Readings

“No geography, no landscape. It has no distance. It has nothing natural in it. It has few rules of behaviour and fewer lines of authority. Common sense doesn’t hold there, and uncommon sense hasn’t yet emerged. No wonder we’re having trouble figuring out how to build businesses in this new land.” – David Weinberger, ‘Small Pieces’

Pretend that you are bored.

Bored with everything.

You have tried new jobs, new clothing, even new boyfriends. But somehow, everything is still just……. well…… BORING.

Now picture the laptop which you are undoubtedly reading this on. Don’t picture the outside of it, ignore the little white apple on the front. I want you to focus on the inside, the brain of the computer. Think about all the things you can do with that one little computer in your hands.

You can completely recreate yourself without leaving your padded IKEA seat. Say goodbye to boredom, you have a whole new world at your fingertips – quite literally. And so it is for so many people around the world. Living vicariously through online alias’, becoming the people they wish they were….

It will remain this way, until the battery dies or god-forbid you must engage real human interaction.

It is the terrifying reality of this world, which makes the internet such a vibrantly exciting yet overwhelmingly scary place to reside.

I wonder if it will become normal for people to have two personalities?

Will medical professionals be diagnosing every.single.person with split personality disorder?

“Hi I’m Sarah, and this is my online alter-ego, Angelica…”

This is similar to the concerns which  Weinberger describes, as seen in his example using Michael Campbell, an american teenager questioned and jailed for warning a student online not to attend school the day a massacre occurred.

If we choose to live two different lives, can we really expect to live two separate destiny’s, avoiding real-life consequences if they’re not “real-life” actions?

Or will our cyber-lives collide like Michael Campbell’s, and prove that no matter how distant reality may seem, we will never lose the fundamentals of societal function?

 

suggests that it is easier for people to create alternative identities online. to say things they do not mean, and to appear experts on things in which they are not.

 

Sarah

Professional Communication student. Writer. Blogger.

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