But what did the Internet ever do to me? Nothing horrible, truthfully. But maybe that’s the problem. Maybe the Internet is so common in everyday life that I don’t even notice its absolutely devastating effects. I should really title this entire blog “Why I am a huge hypocrite: Irony, Irony, Irony.” But then my search engine optimization would probably be terrible. Because I’m told I’m supposed to care about these things. Ugh!
I have a few short reasons, aside from the fact that this stupid series of tubes has gone ahead and ruined any hope I ever had of working in print journalist.
One of these reasons occurred to me today while I was sitting in my 5:30 class. We had a pretty serious publishing mogul and seasoned politician come to our class. I’m pretty sure my professor had to pull a lot of strings to get him there. So, I’m sitting in the back of the room, taking pretty good notes and listening to this guy talk to a room filled with college seniors. I take a couple seconds to look around at my peers, and of course, nearly everyone had their laptops open to Facebook. Now, I’m as addicted to mindless social networking as most other people my age, but come on, people. This guy was actually interesting. Why anyone would feel the need to creep on other people’s profiles at that given moment is so far beyond me.
Another thing that really gets me about them Inter-webs is how easily people with no social skills can get through life without having any incentive to improve that. My roommate asked me this afternoon if I’d ever heard of this Web site called “Chat Roulette.” It’s exactly what it sounds like. Think, modern speed dating. Or fleeting interactions with strange-looking people from across the world. While cool in its concept, there is no reason to let most of these people within 100 yards of a school. And yet we probably do. Every day.
My roommate met me with a problem yesterday. Some guy she’d known, ugh, “IRL,” who she’d recently been linking to in her blog and communicating (sort of) via Twitter, recently asked her on what sounded like a date over a Twitter message. We both pondered whether or not one could successfully score a date in 140 characters. My vote is: a resounding no.
Sure, I take full advantage of the Internet. I wouldn’t have even considered blogging if the world/my university didn’t beat me over the head with the importance of these “tubes.” But I think the trouble with “kids these days” is that we’re forced to put ourselves in the public eye through all this social networking blah blah blah. So many of my journalist-in-training friends measure their success based on how many pages come up when they Google their names. Certain publications pride themselves in their ability to tweet out breaking news and then never follow-up on it. And sure, there is a need for those things in this fast-moving world. But I can’t say I’ve ever been moved by a tweet or a twit-pic. At least not the way a well-written, thorough article has. I worry that someday, I’m going to be stuck in a world that puts priority on speed over accuracy and brevity over thoroughness.
But for now, I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Oh, and check my Facebook page. And tweet out this (poorly-written, not even a little bit thorough) post.
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