Not So Hasty!

Ellen Ullman’s article “The Museum of Me” brings up some good points. She is correct that we are loosing the very socialization that makes us a community to the impersonal, emotionless computer. Technology enables us to save the time and trouble of communicating with other human beings in person. We don’t have to get up from our chair, change out of our pajamas, acknowledge another person’s existence or even pay attention to what they are saying. We have traded conversation and social interaction for the click of a mouse and an automated phone message. The internet has gradually developed in us a microwave mentality, everything has to be quick, we must have it and we must have it now! This microwave mentality gives us the right to complain when we actually have to wait for something and the right to throw a hissy fit when we can’t get the service we want or someone messes up our order.

Though the internet has its downsides and it causes asocial behavior, I wouldn’t paint it in such a villainous light as Ullman did. The ‘world revolves around me’ advertising strategy isn’t just present in the internet world, it is a growing strategy in many fields used to attract consumers. Such examples would be: “Albertsons, it’s your store”, McDonalds “have it your way”, L’Oreal’s “Because you’re worth it” and many others. The internet does have its purpose; it makes shopping, site seeing and traveling more feasible to people who can’t leave their home easily or can’t afford it. As I already stated, Ullman has some good points but I wouldn’t go so far as to label the internet as the primary cause for the asocial ‘me-ism’ mentality that society struggles with today. Some people do take the internet to an extreme and become asocial, but that does not justify depriving everyone else of the internet just because of one minority’s weakness and lack of self-discipline.