interwoven

While we're waiting for a whattup post from Tracy, I thought I'd write on something that's been on my mind (and a lot of other people's, from what I gather) lately: whether or not I really want to take advantage of all the social networking sites the internet has to off or completely wash my hands of it. Or do something in between.

My friend John had a great post about basically his same predicament in his blog.

In it, he said, "I oscillate between wanting to be completely submerged in today's culture and wanting to get away from it." John points out the pro side: "instant communication and microblogology or whatever the terms are ... are INCREDIBLE and we know so much more now than anybody our age did ten years ago." But he also highlights "the flip side": "what do we learn by shifting our eyes and shifting our weight in our beds, not having any real, physical, experiences?"

That's the kicker. By writing and reading blogs and twittering and facebooking I'm no doubt connecting myself with contemporary issues and communities. And the information stream is fucking endless. But by trying so hard to stay connected--and you really do have to try, or else you'll be out of the loop--am I disconnecting myself from the actual living, breathing, physical world? And do I even need to know half the shit I read online or is it just filling places in my brain where intelligent thought could go?

I've deleted facebook a couple times before out of sheer annoyance or frustration. Don't get me wrong; I totally love making fun of your pictures of your trip to Madame Tussaud's or your new boob job or how you lack any sense of grammar in your captions, but sometimes I have to ask myself, why live in a superficial reality? And, besides all the staying connected bullshit (though sometimes it really does fulfill that purpose), that's really all facebook is.

((Note: my FB account is currently active, and I recently unprivatized (not a word, but it's the internet! I can make them up! Don't believe me? Proof: This is a blog. What the fuck was a blog a few years ago) my pictures again, so you can take everything I just said how you will. I'm no better than the people I criticize, I guess. And I'm sure people I graduated with have either A: made fun of the pictures of my afro from a recent studio 54 party (even though my fro is BANGIN) or B: said "oh my god you wanna see who turned gay?!" and gone to my profile or C: completely forgotten who I am and say, "who the fuck is that" when I come up on their friends feed.

Blogs, however, are another story. I'm an avid reader of several blogs, and the more I analyze them, I increasingly think they're a pathway for emerging writers to take that's a little less brambled and prickly than going the traditional route and getting say, a book deal or a magazine column or what have you. They're making more room for different voices and ideas in a society that usually listens to the heterosexual, white male. They're sites of activism, political and personal discourse and ideas. They're thought-provoking. They're refreshing. They're subjective, personal and interactive. And, whether it's a blessing or a curse, they're limitless.

So while I would love to join John on his fantasy year-long island vacation from the internet and all things media (that's assuming he would pick me to be one of his ten (if you wouldn't, John, well, I wouldn't pick you either, asshole. And if you would, let's make sure we get Malibu-it's weak but I like to drink it on the beach)), I think even a time period as short as a year away from the internet would put me at a huge disadvantage; I'd probably be swamped with new networking sites upon return, lost about how to use them, and estranged from what I guess is really becoming reality for our generation.

This isn't to say I'd turn it down if it were actually offered to me--travel (even though this is pretend travel) is one of the best natural educators humans will ever know to employ, and I'm almost as envious of the people who get to do it often as I am of the people who know what it means to be truly connected to the world in a way that isn't behind a computer screen. Because despite the case I made (which to be concise is that I guess from now on I'll be dipping more than just a toe into the bottomless pool of the internet by blogging and trying to be more on the up and up of the interwebz), there's still something almost more valid and truthful in connecting with the physical world. And if truth isn't all that humans, when you cut them down to their core, are after in this life, then I don't know what is.

(I just realized I made it sound like I'm an alien or a mermaid in my last sentence. I'll leave that up for discussion.)