Oh, the Tangled Webs We Weave...On the... Web!

During my daily scan of PerezHilton.com (don't judge me, I know you have guilty pleasures too!), I came across this quote from Keira Knightly:

"I hate the Internet. I find it dehumanizing to constantly check emails or social sites which have become so fashionable."

Ms. Knightly's quote was posted on the same day the internet was buzzing about a study that warns of the dangers of Twitter. The article starts, "Rapid-fire TV news bulletins or getting updates via social-networking tools such as Twitter could numb our sense of morality and make us indifferent to human suffering, scientists say." To read the enitire article, click here.

I related to Keira Knightly's quote and read the article and this all really got me thinking... until my head started spinning as though I had been asked to discover the beginning and the end of the universe or whether the chicken or the egg came first.

I do not hate the internet, I find it quite useful. I do find it dehumanizing. I dare even say I resent the internet (and I'll take this opportunity to throw in automated telephone systems) for being so dehumanizing. But, am I allowed to say that? I'm writing a blog right now! I updated my twitter earlier today! I just checked my personal email on my iPhone while checking my work email on Outlook!

Frankly, if I could live and work with purely organic, face-to-face human experiences, I would. But that is not the world I live in. It is a choice, as most things are, but it is a choice I made in order to do other things I love, such as my job and keeping in touch with my friends and family who do love and rely on the internet.

I started pondering this whole social media world and the fact that tools such as blogs, micro-blogs, photo pages, video pages, etc. are used in order to portray a more personal feel to brands. Not human, but personal. Personality, more specifically. There is a fine line but on one side, the use for portraying a personality side, the majority of us are very comfortable and accepting of the applications. When it comes to a human experience and using the internet to entirely replace an experience, I think that is when many people, such as Keira Knightly and myself start to get nervous, frustrated and disenchanted.

This is not my fully developed opinion on the matter, I still have a lot to consider but I wanted to mention it before the thought slipped my mind. Maybe I didn't provide any earth-shattering answers but I hope that this has at least been thought provoking. Please comment!