How can we make the internet more useful for the enjoyment and enhancement of real life?
There aren’t very many beautiful places left in the world, and the places in which most of us live are some of the ugliest of all those remaining. We are isolated from like-minded people, holed into environments completely devoid of architectural definition and visible community activity.
Many of us turn to the internet to escape and rectify these problems in our lives. We can find any number of people who share our interests and build a community with them. But these communities are in the end doomed to failure by their anonymity and placelessness. We need faces with which to talk to one another, and places in which to live together. How can we use the internet to help create these places?
It seems the internet has two main advantages over physical communities in that online communities are made of information, so information about the community is very easy to obtain, organize and transmit, and therefore very easy to change. Secondly, it is very inexpensive to create an online community, whereas it takes many years and millions, if not billions of dollars to create a successful physical community. Most of the successful physical communities (and there are very few) are many hundreds or even thousands of years old.
What do you think of this analysis, and how do you think web development can help alleviate the problems underlying such an opinion, whether you agree with this opinion or not?
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8 Answers
Hmm.. if I’m interpreting the question correctly, I would have to say I disagree. I think that while you can have the human aspect of a physical community in an online one, you will always miss out on the face-to-face interactions, no matter how advanced the technology is. As for the physical environment versus an online environment, I, personally, would much rather have a physical one. There are beautiful places around where I live and visiting them connects me to them in a way that the internet never could. There is no comparison between seeing nature in person and seeing it on a screen. Example: Yes, I’ve seen photos of the Parthenon. Yes, I’ve seen photos of it scaled to size in comparison to some other famous building. Going to Athens, to the Acropolis, to the Parthenon was nothing like seeing the photos. Standing next to it and looking up was simply awe inspiring. Same goes for the Hagia Sofia, the wats of Bangkok, and the Burj al Arab.
I think we’re actually on the same page. Do you think the internet could be used as a tool to improve peoples’ relationship to their physical and human environment?
That I agree with. I think the internet can help educate people about their surroundings. It’s always fun to learn interesting tidbits on info about the places you want to or plan to visit or the cultures you may be interacting with. When you see them and know things about them it makes it seem even more special. Having said that, there’s nothing like being there.
@aeschylus, The Internet, like life, is what you make it. Beauty is everywhere; it’s just not always conventional beauty, nor is everyone perceptive enough to see it, or receptive enough to recognize it when they do see it.
I disagree with the premise of the question: there are many beautiful places in the world, and anyone who chooses to live in an ugly place, do nothing about it, and escape to the Internet to avoid the ugliness he or she has chosen to live in is contributing to the problem.
And of course I think web development and community-building can help, but as you’ve so completely misdiagnosed a problem, you’re not likely to contribute constructively to fixing it.
Spend less time on it and spend more in the real world and your real life.
As amazing as the internet is and (I’m sure) will become, there is a tactile quality to real environments and relationships that is undeniable. The internet will always be slightly less than.
That being said, it is a wonderful education and research tool that allows you to better prepare for or appreciate the real experience. It is also an ever improving substitute if you cannot or choose not to experience the “real thing”. But still, a substitute.
Ultimately, we (society) have chosen to alienate ourselves from our neighbors, family and friends. We have chosen to live anonymous lives in anonymous houses in generic towns.
Perhaps it is less painful or less work (less messy), but it is also less fulfilling.
Many now seek this fulfillment online as we are pretty far down the rabbit hole.
But, I suspect, the pendulum will swing sooner or later. I hope so.
One point I hear underneath what you wrote is, “Wouldn’t it be cool if the internet were used more for helping organize local community?”
If I’m reading you correctly, I wholeheartedly agree. Most of the local internet stuff is crap, and I live in the bay area. Many, many improvement possibilities here.
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