Can our generation live without the internet? In Computer Lib/ Dream Machine, Ted Nelson says “we live in media as fish live in water.” This statement is scary, true and sad. Our lives revolve around things like facebook, twitter. Without the internet we might truly act like fish out of water. A perfect example of this is, observing the Lawrence University campus when the internet is down. Times like these are quite chaotic. I am ashamed to say that I have a number of times referred to my laptop as my “roommate.” Personifying an inanimate object, could it get any worse? Lev Manovich portrays our situation quite accurately. We share our lives on these social media platforms and feel like we are in control and important because we can customize our pages and say what we want…but are we really in control? Douglas Engelbart wanted to use technology to increase the human intellect, but maybe...just maybe, it has made us lazier and highly dependent. Tim Berners-Lee may have seen the web as an “exciting future,” but I am quite scared!
