Friday, January 11, 2008
Illusion of Me
Ullman’s “The Museum of Me” incisively picks apart society’s response to (and control of) the internet, but relies too heavily on the use and misapplication of the term “disintermediation”. In her essay, the internet is the harbinger of individuality in a populace searching for control. Privatization is top priority, and the web allows desperately reclusive citizens to move from the friction of civic space to the comfort and power of their own computer screens. Today’s internet and society in tandem seem to function in vastly different terms. The world wide web is in fact the ultimate intermediate agent and the ultimate commune. When one logs online, he places himself at the mercy of a massively complex social engine that robs our personal information and distributes it to countless online salespeople, who are far more numerous, invasive, and automatic than the shoe salesman at the mall. If we value “disintermediation” in the internet, it is only the illusion of control which impresses us and keeps us tethered to the desktop. At heart, humans are social beings and crave interpersonal connection. As the internet hypnotizes us with the impression of immediacy, so too do social networking sites like MySpace satisfy our desire for connection without actually providing it. At its core, the internet is a money-making machine that gratifies primal human needs without granting them. It is, like the screen-bound “pleasant virtual reflections” in the Packard Bell commercial, just a shadow on the cave wall.
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2 comments:
Yes, it is an illusion, but it a nice illusion of "being free." The Internet is a mean to communicate. I sense today we desperately need to communicate with others what we think, we feel, we want, we dream. The society "we" created stole our ability to socialize. Mine maybe is a radical outlook on the current human condition, but I may not be wrong if we found blogs in which people talk just about what is going on in their life. These people hope somebody will read their posts and answer at least to some of them. A lousy answer just to let these people remember they are still alive.
On one level I agree heartily with Todd’s point that “at heart, humans are social beings and crave interpersonal connection. As the internet hypnotizes us with the impression of immediacy, so too do social networking sites like MySpace satisfy our desire for connection without actually providing it” but on the other hand both MySpace and Facebook provide numerous opportunities to enhance true relationships and human connections. You cannot loose sight of the value this type of tool becomes in the hands of families and friends separated by miles. I know what you mean though, the fact that people try to usurp the reality and necessity of human connection for their Facebook list of “Friends”. Everything in proportion is how I judge things.
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