Long ago, George Orwell was deemed nuts when he wrote the book 1984. It tomed a world of "big brother" (BB) who was everywhere pushing and pulling us, fashion, thought, bedroom, and control far beyond our imaginations.
His imaginations were scary back in those dark ages.
When 1984 came and went, it was a lot of fun for us to actually compare some of the things he envisioned that had come true. One such was that BB
could watch us through our TVs. I understand now it is possible.
Got a camera on your computer?
Comes now before the court of world opinion - Facebook. I'm sure that the founders didn't have it in their minds to do such, but original intentions notwithstanding, my own opinion is that Facebook has unintentionally "morphed" into just that.
Psychologists and others in the helping professions have offered up thoughts that younger generations have now become so proficient in forming relationships with computers and the people they meet on them, than they have with actual flesh and blood bodies in coffee shops.
Don't think so? While cruising on my daughters Facebook page, she lists 42 friends...42!! Some aren't even in the state.
I clicked on some of them, and behold, a few of these list over 100+ friends. Now, I'm 71, and have lived and long and fruitful life, and know how friendships work, how they flourish, how they whither and die and what it takes to do that.
I don't know anyone who has 142 friends. No one. They may have 142 acquaintances, people they may speak with once or twice a year...but "friends?"
No. As an old VietNam friend of mine used to say, " you have to be smoking your lunch" to think that is a friend. My grandfather, born in Canada the same year Wyatt Earp stepped into the OK Corral, once told me, "when your ship is sinking and you're bailing it out, and you accidentally bump into somebody behind you bailing out as furiously as you are - that's your only friend."
He may not have been the kindest man I ever knew, but he was the wisest. In the end, he told me, your lucky if you ever have a handful of true friends.
Facebook creates an artificial, false world where you love your computer and an illusion of friendship with objects on a screen, not reality. My advice?
Turn the damned thing off and go out to find people in a book store, library, church, meet with people, and get back to 1960. Computers are great, but when you rely on them to fill your inner world, it will begin to turn ugly.
Go see the movie Surrogates with Bruce Willis. The final scene tells the story, when the surrogates are all turned off, the voice over suggests in a panicked tone, " I guess we're all alone...for now.
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His imaginations were scary back in those dark ages.
When 1984 came and went, it was a lot of fun for us to actually compare some of the things he envisioned that had come true. One such was that BB
could watch us through our TVs. I understand now it is possible.
Got a camera on your computer?
Comes now before the court of world opinion - Facebook. I'm sure that the founders didn't have it in their minds to do such, but original intentions notwithstanding, my own opinion is that Facebook has unintentionally "morphed" into just that.
Psychologists and others in the helping professions have offered up thoughts that younger generations have now become so proficient in forming relationships with computers and the people they meet on them, than they have with actual flesh and blood bodies in coffee shops.
Don't think so? While cruising on my daughters Facebook page, she lists 42 friends...42!! Some aren't even in the state.
I clicked on some of them, and behold, a few of these list over 100+ friends. Now, I'm 71, and have lived and long and fruitful life, and know how friendships work, how they flourish, how they whither and die and what it takes to do that.
I don't know anyone who has 142 friends. No one. They may have 142 acquaintances, people they may speak with once or twice a year...but "friends?"
No. As an old VietNam friend of mine used to say, " you have to be smoking your lunch" to think that is a friend. My grandfather, born in Canada the same year Wyatt Earp stepped into the OK Corral, once told me, "when your ship is sinking and you're bailing it out, and you accidentally bump into somebody behind you bailing out as furiously as you are - that's your only friend."
He may not have been the kindest man I ever knew, but he was the wisest. In the end, he told me, your lucky if you ever have a handful of true friends.
Facebook creates an artificial, false world where you love your computer and an illusion of friendship with objects on a screen, not reality. My advice?
Turn the damned thing off and go out to find people in a book store, library, church, meet with people, and get back to 1960. Computers are great, but when you rely on them to fill your inner world, it will begin to turn ugly.
Go see the movie Surrogates with Bruce Willis. The final scene tells the story, when the surrogates are all turned off, the voice over suggests in a panicked tone, " I guess we're all alone...for now.
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