as a potential security threat for the President to use such an easily accessible device.

Anyways, I’ve gotta go. I’ve go a new friend request on Facebook I’ve gotta approve, I’m so popular. Pity, I’m a twat in person!