The Web (part 2)
Then there are the 'networking websites' like Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5... the list goes on for a while. These vary in what they do and who they are aimed at. I must admit that I am quite a fan of facebook, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a myspace member. Of course, with the exception of Facebook that actually targets people who go or have gone to school together and therefore know each other, most of these sites are just ways for people to spend countless hours browsing profiles of people they will never meet or looking at pictures that look nothing like the people they are meant to represent. Alternately, people spend hours trying to take pictures of themselves in bad lighting and from angles that hide all their bad features (acne, small boobs, large boobs, unibrow, webbed toes, antlers...) and highlight their good ones (right eyelid, small boobs, large boobs, flexing muscles, cheap tattoo done in a drunken stupor over spring break that says "i r sexy").
Most of the things mentioned so far seem to point to the need for human connections. People are desperate to meet 'someone special' or whatever, and the internet is 'helping' millions of people attempt this. In a way it acts like darkness. Have you ever found that personal conversations are much easier in the dark or gloom? You can meet people without really being vulnerable. You can be whoever you want. In other words, essentially you can lie. Its a strange self-made social escapism. The expression 'online marketplace' could not be more true, and the main commodity sold and traded seems to be people. In some ways, I have to admire the dating websites that do not pretend to be anyting than what they are (a conglomeration of incredibly desperate people), or, even more extreme, the mail-order bride companies that exploit the sweet anonymity of the web.
Of course, then there are the bizarre websites that really just blow my mind. Like the ones that help you get an imaginary girlfriend. Yes, if you want to get your real friends and family off your back about not being married already, then you can at least make them think that you are well on your way. I guess I have run out of things to say really. I was just ranting. And I can do that, because this is the internet. You can write all sorts of useless crap on the web.
Most of the things mentioned so far seem to point to the need for human connections. People are desperate to meet 'someone special' or whatever, and the internet is 'helping' millions of people attempt this. In a way it acts like darkness. Have you ever found that personal conversations are much easier in the dark or gloom? You can meet people without really being vulnerable. You can be whoever you want. In other words, essentially you can lie. Its a strange self-made social escapism. The expression 'online marketplace' could not be more true, and the main commodity sold and traded seems to be people. In some ways, I have to admire the dating websites that do not pretend to be anyting than what they are (a conglomeration of incredibly desperate people), or, even more extreme, the mail-order bride companies that exploit the sweet anonymity of the web.
Of course, then there are the bizarre websites that really just blow my mind. Like the ones that help you get an imaginary girlfriend. Yes, if you want to get your real friends and family off your back about not being married already, then you can at least make them think that you are well on your way. I guess I have run out of things to say really. I was just ranting. And I can do that, because this is the internet. You can write all sorts of useless crap on the web.
Comments
Please tell me you burned that picture of me that actually showed my antlers.