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RE: Smartphone or Imaginary Friend?

in #philosophy • 9 years ago

@kobiespriggs, I suppose I'm the Perpetual Pollyanna in some sense... always trying to find the positive in the negative. For me, technology simply "is" and we have a choice in what we do with it.

Personally, I take "technology breaks" all the time; maybe it's easier for me since I am an Olde Pharte who remembers living before the Internet... and yet? I make my living online.

And yes, there is a slight irony in going online to write, but I am really not doing anything I wouldn't be doing (journaling my thoughts and observations) anyway.

Like most things, the web can be looked at from different angles... it brings us together with people we'd otherwise never have crossed paths with, while it also removes us from the circulation of daily life and its interactions.

A lot of this reminds of some of the early research done on web patterns... back in the late 1990's, we were trying to define a new definition of the concept of "here." We are "here" on Steemit, but what does that MEAN? And is it REAL? Ultimately, we concluded that online interaction is no more or less real than any other kind... what differs is the "order of operations." Online, we tend to get to know people "from the inside out;" while in meatspace we get to know people "from the outside in." At a party, we might "approach" someone because they are "hot" or they have a nice smile... online, we approach from a different metric; often what someone said and (claimed) they stand for... the rest fills in.

Yeah, it's complicated...

9 years ago in #philosophy by
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     9 years ago 

    PS: If you aren't already following him, check out @barrydutton, who writes a "Daily Digital Detox" column here on Steemit.

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     9 years ago (edited)

    Hello denmarkguy. Thank you for the well thought out response as it is much appreciated. It is always refreshing to read well articulated commentary. Yeah, it is strange I sometimes ask myself if the mask comes off more in online interactions due to some sort of feeling of a buffer. That being said, I think also the reverse can be true. Online stuff is at best confusing and it pushes the level of our understanding of ourselves and others. Thank you very much for the recommendation as I will check it out.

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     9 years ago 

    I'm a big fan of the @denmarkguy - one clever philosophically observant dude!