Whether or not we like it, it feels like the internet has infected every single part of society and every single part of our own lives. If you want to apply for a job, you do it online.
If you want to use your tickets to gain access to a concert, you use digital tickets. If you want to message your friends or family, if you want to buy something, if you want to read the news,
If you want to look at the weather, if you want to purchase books, if you want to date people, if you want to know about local happenings in your area, if you’re interested in what new music or movies or whatever else has come out recently, if you’re looking for a night of
Relaxation and fun or if you’re just looking to kill time, if you’re doing literally anything, it involves the internet. So in light of that, I think it’s worth asking the question, what is the internet? In my eyes, the internet is the single greatest technological advancement we will ever
See. There is nothing like it I can imagine that even comes close to the effect that the internet has had on our society. The only thing that could have the same kind of huge effect on our lives like the internet has had would be something crazy like teleportation or time travel or,
You know, de-aging. But even then, it’s like, I don’t know, the internet I think would still be bigger and loftier in its impact. But really, once you get down to it, all the internet is, is its communication. It is communication and nothing more, but nothing less than that, because
It is communication with everyone, everywhere, all at once. But I think that there are a few problems with this too in particular that are standing out to me right now. So the first major problem I’m thinking of whenever I’m thinking about the internet being communication with everyone,
Everywhere, is this idea that’s presented at the very beginning of Henry David Thoreau’s book, Walden. He says something to the extent of people were so desperate to build a telegraph system running from Maine to Texas that they did not stop to think whether or not Maine or Texas
Had anything worth communicating. Or in other words, just because you can hear everyone’s opinion on something, that doesn’t mean that everyone’s opinion is worth listening to. And so I don’t think that any discussion about how the internet has affected our lives would be complete
Without a mention of social media at the very least. Social media is kind of the thing that people point to whenever they discuss the problems with the internet. And I think with social media, you hear a lot about people comparing their lives, their own personal lives, to what they see of
Other people’s lives on social media, which don’t really reflect the truth all that much. And so as a result, you have people questioning their own value and their own worth as human beings, because their lives do not live up to the celebrities or to their friends, what their friends are posting
Online. And so it’s really kind of a problem. And I think everyone knows about this. And so just because you can communicate with someone or with everyone, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will benefit from doing so. And then the second major problem that I think about with
The internet a lot nowadays, is the fact that it’s on 24/7, the internet never turns off. And this is kind of crazy to think about, but I can’t help but feel that if there were strict limits in place,
Where just everyone was like, okay, no internet, no internet between the hours of 6pm to 6am, or something like that, then I can’t help but feel that a lot of problems will be resolved. As I was
Saying, in my eyes, the internet is just a form of communication between others at its core. That’s really how I see it. It’s just communication. But the thing is that you don’t really benefit from talking to people 24/7, I think everyone needs some alone time, everyone needs alone time, time
When they are just by themselves, and they can just process everything they have experienced. I made a video about journaling some time ago. And I think that a lot of the benefits from journaling, you know, such as just reflection on your own life, and thinking about your future, thinking
About your past, figuring out how you fit into the grand scheme of things. I think that these are a lot of benefits that come from journaling. But I also think that they can just come from just sitting there alone. I think reflection is something that’s absolutely necessary. And I think
It’s good to sustain good mental health. And so I think if it were possible to just simply kind of quiet all the noise, quiet all the communication for a period of the day, every day consistently without fail, I can’t help but feel that people would be better off. I’ll talk about my experience
With that in a bit. But really, these two problems kind of go together. The idea of the internet being communication with everyone everywhere, and the idea of it being always on, what that means is that you have an unlimited amount of content to access from 8 billion people across the globe. And
Then also you can access it 24/7 without fail. So at least for me, and I’m sure for you too, there’s this feeling that oh, there’s always something new on the internet, there’s always a new video to watch, there’s always a new article to read, there’s always a new post to look at,
