Devolving

When the internet first started becoming popular, I immediately protested and said I wanted nothing to do with it.  As far as I could tell, this was yet another stupid fad and people were spending entirely too much time - in 1997, mind you - staring at computer screens.  But then I started college, and with all of the wonderful free software they provided me and the size of the reports I had to write, I relented and decided to get a computer.

Admittedly, I was quite fascinated with the large electronic setup now hanging out on my old desk, whining its way through its very first dial-up connection while my mind began entertaining the various possibilities available to me via internet searches.  I'd heard of chatrooms, and I did find myself in a Korn one (don't hate) with a bunch of kids who thought they were, like, so totally awesome because they knew their way around a few simple commands.  That scene lost its luster real quickly.  I suppose I had this exciting, utopian view of the social networking world being much more like it is now, with people sharing real things and having meaningful debates.  I didn't consider the endless, monotonous stream of location check-ins, pictures of various unappetizing food fare, or the incredible number of parents willing to post inappropriate and humiliating pictures of their own children; but, truth be told, I do enjoy many of the interactions I have through social media.

Eventually, in the days before MySpace and Facebook, I did find some interesting message boards to participate in; I even designed my own Webpage, which was popular for more than a decade and brought literally thousands of people into my life.  I certainly spend more time online than I care to admit to, and I wonder how many valuable hours of my life have been wasted laughing at cat pictures featuring funny captions or reading satire.  However, the internet has afforded me an outlet for my desire to write and research.  It has also been an invaluable source of information on a vast array of topics of personal interest, including Monsanto, organic gardening, health, DIY projects, and home remedies.  Just in the past two weeks alone, I learned how to do hair highlights at home, format my SD card on my Mac, and how to get the Mac to see the SD card.  Money and time saved.  The internet helped me to discover that my migraines were aspartame poisoning, when all of modern medicine failed me, and I got my life back by simply not drinking diet beverages ever again.  It allows me to homeschool my children through K12.  It provides the convenience of shopping online, so I don't have to spend a day walking around some mall that I hate, looking for something they might not even have; I can now accomplish in minutes what might have taken hours or longer.  So maybe those cat memes aren't so terrible after all.

But there is the dark side of the internet.  We are new to this, the 30-somethings.  We don't really grasp the full reach of this new cyber world and how "out there" we've really become.  It ranges from annoying to downright dangerous.  That post of your drunk ass in a trash can in a bar might be funny while you're still wasted, but in the morning when your boss that you don't recall "friending" sees it, you might be out of a job.  And the "sexting", how many lives, relationships, and reputations has that destroyed?  We don't always make good choices, but the internet is a permanent record of things that were once lost with the sands of time.  I'm very glad I'm not a teenager right now.

While I generally avoid the more heinous social faux pas of the online world, the great joy I once took in being able to do in minutes in the convenience of my home what once took hours upon hours in a library is also taking a turn for the sewer.  A Google search now turns up search engines within search engines and pages which are nothing more than a collection of keywords, because people buy URLs so they can get paid-per-click, and they will spam you half to death to get you to click.  I feel as if I have been relegated to a few of the better-known sites I found when the internet was far more searchable than it is now, though even many of those have sold out to the point that their pages are 80% ads and 20% content.  The flashing ones, or those featuring particularly shocking or disgusting photos are the real slums and back alleys of the internet.  Even YouTube, which still remains fairly user-friendly, no longer uses the ratings in their search; you have to actually click on the videos before you find out whether it's total garbage, like a fake video telling you to follow a URL to an actual video...supposedly.

The internet is devolving, like the rest of things that humans have a hand in.  We find fossil fuels?  We use them all up.  We find beautiful land?  We destroy it for profit and erect concrete societies.  Locally grown?  Why, when we can be selfish and destroy the planet so we can eat that out-of-season food and run our local farmers right out of their livelihoods?  It's about want, not need, right?  Why improve our health with exercise when we can pop a pill for each health concern?  Why look on the bright side when there's an SSRI to boost your mood?  Why pay the farmer when you can simply pay the doctor and the pharmacy?

Human beings are a disease.  We consume everything we come in contact with.  Just look at Superfund sites, Monsanto, oil spills, nuclear accidents, and any of the other sad atrocities we're responsible for.  We have this amazing technological gift of the internet, and we're turning it into yet another cesspool.  It's sad, really.  But that's okay.  Something better will come along, right?  Something more advanced and higher-tech, and we can leave this lay in ruin behind us as we advance to the next thing we can build up just to destroy.