By Arthur Leggett
As many of you know, I am intentionally guarded about exposing my private life in the clouds. Since I am a privacy-centric person, I have never posted my picture online. This morning, I decided to take a leap of faith and dive head first into this digital space.
I originally joined the digital world two years ago because I felt that the Adage editors filtered, racialized, and tokenized my submitted article to a push an entitlement agenda. What was published did not resemble my original submission nor did it accurately represent my philosophies, thoughts, and perspectives. In response, I entered the digital theatre with the John Galt Line blog, where I share my unsterilized thoughts, liberating commentaries, illuminating missives, morning musings, and occassional rants.
As we continue to be overloaded with social media, I keep wondering about the Kierkegaard's theory that "the use of technology often results in human beings having 'destitute' relationships with one another?"
Without getting too deep here, Kierkegaard asserts that what ultimately drives people toward certain technological practices is fear, "the fear of humanity." I have struggled with the question - Is all this social networking technology mitigating real communication by "providing people with the means to escape, or at least hide from those aspects of interpersonal relationships that they most fear?"
I must admit that there's a certain efficiency and convenience in sending a twit, sharing a Facebook announcement, writing an email, or texting rather than calling or squaring up face-to-face with people, which all require that I am more in the moment. Perhaps, I am a little ambivalent because I like moments of real time interaction and understanding, from being attentive to what's going on.
Not surprisingly, Joseph Weizenbaum, a founder of artificial intelligence discovered that people "become emotionally involved with the computer and...anthropomorphize it."
The one lesson that I recently learned is whether you are online or offline - "This above all: to thine own self be true," Shakespeare's wise and honorable dictum.
Last, I'm always open to connecting with kindred spirits and to imbibing disparate ideas. If you are close by, let's meet up for coffee or tea, swap stories, and share common interests. If you're around the world, we can be pen pals. Feel free to drop me an email. I respond to all emails within 36 hours.
Or maybe you found something "wrong" or "misspelled" on my blog? Or perhaps you have a suggestion or question? Tell me I'm wrong. Or tell me I'm right.
Thank you for reading my thoughts.
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