There’s always something there whenever I go to the internet. And so a lot of people have talked about this, what this leads to is a sense of FOMO, right? Fear of missing out. That’s what FOMO
Stands for. It sounds goofy, it sounds silly. FOMO I thought was like a donut or something. But it’s not a fear of missing out. And so I’ve experienced this feeling and let me know if you have in the comments. I’ve experienced this feeling where if I’m away from my phone for too long,
Then there’s a certain sense of anxiety I feel like if I don’t check my email for long enough, I’m scared that you know, my bank account will have been hacked or that my credit cards will have been stolen or something like that. I’m scared that someone will have died or I’m scared
That there will be some kind of tragedy that’s affecting my life in everyone else’s lives, and that the world is exploding or you know, something like that. And the thing is, it sounds kind of crazy to put it like that. But I don’t even think it’s a completely unwarranted fear just because
Of something like COVID, where it just happened so suddenly and out of nowhere, and no one could have seen it coming. And that was very much a global phenomenon. It was something that affected literally everyone in the world. And so I don’t think that FOMO is something that is exclusive
To my experience or exclusive to your experience. I think it’s something that everyone experiences. And I say that the internet has infected our lives just because of the fact that if you try to excise it from your life, if you try to cut it out or remove it, then people don’t always
Take kindly to it. Have you ever put off checking your phone for like several hours or even a whole day or something like that? And then whenever you do check your phone, there are all these messages
Where it’s like, where are you? Are you okay? Are you safe? Are you dead? Because you’re not on your phone. And it’s so strange because there’s so much more to life than the internet. But the internet
Has kind of overlaid itself over everything. And so as a result, if you don’t check your phone, then you might get a text where it’s like, Hey, are you okay? Are you safe? Are you dead? Or
What’s really toxic is whenever people get mad at you for not checking your phone. But we live in this culture with this access to 24/7 internet and unlimited communication. And people are on the internet at different times, meaning that they see different things. Because again, the internet
Is a novel experience. It’s new every time you go and check it out. Every time you go to a website, every time you go to a certain platform, there is always something new, which you are being offered. And so because of that, people see different things at different times. And so because of
That, they get to talking since the internet is communication. And then you kind of realize that if you’re talking with a friend, that they saw something you didn’t, and then you feel like you missed out or something like that, or you might be talking to someone and you haven’t heard about
Something. And they think you’re weird for not having heard about it. Because the internet has infected everything, the internet exists as kind of a layer over real life at this point. And what I mean by that, is that everything about life is kind of the same as it was before the internet in
The sense that it’s like, Oh, yeah, your goals are to go to school or go to work or find love or find happiness or joy or whatever else. Everyone is still doing a lot of the same things. Before there
Was the internet, there were still video games and books and movies and comics and people still had relationships, people still had friends, they went to roller rinks or whatever else they did in the 90s. There are roller rinks. Now we should go roller skating sometime. Everyone should go roller
Skating. It’s fun. It’s kind of weird because it’s seen as a kid thing. But rollerblading is kind of fun. Like I’m not good at it. Like I fall constantly, but it’s fun. But anyways, so we have all that stuff with life, you know, we have school and work relationships, etc. Except the internet
Has been laid over the top of all of it. And again, the internet has infected every single part of that. So it’s like with dating, there are dating apps, there’s online dating, that’s very
Much a big thing. Or even if you meet someone in real life, a lot of the introductory stuff is done over text. Before a first date, you’re already talking a lot with a person. I feel like a first
Date now versus a first date with the internet are two very different things just because of the fact that now at this point in time, we have texting and so you can just talk to people whenever. And
So because of that, I feel like there’s a lot of communication that takes place prior to dates. Because before it was like, hey, let’s just meet up, let’s talk, let’s see if we have any common interests. Whereas now it’s like, whenever you go into the first date, you already know what you
Have in common. It’s just more about the physical chemistry, or the chemistry of reality, I guess the chemistry of being with one person in the same room or something. I’m explaining it weird. It’s more about testing in person chemistry. That’s what I’m trying to say. It’s more about seeing,
Hey, is this person funny? Do they have a weird laugh? Do they smell weird? Are they a gray rat? Something like that. So you have all of life, and then you have the internet laid over the top
