The Internet — for all of its benefits — destroys society, as it changes our brains to literally obliterate crucial human connection. Is there anything you can do about it? Will anybody even want to?
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11 replies on “How Internet Destroys Society: Changes Our Brains to Obliterate Crucial Human Connection”
“It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so. – Ronald Reagan
Interesting episode, especially watching it right after watching the Right Angle episode, “Orbital Chain Reaction.” Zo, you called the internet the modern day tower of Babel. God confused the language to keep man from doing evil collectively on a truly massive global scale. How easy would it be for God to take down the modern tower of Babel with a few pieces of space junk?
Oh wretched woman that I am! I would miss the internet! But there is a whole bunch of other stuff that I wouldn’t miss.
Speaking of getting together… I suppose the Whittle Cruise will not be resurrected anytime soon; but what about doing something land based?
Alone Together. Its interesting how companies with great cultures got very concerned about how to maintain that culture once all or the vast majority of the employees transitioned to ‘work from home’ during the pandemic.
77s – Drowning with Land in Sight – Alone Together – YouTube
Thanks fellas. Some good insights.
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about this issue close to 2 centuries ago trying to explain why the United States was able to make democracy work so much better than other western nations. He chalked it up to our very strong social ties due to our membership in civic groups, churches, neighborhoods, clubs, etc. I would add that our traditionally strong family ties, not just immediate but extended, gave a resiliency to our feelings of connection.
Today, of course, so much of that has gone by the way. High divorce, cohabitation rather than marriage, lack of strong models of leadership, low ethics, and the methods of dealing with the pandemic with masking and lockdowns has only increased the distance between us. People are disengaged, cynical, suspicious, mistrustful. And the technology only exacerbates these tendencies particularly in our youth. It doesn’t help that so often people misrepresent themselves on line using various tools to make themselves look better, younger, more attractive.
Don’t leave out the cancel culture, Elizabeth.
So true!
For me, though very “connected” through Bill Whittle, Bronze Serpent Media, Daily Wire, Huckabee, etc., my grounding is through my church family, fellow believers in Christ. It is the community of church (not the building, but the people) that I have true connectivity and will have FOR AN ETERNITY! Your discussion is a valuable one and true, but in the end, when grounded in Christ, the only fear is for those we know who have not excepted the truth, yet. Keep up the good work you two. In Christ’s Love,
The reality of “being alone together” is when that applies everyone is alone and nobody is together. Among others, we have a perception problem because just as drugs can really spice up and improve “reality” until they run out and you suffer the inevitable crash … The internet can act in the same way.
It’s fine to use the internet as a tool. I used to have to dig through card catalogs for hours, haunt libraries for days and wait for weeks or months for inter-library transfers and subscriptions. For information that is today at my fingertips and only seconds away.
It’s unbearable temptation for the Godless who think they’re too smart for God to replace Him with a technology. The Tower of Babel was technology too. This is an old, old story.
In between the extremes is the usual arc of human experience.
Tech is just tech and nothing more. It’s the same as anything else the human hand can put itself to. A gun is just a hunk of steel, inert and incapable of harm until it interacts with a human finger on the trigger. The result will be either good or evil depending on the brain connected to that finger.
The crucial element is the person not the prop.
That said, we are in unexplored territory with modern tech. It’s never happened before that we’ve raised generations of kids with this type of immersive, interactive, ubiquitous, irresistible tech. Like any exploration, caution and vigilance are in order.
You may be over concerned about the power of internet connections. When I was deep in grief after the loss of my wife sleep was not following normal patterns. It would not be uncommon to go online at 2:00 or 3:00 AM with gnawing loneliness and find other people online (maybe on the other side of the globe) that would provide a human connection through words. Sometimes being in person creates a level of noise based on appearances that make sharing ideas or experiences becomes more difficult. I was able to meet some of the people encountered through chat sessions in person that didn’t come close to the image I originally had for them. If I closed my eyes and just listened I could connect to the person I developed a friendship with long before meeting them.
Interesting discussion. I do wonder how many of us actually know our neighbors on our street. Not just their names, but how many of us have actually had conversations, say over a neighborhood get together. Dr. Gene Veith wrote about this very subject in his book “Post Christian”. We used to have all manner of local social clubs and organizations, but with the advent of the internet, those social clubs are dwindling to just us old farts. Sad really.