Does Internet Connectivity (and social media) make the world "more crowded" is both a simple question and a complex question.
The reason it is an important question is illustrated by the Universe 25 experiment.
It appears that some mammals are like locust, our hard-wired behavioral responses change at a very fundamental, biological level when we are "crowded".
"Animals became increasingly violent, developed abnormal sexual behaviors, and began neglecting or even attacking their own pups. Calhoun termed this breakdown of social order a “behavioral sink.” "Can you say "bee hive"? I knew you could.
Dissonance
It is my perception that places in the world that are densely populated have intricate and strictly enforced rules-of-conduct to minimize friction. Japan, as an example.
If "deviant behavior" is inevitable, it is allowed in a carefully controlled environment with lots of guard-rails around it, Amsterdam, for instance.
The virtual world of social media and other internet universes have almost no rules-of-conduct because of anonymity.
On the internet, superficially attractive responses to stresses are presented with no means to dig deeper and see if there are unattractive secondary or tertiary consequences. As opposed to meat-space where you would have to dig deeply to find the novel response and are then immediately be slapped in the face with the negative secondary and tertiary consequences.
In cyber-space, deciding you are a homosexual may seem like a slam-dunk if you cannot understand the opposite sex. But it ignores the fact that you probably cannot understand ANYBODY regardless of sex. Furthermore, it blithely skates around the statistical likelihood that your life-expectancy will drop by 20 years if you "decide" you are gay.
I cannot save the world, but I can suggest that you make a point of turning off the Internet once a day, grabbing somebody you love and taking a long walk outside in God's universe. Every day!
And if you cannot find a human who will go outside with you, get a dog.
I have a life elsewhere... Thankfully!
ReplyDeleteNice.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not the internet makes the world feel more crowded is a bit subjective. Something that by definition is not measurable. What can't easily be denied is the internet has done a pretty good job of murdering manners, morality and most of the societal norms that used to allow us to function normally. The internet allows people to say things they would never dream of saying in meat space for fear of getting punched out. That mentality tends to carry over to the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteGood analysis Joe. The lemmings are definitely heading for the cliffs and big tech is showing the way.---ken
ReplyDelete