Scrawled in Wax

For every inspiring web proselytizer you come across, there are ten miserable sods who claim the internet will be the death of us all. Perhaps the most consistent bugaboo trotted out is that the Web will reduce us all to techno-hermits, glued to glowing screens and forgoing all human contact. The internet, according to its naysayers, is so utterly compelling, rewarding and addictive that people shall never leave the house again and will instead spend their lives refreshing their RSS feeds rather than going out to the pub, meeting someone and getting laid… It is, frankly, the end of civilisation as we know it. So fine, I’m being a bit dismissive. But to at least try and be fair, the fears that underpin this ‘ludditism’ aren’t entirely irrational. They are, I think, rooted in a growing sense of alienation and solitude as more and more people live in large cities, in massive apartment buildings and spend more and more time working. The diagnosis may be wrong – but the symptoms are very real.

Thankfully, Wired’s recent coverage of a Harvard study on online communication and its effect on the face-to-face kind suggests that geeks who always felt such fears misplaced were, in fact, right. The article argues that online communication, far from becoming a sphere unto itself, works in tandem with physical, interpersonal interaction. Most compelling is the argument about electronic mail – “that email’s real value isn’t in communicating with Kuala Lumpur but with Betsy in the next cubicle” such that “the most productive workers have the densest intracompany email web”. Far from a distraction for bored teenagers, email and things like it make people productive. The point is that electronic communication is not, as so many fear, a replacement for human interaction. It is a supplement, a method of plowing through the minutiae of day-to-day interaction, avoiding the constant interruptions of popping over to see someone, so that when you do get to the pub (or boardroom) you can talk about important things and social issues rather than the details you need to catch up on.

And think about it – are you out with your friends less or more since you got on Facebook? Do you feel more or less a part of a community since the advent of message boards and blogs? And as the article points out, why is the tech industry – in which tech use is tautologically at its highest – so dependent on geography? Wasn’t the Web supposed to smash physical boundaries? No – no it wasn’t. Because people use the internet to connect with each other in their real lives, not some mythical ‘virtual’ one – as if there ever was such a thing. There is no substitute for being around other humans. And while there are bigger questions to ask – about how what we do online may contribute to the same system that might cause alienation and solitude – at least now we have some proof that, if alienation is a problem, then ‘the internet’ is not to blame.