A Lack

Like many teenagers, I spend quite a bit of time on the internet.

However, I really don't like the internet. I mean, yes, it is lovely to have sometimes--but in my opinion, it is destroying our culture. For example, right now my father is in the other room, on his iPad while I sit in my bedroom, listening to Florence + The Machine and typing on my blog. Only a wall separates us, yet we are each in our separate worlds. We could be playing cards or Boggle, but instead we sit, staring at pixelated screens. We could be discussing science, or Shakespeare, but no. Instead we sit.

I do like the easiness of the internet for looking up fun facts, communicating with some of my best friends who live in Texas and California, and for blogging. I do not like the internet for all that it has taken from us as a culture. We seem to believe that Facebook, twitter, and IM/googletalk are legitimate modes of communication. On my Facebook I often see my friends having full conversations on one another's walls. There are very few things that make me keep my Facebook up: it is the main mode of communication for some of my good friends, and it can (very occasionally) be a fun site.

The internet makes us anti-social. Now, I am in no way saying that people should go out and party all the time, but people should get off their computers and go out for coffee, tea, movies, cupcakes, or what have you with their friends. I think an interesting social experiment would be to have everyone go without their computers/phones/other electronics for a day. I wonder what would happen...?

Sorry for the mini-rant, but society today often annoys me. I see ten year olds with iPhones. When I was ten I was obsessed with Hilary Duff, Aly & AJ, The Babysitters Club, and eating chocolate chip cookies while drinking peppermint tea. I didn't even learn how to use the computer until I was in third grade, and I only learned it then (and not later) because my best friend was moving back to Japan, and we wanted to be "email buddies".

I just find it horrible how our society is changing to become more technologically reliant, rather than focusing on the beauty and wonder of the real world.