How is that digital world working out for you? Yeah, I thought so.
If you were around when the Internet began to capture mainstream public attention (this would be 1995-ish), you’ll remember the proselytizing about how this was going to usher in a great new age of communication, understanding, togetherness, and prosperity. Humanity would at last come together, thanks to this new technology.
Yeah, well, it hasn’t turned out that way. In fact, we’re probably more alienated than ever before. At least that’s the take of this BuzzFeed article.
“Looking back from the shaky edge of a new decade, it’s clear that the past 10 years saw many Americans snap out of this dream, shaken awake by a brutal series of shocks and dislocations from the very changes that were supposed to “create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace.” When they opened their eyes, they did indeed see that the Digital Nation had been born. Only it hadn’t set them free. They were being ruled by it. It hadn’t tamed politics. It sent them berserk.
“And it hadn’t brought people closer together.
“It had alienated them.”
