The Internet: My Drug of Choice?

StumbleUpon is my newest obsession. It is truly amazing how well this creation knows me; I am absolutely enthralled with the sites to which it directs me. And now when I sign on to my Amazon account, it shows me items that I might want to purchase – except I already own them. On my Facebook homepage, I am faced with the brutality of the “people you may know” option. Of course I friggin’ know them. I was trying to forget that fact.

My rambling comes to a halt when I realize that I love the internet, but this is a toxic relationship. The computer KNOWS about virtually everything that goes on in my life. So does anyone with basic computer knowledge. With the growing awareness of what everyone is doing at every moment, it seems as if society is headed in the direction of 1984. The government created the Internet during the Cold War, and they still have access to whatever they want. The judicial system patrols Facebook and MySpace in hopes of finding photographs or other personal information that can help prosecute alleged criminals; just look at Joshua Lipton (I tend to think he’s an idiot, but he is far more typical of my peers and myself than I care to admit). I can be a good citizen, take my computer to the Dell offices and ask for assistance – and all I get is the confirmation that my hard drive is destroyed, depleted, dead. Apparently the only way I can retrieve these files is by committing a felony and having my computer seized by the FBI.

Not to mention the ways in which we allow non-governmental sources have access to your private information. In a world that is increasingly paperless, shredding our documents doesn’t do much of anything when our social security numbers, bank account information, even our first pet’s name are floating around out there (somewhere, I am not sure where this alternate universe of the web exists…I always envisioned something space-like). Companies now use personal profiles online to help make hiring decisions. Hackers are always a threat, and identity theft is a problem that has developed mainly out of the internet resources. And now our ex-boyfriends can post private videos and naked pics of us on the Internet (I knew I should have never let him talk me in to that), and the industry of child pornography thrives on its Internet consumers.  Stalking is also much easier these days. I should know, I become obsessive about guys I date when I see their shady “away messages.” It’s to the point where breaking up with someone is even more painful because you can’t seem to escape their presence – you are constantly with him and everyone else until you yank the power cord. Granted I do not show up at their easily available addresses and molest them in the dark of the night. But I could if I wanted to. And looking at the lack of sex in my life lately, it just might come to that.

I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but sometimes I feel as if the Internet is just some tool to trick us into submission. Sort of like Marx’s statement that religion is the opiate of the masses, it seems plausible to think of the Internet as a sort of drug that ends up enabling forces to work against us. I can barely go a day without going on the Internet – I thrive on the constant connection, the ability to go anywhere while sitting on my comfortable bed at my liberal arts school. But I can’t help but let my paranoia take control as I wonder about the true nature and purpose of the world wide web. I absolutely love the way that the world has opened up from this mysterious machine, but what is the price of this opportunity? How do we control an addiction that is so entrenched in our lives and our society that it may well end up controlling us?

I also can’t escape the irony that I am bitching about all of this on an online blog.

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