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CallaFirestormBW -> RE: Real life vs internet. (8/19/2008 6:13:54 PM)
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Ok, I hope this makes sense... I know my ideas won't be popular, but here they are anyway...
The internet does open up a world that was once much smaller and more contained. However, just because the door has been opened, that does -not- mean that every room in the "house" is equally accessible.
One benefit of the internet is the capacity to let people know that they are not alone -- that others share their interests and are out in the world to be found. One method of managing the flow is to develop private structures within the larger, more open structure. Meet people through the internet or open structure, and then invite them into the smaller, more contained structures, once we get to know them better and once we find that their interests and our interests intersect.
It is up to the smaller groups to retain their own sanctity. Just because the world is larger does not necessarily mean that smaller, more private gatherings cannot exist and be satisfying.
One challenge to this, though, is an attitude that seems to be pervasive in the United States in particular -- I can't speak for its commonality through other nations/cultures. This challenge is the idea that is prevalent in the United States that everyone should know everything about everyone -- there should be no secrets, no private societies, no closed groups or hierarchically restricted information... an attitude that I see as completely unrealistic. As a "keeper of secrets" myself, having accepted the burden of carrying the esoteric knowledge of a group of individuals and releasing that information to individuals who have taken the time and effort to study and learn, I find it ... unsettling... that individuals feel that they should automatically have the right to claim the information that I worked so hard to earn the right and responsibility to hold... and that is the other unsettling part... that people want this information without the responsibilities that come along with it.
To me, the only way to both embrace the open-ness available to us from our access to the internet an the world, and still retain the private sanctuary of our own structures, practices, beliefs, and responsibilities is to embrace the skills to be both part of the world, and part of smaller gatherings that reflect our own private needs, talents, and responsibilities. I believe that, regardless of the desire of the masses to know all the deepest secrets (without the attendant responsibilities and effort), it is the responsibility of members of these smaller groups to be discrete in sharing information and to abandon our fear of censure for doing what it is that we were compelled, by our own oaths and training, to keep private.
Calla Firestorm
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