Virtual Nothingness

We have split ourselves from the world by allowing technology to mediate our experiences. We have surrounded ourselves with screens that allow us to interact with information rather than just have it pushed out to us. Access to this information is 24 hours. Through technology we can have the feeling we are connected to everything at all times while actually never being connected to anyone at any given time. We have been given the illusion of social interaction because we can say hello to our friends and provide little snippets of information about our activities, and also see the same information coming in from other electronic acquaintances. This gives us the illusion of friendship, and the illusion of society, but there can be no society without human, one-on-one interaction. We are in the realm of fantasy when we think we are informed when we read some piece of opinion from an obscure ideologue in Iowa, or that we have a relationship when someone adds us as a friend on a social network site. How many virtual friends does it take to equal one real friend that can show up on a Saturday morning to help you move to a new apartment? This is just a rant, but the use of technology has not made us more connected, just as having access to more TV programming did not make us more cultured. Life is not as easy as clicking a mouse or changing a channel.