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Miscellaneous => General Chat => Not at the Dinner Table => Topic started by: ShadowBrain on April 03, 2011, 02:13:36 PM

Title: "The E-Personality"
Post by: ShadowBrain on April 03, 2011, 02:13:36 PM
I recently finished Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality by Elias Aboujaoude, MD, and it got me thinking like no other book in recent memory. This is particularly because many of the issues discussed within it were ones I'd been pondering for some time, well before it caught my eye at the school library. The book's argument is this: Though the internet is a force for good and a tremendous boon to the world in many ways, if we don't exercise moderation, it also runs the risk of turning us into childish, impulsive, inattentive, socially inept narcissists with zero privacy (worst-case scenario, of course). Simply put, the sheer number of things available to do online, as well as the speed and illusion of detached anonymity with which one can accomplish them, has serious implications for both human psychology and human civilization.

So what are your thoughts on the matter? Do you ever, say, buy over the internet things you never would in a brick-and-mortar store because of the disconnect with "real" money? Do you lose any empathy for tragic events in the news when you're hearing constant updates about it from five different sites alongside the day's hottest viral video clip? Do you think there are any dramatic effects dealt by a message board such as this, where fully formed identities take a backseat to what we can garner from a username and signature? What about the polar opposite, Facebook, where everything short of "What number am I thinking of right now?" can be answered in a matter of clicks, given the right privacy settings? I'll save my no doubt tl;dr-worthy thoughts on the matter for a while (including thoughts on the use of such phrases as tl;dr), and instead turn it directly over to you.
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: Turtlekid1 on April 03, 2011, 02:17:35 PM
I'd say the risks are indeed very real if we don't exercise moderation.  But then the simple solution would be to just exercise moderation.
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: Luigison on April 03, 2011, 02:41:41 PM
I think that privacy as a right will soon (cosmologically speaking) go the way of the dodo.  I've actually been mulling over writing a book based on the extinction of privacy.  I'm not talking about the 1984 method for it's demise, but a more Huxleyan (or is it Huxlian?) development in which we freely and openly give up privacy because it benefits us. 
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: CrossEyed7 on April 03, 2011, 03:08:35 PM
Do you ever, say, buy over the internet things you never would in a brick-and-mortar store because of the disconnect with "real" money?
I was actually just noticing that the other day. When I'm on Amazon, $10 is nothing, because it's coming out of my bank account (which still has a nice little cushion left over) rather than my wallet (which has a ten, some ones, a two, and maybe a five). Of course, I'm usually using my debit card in brick-and-mortar stores anyway, but still, it's different somehow.

It helps that the internet has better stuff than most stores.
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: BP on April 03, 2011, 03:48:06 PM
Anything in excess is bad

The Internet counts as anything

The Internet in excess is bad

I think it's pretty basic and nothing new. How much is excessive depends on what you're using it for, of course.
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: PaperLuigi on April 03, 2011, 05:07:42 PM
Slippery slope argument. I mean it's not like there's no middle ground. Of course the internet in excess is bad, just like a great many things.
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: ShadowBrain on April 04, 2011, 10:25:11 PM
I think the issue here, though, is that the internet is becoming such an integrated part of human life that it's going to take a lot more than a collective "all things in moderation" to dismiss its effects.
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: BP on April 04, 2011, 11:12:54 PM
True, but then, so heavily have cars, radios, manufactured goods, fast food, television. They have all radically changed the world, how we think and what we do. Is it better, worse, or just different? In several years, when they finally decide to just have nigh-worldwide Wi-Fi free for everyone to use, will it be better, worse, or just different?

I think now that Internet is becoming portable, the worst of it will be averted. And by that I mean, it won't make everyone into shut-ins who fear the light of day and never use their voices. Yes, you can look at Facebook anywhere and anytime you want, but it takes the back seat to whatever you're doing.

Not that I can say from personal experience. I still don't have an Internet-enabled phone.
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: Ultima Shadow on April 04, 2011, 11:45:37 PM
Yes, you can look at Facebook anywhere and anytime you want, but it takes the back seat to whatever you're doing.

Not necessarily. I've seen people at parties who just whip out their iPhones and go on Facebook instead of socialising. They're thankfully a minority for the most part, but it's an alarming minority nonetheless. Never thought I could see the day you could be socially antisocial. :P
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: ShadowBrain on April 05, 2011, 09:09:19 AM
I think the fact that I've never sent a text message or used Twitter is "helping" me a lot.
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: Weegee on April 05, 2011, 09:18:12 AM
I've only sent texts to my parents, and I've never used the Twitter account we were forced to make for a class assignment. Not being on Facebook is my claim to fame.
Title: Re: "The E-Personality"
Post by: Lizard Dude on April 05, 2011, 12:25:22 PM
I thought most FF posters were teenagers, but this thread has shown me we have a lot more 60-year-old grandmas than I thought!