How Internet is Changing Us

Our era, our age, our generation is the Adam and Eve of the internet. The first man. The first woman. The first Postmodernists braving the “Brave New World”. Those who rule the information, who can tap it, use it, make resources out of it, are the new kings and queens of the world.

The internet is a revolution still in progress, waiting for new geniuses, new innovators, new commanders to use it to its fullest potential and capacity.

The internet is a sea of information waiting to become navigated by newer, faster, more adept, more focused, more patient Users.

The Next Generation

Imagine…never being logged off. Imagine…The Matrix, becoming “plugged in” 24 hours of the day, 7 days of the week. Imagine Generation Z, our children, our grandchildren, who have a world information out their command, open and accessible to them, from the earliest ages of 4 or 5.

What was your baby’s first meme?!

Forget words, forget socialization, forget all of your senses, the internet sees for us now, hears for us, senses the world for us, gives us all the information we’ll ever need. It uses facial recognition. It taps your internet quickcam, it records your face, records your voice. It uploads information to facebook. Google invents glasses and goggles who, if you ever find the need to go outside, tells you who strangers are, what bands and music they like, what their interests and hobbies are, who they’re sleeping with, who their family and friends are.

The internet acts as a new sensory organ for the postmodern humanist. You don’t need your eyes. Googlemaps has recorded every angle of the surface of Earth. You don’t need eyes to navigate the world, Googlemaps does this for you. You don’t need ears, text to voice recording whispers in your ear, reading your books and lectures for you. You don’t need to think too hard…we have forums of thinkers, scientists, religious, and philosophers all doing the hard tasks for you. You have a question?

The internet has countless answers, voted upon, thumbed up, here they are in a neat list. Decide for yourself.

I heard this milk is healthier, comes with less artificial preservatives, less hormones injected into it. The internet tells me what to drink, what to eat, what to think. The internet is my new best friend.

One of things that psychologists notice about digital media is that it operates on B.F. Skinner’s variable rate schedule of reinforcemnt, that is, like gambling, the internet operates on high unpredictability and novelty in regards to information. The unpredictability element of reward (new info) heightens the state of anticipation and stimulates our dopamine system. Today’s smartphone can be seen as a mini slot-machine.
youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA

I think most of us are definately happier than we were. Some don’t realize it because the bar has been raised.

Without the social pressure on responsible internet use I don’t see much of this happening. Internet is, for the most part, unregulated, which leaves people to their own impulses, especially children. Only when it comes to the point of negative impact on society will something like this happen. I don’t see people doing it on their own, they will be told to do it.
One thing that may happen is a split in internet when it becomes too cluttered. There is no shortage in virtual real-estate, so internet may eventually split up (like the apps) into several interenets (social, educational, business, etc.).

I’ve read news articles that Korean children are raised to use social online etiquette at all times, and self regulate their use of the internet. I don’t know the truth of this, but some countries are already far ahead and exceeding the united states in this regard. Some countries are fully embracing internet and technology, while the u.s. lags behind.

Personally, I’d like to take exceptionally intelligent children out of the public school system, and put them on the internet 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week, always connected, always feeding off of information, with an advanced curriculum about how to judge whether some information is true or false.