The Machine is using us

The machine is not using us; we are trapped in its belly and it is bleeding to death. although i enjoyed the video by way of its unique aesthetics, editing choices, and overall execution, i was really pretty irritated by its message. although i, like everyone, appreciate the way the internet brings information and entertainment directly to my increasingly lazy fingers and skull, i am strongly opposed to rethinking "myself" on its terms.

One: the internet is not real. WoW is not real, Facebook is not real, hell, even half of my Twitter posts are made up to throw the Man off my back. the real world is real. getting hit in the face by a frisbee while because you were texting is real. pain is real. love, physical and otherwise, is real. physical interactions are real. conversation is real. the internet offers extensive simulations of all of these things, but they are not real. most of my facebook friends are people i've met maybe once and was socially intimidated into making friends with on the internet. a relationship cultivated on the internet may stir feelings of interest or even lust, but until you've held that person's hand or kissed them or even looked at them without a fucking lcd screen in the way, you have no idea what they're like, all you have is an idea of what the facsimile of them is like.

two: the internet is bad for you. children that are raised by computers are social misfits. this is a fact, and until we are literally living like the matrix and only unplugging from our computers to fight hugo weaving via semi-crappy CGI, the unfortunate truth is that YOU WILL HAVE TO LEAVE YOUR COMPUTER AT SOME POINT and then all your witty 4chan slang and funny facebook picture captions will not help you when somebody looks at you in your beady, squinting eyes and says something. kids need to get out and get dirty and hit each other and fall down and learn physics and social schemas and all that shit for themselves, they don't need to learn how to upload digital pictures and post them on the internet. if your only social interactions have been message board diatribes and chat room 'convos', then you have not learned how to properly interact with other humans, you have learned how to be a shrill, intolerant asshole unable to voice opinions with any degree of articulation or spontaneity.

look, while i might be something of a luddite, i am not against the internet. point of fact, it's pretty fucking awesome. BUT, having said that, i think it's getting way out of control and i really do worry when i see a three year old that's spent more time using windows than playing outside, and i really don't like the idea that some day i might be conducting something like 85% of my daily business through a bunch of wires and satellites gathered around in the ozone layers like a bunch of frat brothers around a passed out freshman girl. the internet needs to be used like what it is, a tool, not a way of life, not a brain, and certainly not the new be all end all of human civilization. nothing is the be all end all of human civilization, that's the fucking point of it.