me and my internet
Sep. 26th, 2004 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dream_labyrinthIs it addiction if I check my emails more than once a day? I know people who say so.
Apart from checking emails three times today (on Sunday, when not that many people are online to write!), I wrote entries to my journal, I read friends' entries, I commented (of course).
If that makes me an addict, then so be it.
But considering that I use the internet as my main form of interaction with people I actually like, not people I happen to know, it might not be addiction at all.
How many times does the average person call friends on the phone. Telephone company would be very happy if I did, I suppose. All these international calls that would be required to tell the same number of people about what's going on in my life that I reach with one post.
How many times does the average person speak to friends in person, because they live in the neighborhood?
Well, my friends don't, so I am thankful to have this little plastic box in my room that lets me reach out to the whole world and doesn't care about different time zones or continents.
Speaking of average, I have heard once that we are connected to every single person in the world by no more than three or four people. Meaning you know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody, and if you go through all possibilities of that, you will have a contact to every single person on this planet. While the number four seems low to me, the possibility is fantastic.
And it makes one question understandable that I hated to be asked while in America. "You come from Germany, do you know person xyz?" Well you come from America, do you know Harrison Ford? It seems a stupid question, but there is the possibility that for some strange reason I actually do know that person. There are people in America who know Harrison Ford, and probably somebody I know knows such a person.
And with the internet, chances are even higher that we know people somewhere else. Only a few hundred years ago, probably only a few decades ago, the personal world was smaller for each person. Now the whole world is getting smaller, used up as that image is, it is the case. Before my generation, I don't think any member of my family knew somebody in Australia. I know people in Australia, in the USA, in Canada, in Bulgaria, in Norway, in Great Britain, and if you count loose contacts I don't use, also in France and Japan, in Italy and Austria.
It is quite impressive, and that's only me and I am only 22. All these people know more people in other countries, through private and business contacts. Incredible.
I had thought of something else I wanted to write, but as I can't remember it was either unimportant or a lie. At least that's how the saying in my family goes.
So I'll leave it at this honest, if pointless rambling.
Gute Nacht!
Apart from checking emails three times today (on Sunday, when not that many people are online to write!), I wrote entries to my journal, I read friends' entries, I commented (of course).
If that makes me an addict, then so be it.
But considering that I use the internet as my main form of interaction with people I actually like, not people I happen to know, it might not be addiction at all.
How many times does the average person call friends on the phone. Telephone company would be very happy if I did, I suppose. All these international calls that would be required to tell the same number of people about what's going on in my life that I reach with one post.
How many times does the average person speak to friends in person, because they live in the neighborhood?
Well, my friends don't, so I am thankful to have this little plastic box in my room that lets me reach out to the whole world and doesn't care about different time zones or continents.
Speaking of average, I have heard once that we are connected to every single person in the world by no more than three or four people. Meaning you know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody, and if you go through all possibilities of that, you will have a contact to every single person on this planet. While the number four seems low to me, the possibility is fantastic.
And it makes one question understandable that I hated to be asked while in America. "You come from Germany, do you know person xyz?" Well you come from America, do you know Harrison Ford? It seems a stupid question, but there is the possibility that for some strange reason I actually do know that person. There are people in America who know Harrison Ford, and probably somebody I know knows such a person.
And with the internet, chances are even higher that we know people somewhere else. Only a few hundred years ago, probably only a few decades ago, the personal world was smaller for each person. Now the whole world is getting smaller, used up as that image is, it is the case. Before my generation, I don't think any member of my family knew somebody in Australia. I know people in Australia, in the USA, in Canada, in Bulgaria, in Norway, in Great Britain, and if you count loose contacts I don't use, also in France and Japan, in Italy and Austria.
It is quite impressive, and that's only me and I am only 22. All these people know more people in other countries, through private and business contacts. Incredible.
I had thought of something else I wanted to write, but as I can't remember it was either unimportant or a lie. At least that's how the saying in my family goes.
So I'll leave it at this honest, if pointless rambling.
Gute Nacht!
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-26 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-27 07:10 am (UTC)*doing happy dance*
Thanks!