tavie.com

Has anyone studied the long-term effects of frequent internet usage on the structures of the brain? How about the effects on general psycho/socio/intellectual behavioural patterns?

I've been "digitalized" since March of 1993. I was 13 and a half. If I were to draw up a chart and compare the various pros and cons of my life pre- and post-internet, how many of the differences would be attributable to the fact that I was a young teenager at the cusp of a tumultuous period for human beings regardless of available technology, and how much to the fact that I've barely spent a day since that time where I haven't gone online at least once?

I'd have to do some research on the issue. Read articles about the benefits of cybertechnology (psychologically, socially, academically.) Read articles about the dangers of internet addiction. Review the data.

Conclude that before the internet, I went out more, had more friends that I saw day-to-day, watched more television, was in junior high. The last fact is inextricable: your social psychology is messed up in grade 8. I was happy in grade 8 one day and miserable the next. I was great in school, fairly extroverted, had lots of friends, had lots of miseries. I got the internet right before I entered the frightening world of high school, when old alliances are forced to dissolve and new ones made. At least in New York City, where there are hundreds of high schools to choose from, you have to say goodbye to your old friends and get to know a whole bunch of strangers. It's terrifying. Imagine the amount of comfort I took from the fact that I had these new online friends to rely on if the new high school ones proved too difficult to get close to. Did I begin to overdepend on the internet for social interaction? Did it make me more shy, or less?

Review the data. Conclude that after the internet, I had more friends, knew more people from a more diverse group of places and cultures, began to discover that I had things to offer, began to discover that the concept of cyberpersona (and cybercharisma, is that coined yet? Can I coin it?) can, in fact, inform and enrich the perception of the self so that it carries over into "real life".

Not to mention the fact that the internet completely fucking revolutionized the concept of "research" to me. I don't remember what school, what life was like before search engines, newsgroups, online library databases. What did I do when I had a question about something? Go to the big building with the stone lions? More often just wallowed in ignorance, shrugged it away. The availability of such vast resources is still enthralling ten years later. Does anyone remember their first search engine? Mine was Webcrawler. I'm surprised to see that it still exists. Google was another revolution.

Is there such thing as cyberarchaeology? Because that's what I'd like to do. This is a cool site. I wish I had access to my old Prodigy accounts, GEnie accounts, old versions of AOL, early versions of web browsers. I'm nostalgiac about them.

I can divide my life into two parts: July 1979- March 1993: Life, 1.0; March 1993-on: Life, 2.0.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:28 AM | shower me with attention