Online Schizophrenia
Whether we like it or not, the internet is here to stay
, and in many respects this is a good thing. Research for example, is so much easier online.If I want to find out all about The Pope's illustrious career in the Hitler Youth, I can just grab a cup of tea and a Welsh cake, plonk myself down in front of my computer wearing no more than a pair of shorts and tap a few keys.
The alternative of course would be to get washed and dressed, then drive down to the local library, and even then I wouldn't know where to start. So even if, after all these years the local library has lifted my ban (don't ask) I probably still wouldn't bother, especially as I would have to pay for the fuel to get there and fork out a couple of quid to park. And then there's the environmental impact, the tree huggers would blame me for the death of another polar bear and the destruction of another square mile of Amazon rainforest, and I wouldn't want that on my conscience. So shorts and Welsh cakes it is then.
Anybody under the age of 18 has probably lived their whole life online. They chat to their friends on Spacebook, MyFace, and Twitter, upload photographs of their genitals to Flickr, and post videos of their mates 'happy slapping' innocent pedestrians to Youtube.
It's an anonymous world, where we can take on a different persona if we want. Online gaming communities have been doing it for years. I can sign up, call myself something ridiculous like Manboob or Tattybojangles and spend six hours every night murdering aliens or building a virtual village.
Before we know it, our virtual world occupies most of our free time and our real world pales into insignificance. We become immune to the consequences of our actions. If I upset someone online, chances are they will just block me from communicating with them and that will be the end of the matter. If I did the same thing in my real world it's more likely to result in a punch in the face. So as you can see, the internet is more user (and abuser) friendly. I can be whoever I want and and live out most of my fantasies without being in any real danger.
But it's not all good news. Social networking sites are all the rage these days. People accept complete strangers as friends and then give them constant updates on their lives. It's bizarre. I wouldn't walk around a busy city whilst holding up a placard saying 'I had bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning' or 'my dog has just chewed through my table leg', but that's effectively what we do online. We allow the passive acceptance of strangers to become more important than real interaction with our friends and family.
After a while we end up with a dual personality, a 'virtual' schizophrenia if you like. We may be a person of very little importance in our everday 'real' world, but as soon as we plug ourselves into cyberspace we can become a god, and enjoy the ego-boosting, self indulgent pleasure that comes with it.
It's an addictive habit that takes over our lives, and yet thousands of people are seeking help to escape from it. They've realised that their digital life is out of control and they want their old analogue lives back.
In light of this, a company based in the Netherlands called Web 2.0 Suicide Machine promises to disconnect you from your online life. It's a website that logs into your accounts and deletes everything, friend-by-friend and post-by-post. It's so successful that so far it's had 90,000 requests and at the moment there is a month long backlog.
But disconnecting is not without it's risks. Dr Jerald Block, a psychiatrist based in Portland, Oregon, treats patients who use the internet more than 30 or 40 hours a week. He says, "If you are heavily active [on the internet], by disconnecting you are losing a significant relationship. Those 30 or 40 hours of time now have to be filled with real life."
I spend at least 30 or 40 hours a week on the internet, but for me it's an extension of my real world. I only have 90 friends on Facebook, but I know them all, I've spoken to them face-to-face. I don't play online games any more so I have no alter-ego. Whichever social networking site I'm on, I'm still Martyn Langdon.
The internet is a great place to be but we should look at the medium and say what are its advantages and disadvantages, and how can we maximise the former and minimize the latter.
Now that I've written another article I have to go and tell all my friends on Twitter, Facebook, Blogger............
Online Schizophrenia
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