Danger, Will Robinson!

While reading Ullman’s "The Museum of Me," I was struck with déjà vu. I had read this before. Well, clarification: I had read something like this before. Ullman’s discussion of the Web as an intensely personal, isolating space, reminded me of an article I read way back in, god forbid, high school. Flashback to Science Fiction Lit, Period 6, right after lunch, with a curriculum chock full of cheesy 50’s Sci-Fi flicks and a textbook full of Bradbury and killer meteorites. I remember one reading assignment in particular, partially because it seemed so out of place, and partially because it scared me to death. It was an essay from a reputable magazine, the name and author lost to me, discussing how advances in technology are slowly isolating individuals from the rest of society. People are moving away from each other as a society because they are so wrapped up in their own little asocial worlds ( i.e. Ullman’s Web). The article got pretty sensational, hypothesizing about a world where people just holed themselves up in their houses and never socialized in large groups. A little far-fetched yes, but it does raise some valid points. I mean, don’t we find ourselves text messaging or emailing people rather than talking to them face to face? Or waiting for that movie to come out on DVD so we can watch it in the privacy and convenience of our own homes? We are isolating ourselves in a way. So tonight, go hang out with some friends, or see a movie in a loud theater, or go be part of an audience for a play or comedy show, and then pat yourself on the back, oh defender of all things social, you’ve just saved the world from impending doom.