Series: Your Online Life — Part 4: Shouldn’t Be Your Focal Point

23 Jul
2010


Throughout this series –Your Online Life- I have dis­cussed a few impor­tant issues related to invest­ing in a vir­tual world.

In three parts the sub­jects were:

Part 1: It Doesn’t Belong To You

The real­ity behind how quickly what we value online can be taken away because of it not being tan­gi­ble. It is not some­thing we can truly pos­sess like what exists in our real lives.

Part 2: Is Just One Long Ad

How adver­tis­ing per­me­ates just about every aspect of the uni­verse.

Part 3: Your Right to Privacy and Why You Won’t Get it

Regardless of what web­sites promise pri­vacy on the inter­net has been proven not to exist. We have to pro­tect our­selves.

My hope for this series is that it pro­motes bal­ance in how we use and par­tic­i­pate in this vir­tual soci­ety.

A major prob­lem in soci­ety today is that many have got­ten so involved in their vir­tual lives that they for­get to attend to their real ones.

Yes, the inter­net has pro­foundly changed the way we do things. We have the abil­ity to reach out to thou­sands of peo­ple with­out ever leav­ing our homes. There are pros and cons.

People have enjoyed the great ben­e­fits of using the inter­net many ways. In the med­ical field the inter­net can be used to teach. For par­ents seek­ing to adopt a child they can find a vari­ety of resources. Families with a mem­ber liv­ing abroad can still com­mu­ni­cate with them just as if he or she is in the next room.

There are also major threats involved in inter­net use. Children are con­stantly preyed upon by adults with improper motives, social net­work­ing can lead to a loss of employ­ment, and mur­der­ers freely oper­ate online.

So while the inter­net is use­ful in many ways we can’t make it the focal point of our lives.

If we do we are miss­ing the true mean­ing of life. Life itself was cre­ated to be enjoyed envi­ron­men­tally. Through the peo­ple and the things around us. Not form behind a screen.

The mere exis­tence of tech­nol­ogy does not mean that we have to rely on it in every­thing we do.

That may seem old fash­ioned, but keep­ing it mind that it doesn’t belong to us, it’s dom­i­nated by adver­tis­ing, and pri­vacy doesn’t exist it should help us keep it in per­spec­tive.

Instead of liv­ing an online life take the time to unplug and live one offline.

Thanks for read­ing,

Literary Nobody

Toya Bryant has written 193 article(s) for this site

Toya Bryant aka Literary Nobody is a Freelance Writer/Blogger who promotes positive thinking and actions within the community and the family. She also writes about the positives and negatives of technology, internet security and social media.

  • http://topsy.com/www.literarynobody.com/2010/07/series-your-online-life-part-4-shouldnt-be-your-focal-point.html?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that men­tion Series: Your Online Life — Part 4: Shouldn’t Be Your Focal Point | Tales of a Literary Nobody — Topsy​.com

    […] This post was men­tioned on Twitter by Toya Bryant, Edward Hotchkiss ™ and Literary Nobody, Literary Nobody. Literary Nobody said: “Series: Your Online Life — Part 4: Shouldn’t Be Your Focal Point | Tales of a Literary Nobody” ( http://​bit​.ly/​a​5​q​gVP ) […]

  • http://yesterdayspoem.blogspot.com vizion­heiry

    Someone just texted me about a death. This first hap­pened to me in 2006 but it’s now becom­ing com­mon. It’s a weird way to learn of a death — BUT it’s effi­cient.

    There’s a job oppor­tu­nity for life coaches who teach peo­ple how to recon­nect with their spouse, chil­dren, par­ents, and friends with­out the use of tech­nol­ogy.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    That hap­pened to me recently and it was very dev­as­tat­ing. I told the friend that sent me the text not to text peo­ple when some­one dies. I know it’s a mat­ter of per­cep­tion. Some think it’s per­fectly accept­able but I think it really takes away the human con­nec­tion.

    That job coach posi­tion sounds like a great idea. Wonder if I could get into that? lol

  • http://yesterdayspoem.blogspot.com vizion­heiry

    What would the ses­sion be like?

    “Tommy, why don’t you go to your mom’s house this week­end, instead of sta­tus updat­ing your Facebook account with child­hood mem­o­ries.”

    “She lives too far.”

    “Tommy, she lives 10 min­utes away”

    “That’s too far”

    I’ve become used to inap­propi­ate uses of social net­work­ing — it’s here to stay.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    LOL! It would prob­a­bly start with me yank­ing out cords and toss­ing out Blackberry’s lol

  • http://www.facebook.com/tereshapetite Teresha Freckleton-​Petite

    great post. I think part of the issue is that the Internet is grow­ing faster than soci­ety can cre­ate stan­dards of prac­tice (or Netiquette) in place. I get so many text mes­sages on Christmas it’s a mess. I still believe impor­tant events and hol­i­days deserve a phone call. I still write greet­ing cards and notes to fam­ily and friends, but it seems to be a dying art. We are los­ing our inter­per­sonal skills because everyone’s face is buried behind a screen

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    I agree Teresha. It really sad­dens me that this is now the norm. People of all walks of life thrive when they have the human con­nec­tion. Virtual life no mat­ter how sup­pos­edly ful­fill­ing it is for some peo­ple still can leave a hole that only the human con­nec­tion can fill. At times I think of tech­nol­ogy as the mod­ern day Tower of babel. Instead of truly being a pos­i­tive it has more of a divi­sive effect. Instead of unit­ing peo­ple where it mat­ters (at home) it sep­a­rates them.

    Thanks for the com­ment! :)

  • http://twitter.com/Honestlyspeakin Rachael’Honest’Ajao

    Hi Toya,

    I’ve enjoyed read­ing this series, and agree it’s so impor­tant to con­tinue to really ‘live’ offline. I recently enjoyed a whole month offline (no inter­net, no mobile…) and it was won­der­ful. I am happy to be back online now, but there’s no way I could live with­out real human con­nec­tions — for me, that would be no life at all.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    I am so glad that you enjoyed it Rachael. My hope was that it would bring to light that while tech­nol­ogy is use­ful we weren’t born with it and we shouldn’t depend on it. A month with­out inter­net sounds like a great idea. In this tech­no­log­i­cal age we have to stay grounded via our real life con­nec­tions.

    Thank you so much for the com­ment :)



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