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Ready for review. Comments are welcome. | | | An Extreme Example of a Non-Internet Society | |
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< | The effect of the internet on personal relationships may be demonstrated by first looking at what occurred in a very non-internet society. I grew up in a tiny town in Wyoming and graduated from high school with eighteen classmates. The closest stoplight was 30 miles away; we had one convenience store/gas station, a church and a post office. The sign entering “town” said “Population 100” but when I returned to visit a few years later it said “Population 200,” which leads me to believe, based on the round numbers, that the survey methods may not have been precise. There was no satellite television and cable was not available. We had a single television station (NBC), and our 19” tube television, adorned with tin-foil antenna, allowed us a fuzzy (black and white in my early years) picture. Competing with the television was one FM radio station and two AM stations, one of which was talk radio and the other was a country format so they were not of great value to a child/teenager. Under those circumstances, we were willing to tolerate poor quality television because it was the only game in town. We would sit loyally through atrocious local commercials, blackouts, and poor quality programming. Nobody would have endured that had today’s entertainment options been available. | >
> | The effect of the internet on personal relationships may be demonstrated by first looking at what occurred in a very non-internet society. I grew up in a tiny town in Wyoming and graduated from high school with eighteen classmates. The closest stoplight was 30 miles away; we had one convenience store/gas station, a church and a post office. The sign entering “town” said “Population 100” but when I returned to visit a few years later it said “Population 200,” which leads me to believe, based on the round numbers, that the census methodology may have been suspect. There was no satellite television and cable was not available. We had a single television station (NBC), and our 19” tube television, adorned with tin-foil antenna, allowed us a fuzzy (black and white in my early years) picture. Competing with the television was one FM radio station and two AM stations, one of which was talk radio and the other was a country format so they were not of great value to a child/teenager. Under those circumstances, we were willing to tolerate poor quality television because it was the only game in town. We would sit loyally through atrocious local commercials, blackouts, and poor quality programming. Nobody would have endured that had today’s entertainment options been available. | | | Similar to a lack of entertainment choices, my home town provided a very limited supply of potential dating/marriage partners. Persons who were no closer related than second cousin—on rare occasions first cousin once removed were fair game as a potential mate. Because of a lack of other options, there were many pairings of people who probably did not have a lot in common and would most likely have not even associated with each other had there been other options. Just as we watched poor quality television programming, however, people made due with what was available in the dating/marriage department. It is apparent that one reason people seek out and stay in relationships is because they do not have better options. | | | After the initial connection—via the internet—or otherwise, there are cell phones, text messages, emails, and IMs. | |
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< | This ability to connect with people, in conjunction with changes in professional opportunities for women is likely to cause fewer and fewer “traditional” families in future generations. Many past long term relationships, such as the proverbial sixty-year marriage of great-grandma and great-grandpa were probably driven as much by a lack of other options as eternal loving bliss. In an internet society, with our shortened attention span, people will be less likely to work at relationships (or stay in bad relationships) because it is so easy to replace their partner. This is not to suggest that there will never again be sixty-year long relationships. Undoubtedly, there are connections where both people desire to be together in a monotonous [sic monogamous] relationship with the same person for their entire lives. However, for better or worse, the condition of the internet society, making relationships much easier to develop and replace is likely to cause a further reduction in “traditional” and even long term relationships. | >
> | This ability to connect with people, in conjunction with changes in professional opportunities for women is likely to cause fewer and fewer “traditional” families in future generations. Many past long term relationships, such as the proverbial sixty-year marriage of great-grandma and great-grandpa were probably driven as much by a lack of other options as eternal loving bliss. In an internet society, with our shortened attention span, people will be less likely to invest as much in relationships (or stay in bad relationships) because it is so easy to replace their partner (easy come--easy go). This is not to suggest that there will never again be sixty-year long relationships. Undoubtedly, there are connections where both people desire to be together in a monotonous [sic monogamous] relationship with the same person for their entire lives. However, for better or worse, the condition of the internet society, making relationships much easier to develop and replace is likely to cause a further reduction in “traditional” and even long term relationships. | | | |
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