Remember the Internet? Right now, you might be saying to yourself, "Of course I do. I'm on it looking at these words." But I don't mean this thing we call the Internet. I mean the Internet of a bygone era, the Internet Al Gore created, the one used for communication and knowledge.
The Internet has become a shell of itself. Knowledge gathering is reduced to the highly convenient, but incredibly unreliable, Wikipedia. Communication has devolved into the high school politics of Myspace. Ask the majority of people who use the Internet what they use it for. Most will say downloading music or movies, email and porn.
So the Internet turned from a useful tool to a glorified TV. I will admit that it is convenient to have so much entertainment at my fingertips. I like to download music instead of going to a store and it is nice to stream videos of people being stupid on YouTube while I'm at work. But I feel that we've devalued the Internet and taken its possibilities for granted.
I think the thing that has devolved most of all are the wondrous communication tools: chat rooms, email, blogs, social networking sites and the like. Chat rooms quickly moved from the next evolution of the telephone to a device for sex and pedophiles. Email is now so pervasive that it is available on cell phones and has basically quit evolving. Blogs still have value in that they allow instant eyewitness updates of news, but most are used for what I am doing now — a daily bitch session. The social networking sites are convenient because it is one big cluster fuck of friends that can be stayed in contact with despite time and distance. It also allows for some sort of individuality. But it can also be exclusive and used for bullying. Plus, the sheer number of "friends" that use it for completely juvenile purposes as propaganda, sloganeering and motives for promoting themselves and their personal relationships (see users whose names are "I love ___") is idiotic.
Every once in a while, I'll see what the Internet could be. I can find a well put together site, get some research worthy sources for topics I'm interested in, download PDFs of recent medical and sociological studies or get breaking news from around the world seconds after it happens. It just makes me sad that I have to pilfer through a virtual swamp of refuse to get to it.
Sure, what I am typing now is only serving to further gum up the internal workings of this mystery that is cyberspace. But at least I am aware of it and that makes me feel better.
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