161lip

Social Networking and Western Civilization: A Preface

To preface my journal, I'd like to say that I've been struggling with the concept of social networking over the past several weeks. The internet is an amazing technological achievement, and I would be amiss to criticize the internet without giving it due respect. It has, in many ways, improved our world in multitude of different ways, of which I won't go into detail. The problem I seem to be having, however, is the narrowing, the constriction of space and time, which I believe is necessary for maintaining an internal balance with the world.

This may sound abstract, and tenuous, but let me explain.

Following the industrial revolution, western civilization made a transition into the age of technology. Technology is defined as "The practical application of science to commerce or industry." Now, one may argue that technology has existed since man made fire. The technological advent I am speaking on, however, is the growth of industry, where production transgresses human capabilities. Simply put, the transition into the age of technology, for me, occurred when humans were able to produce more commerce than they could consume. This, in turn, allowed for humanity to burgeon unlike ever before; our standard of living improved greatly, and the overabundance of commerce was met with an overabundance of life. The bare necessities, the surface of which Baloo the bear scratched in the "Jungle Book", were overstepped. The disequilibrium of "necessary commerce" to genuine "excess commerce" was so disproportionate that western civilization constructed an ideology in which the excess commerce would be counterbalanced by being included in the category of "necessary commerce." As a result, the ideology penetrated western civilization, and the advent of technology, which had everyone walking on stilts, built a soap box for the future.
This process continued; over and over again, this process continued. Technology bequeathed technology, and the pedestal was raised.

Now, this article is a little shaky, and at this point I kind of look like a Marxist who likes Disney movies; so let me get to the point.

I'm distressed by the overabundance of "stuff" in my life. I have so much "excess commerce" to keep in line; and it seems like the only solution to organizing my excess commerce is by containing it with excess commerce.

To get back to my point: Social Networking seems to produce more excess, unnecessary shit than it does necessary commerce. You ask, what is necessary commerce?

Art
The product of human creativity, which stimulates thought.

I don't want to know how much useless shit I consumed on other social networking sites. "Like, really, I don't care about what you're doing tonight." "I don't care about your shitty day." "No, I don't want to take that quiz." "No, you're an imbecile." I felt like I was trapped in a world where people forgot to flush the toliet, and left their shit floating online for everyone to piss on. I think my problem, however, was not other people, but myself. I wasn't producing the Art I wanted to see other people produce. I was just sifting through other peoples wasteland. I wanted to create my own arena, where Art took a definite form.

So, I've created this journal to express myself, and my thoughts

A place where people can see more than my sleeve.
A place where I may construct my thoughts, and try to make sense of them.
A place where I can discuss issues and ideas.

That's it for now. I'm going to go try my new headphones.

This was a pretty incoherent post, but that's how I like it.

-161lip