Unplugged from Reality

A young hipster in New York unplugs from the internet for a year, thinking he'll "find himself" and shed the evil, corrupting influence of technology... yada yada yada. Typical eco-hippie post-modernist quasi-retro mouth diarrhea. But what he discovers is something very different -- and simultaneously very obvious.

My last afternoon in Colorado I sat down with my 5-year-old niece, Keziah, and tried to explain to her what the internet is. She'd never heard of "the internet," but she's huge on Skype with the grandparent set. I asked her if she'd wondered why I never Skyped with her this year. She had.

"I thought it was because you didn't want to," she said.

With tears in my eyes, I drew her a picture of what the internet is. It was computers and phones and televisions, with little lines connecting them. Those lines are the internet. I showed her my computer, drew a line to it, and erased that line.

"I spent a year without using any internet," I told her. "But now I'm coming back and I can Skype with you again."

When I return to the internet, I might not use it well. I might waste time, or get distracted, or click on all the wrong links. I won't have as much time to read or introspect or write the great American sci-fi novel.

But at least I'll be connected.

The internet is a tool. It's the latest in a long line of tools which humans have created to make our lives better. If you feel that a tool is somehow making you into a worse person, the problem is not with the tool...

As I said, it's rather obvious. But the young often ignore evidence simply because they don't want it to be true.