The Internet Age

We're going deeper and deeper into The Internet Age (TIA) with each passing year. I personally wonder what will be after it sometimes. I hope it will be better than what it is now.

Right now, we're stuck so deep into the age that face to face communication is a rare thing. There are bloody twelve year old kids that sit beside each other and text instead of speak to one another. Entire relationships that basically only happen online/texting besides when it comes to sex (IF they even get to that).

TIA is becoming a plague on communication and is creating a detachment in people's sensitivity towards others. It's simple to send a text message to someone you're in a relationship with and say "it's over" or "we're done". You do not have to see how much it hurts them (or how little). If you want to ignore people you can easily just not read/reply to what someone wants to say to you or you can easily 'block' them.

Perhaps this is why we are seeing an increase in 'mental illnesses' or 'anti-socialism' in people. Since we do not communicate face to face as often, it's easy for someone to be hurt by words and no one ever noticing behind a screen how badly they are hurt. So they begin to turn away from communicating with people or they get into a state of depression from lack of socialization (which yes, as human beings this is actually a need to stay healthy), which we then begin to group in mental diseases or mental illnesses or anything we can to put them in a group that something is wrong with them.

With TIA growing every day, being able to lie, back stab, cheat, hurt, bully or threaten is getting easier and easier. You want to hurt or humiliate someone? You can easily post things whether slander or not publicly for everyone to see online. Without a second thought, it's there to stay. We also see suicide on an increase. It's not something that happened overnight, but it increased as TIA grew. Simply because someone online says something without a second thought to how hurt someone already is or how hurt it will make them.

Then we actually have the balls to congratulate this behaviour using terms like "trolls" in a good light. Being an asshole is never okay. Especially toward people you do not know. This behaviour tends to come from the younger generations, it is very rare to see a person older than thirty "trolling" people for "fun". This is most likely because kids are growing up in TIA now. Parents who let their kids get away with anything unknowingly let this behaviour grow and spread. Perhaps we need to begin reinforcing age restrictions on things like Xbox Live, Forums or anything else interactive with other people online. The minimum age is supposed to be thirteen, but we all know how easy it is to bypass that one.

Why would limiting a child's online access be healthy and beneficial to society? Because they will not learn any more immaturity than their natural self and friends around them in real life. Online is the breeding grounds for insensitivity. Then to allow a child who is not even a teenager yet learn from it instead of what their own actions have an affect on in real life just increases this limit of insensitivity towards other human beings.

Yes, TIA has it's good aspects, being able to communicate with people when they're far away or being able to research things more deeply to understand. But with all the negative aspects, it's a wonder why we're not limiting access to it.

There are many stories of 'fails' or 'cheaters' that we take for face value. Assuming captions or what someone writes to be true. This is the internet, it's easy to lie, so when viewing a story about something or someone, do not make the assumption that it is true unless you were there in person and witnessed it. Spreading things around with little thought to its factual information just creates more ignorance and insensitivity in the world.

In the end, TIA is here to stay for a long while, but what we do with it is our choice. Perhaps one day people will begin limiting the things put onto it and the type of people allowed to continue to use it.