Of it. And that is the world we exist in now. And so the problem with this is that the internet has infected every single aspect of our life, meaning that there are certain things that would be better
Off without the internet that now have it kind of jammed in by our own actions. So going back to concerts, needing digital tickets in order to get in, unless it’s like a smaller show or sometimes,
How often do you see people holding up phones at the concerts? And I’m not gonna lie, I watch these concert videos, I watch the videos that people film, but at the same time, it’s like, if I bought
A ticket to see a band, then I should be able to just look up and see the band, I shouldn’t have to watch the band through your five inch cracked iPhone screen that you’re holding up. So I think
That because of the fact that the internet is communication with everyone in the world, and also it’s on 24/7. And also because of the fact that it is overlaid over real life, I think that what that
Means is that it almost feels like we’re living two lives, it almost feels like there’s real life, and then there’s the internet world. And this is crazy, because obviously the internet exists in real life, obviously, real life is just everything, and then the internet is a small
Part of that. But it kind of feels like you have your physical day to day life, and then you have the internet. And it feels like these two things are kind of meshed together. And I feel like the
Internet has a lot more importance. It feels like anytime I do anything, there is a sense that yeah, things are happening right here and right now. But often the distance, even if I don’t have my
Phone with me, even if I’m not online, even if I were just to stand out in a field somewhere, it would feel like things are happening without my knowledge and without my knowing that could be huge. I think that because of all these factors, I think that just because of the widespread
Access of the internet, and the fact it’s on 24 seven, and the fact that it’s so intertwined, and so integrated into our lives, I think that because of all these facts, it kind of feels to me like we’re always multitasking. It always feels to me like we are doing something in real life.
But also in the back of our minds, we’re thinking about the internet, we think about things that we saw on social media, or we think about things that we read in the news, or we think about
Music that’s coming out or movies that are coming out. And again, that’s not new. It’s always been normal to think about your friends or to think about art or whatever else. But I think that the
Degree to which we think about these things has to be different just because of the fact that we are constantly being exposed to it. It’s like if you have a friend who you see once every week or so,
Then in the past, you would have seen them once every week or so, and then you would have gone on your way. But now it’s like, hey, you can see them every day just because if they’re posting every
Day, then you get to see what they’re up to. And I think that can kind of cause some problems that can kind of make you feel like you know someone better than you actually do, which kind of,
I think parasocial relationships are the extreme version of that. But if you want to get down into the nitty gritty, I think it’s probably possible for you to form a pseudo parasocial relationship with someone that you know in real life. Because even if you actually know them,
If you just spend all your time looking at their feed and looking at their posts, it’s like, that’s kind of weird. But at least whenever I’m living my life, it feels like life is going on, but there is
Also the internet where another kind of life is going on. It feels like there is life right here right now in the present. And also there’s this other world where things are happening that I may
Not know about. And so because of that, I have to get on my phone and I have to look into the other world because it’s my only window into this other world. Because if I want to see real life, I can
Just look up and look around and I can be like, oh, nothing’s happening. Better check this second world, this second life, I guess. I don’t know. That’s a weird way to think about it. But I mean, kind of, I guess it’s why it’s called second life is because it’s literally like, oh, yeah,
This is your other life on the internet, your Kermit smoking weed or whatever. I don’t know. So I do think there are some great benefits to the internet, obviously, and I want to touch on those
Real quick. I think one of the great benefits of the internet is the fact that because it is communication with everyone everywhere, that means that you can learn a lot of stuff from a lot of different teachers. And of course, you can learn bad things, you can learn lies and think their
Truth, you can fall into strange groups if you’re not careful. But I think that I have learned a lot of great things from the internet that I didn’t actually learn from someone showing me. So for instance, video editing, I’ve never taken any kind of video editing course, everything I know about
Editing video just came from trial and error. And it came from me looking up YouTube videos. That’s it. There are a lot of cool memes online. There’s stuff that’s made me laugh. There’s stuff I read that has made me sad. There’s stuff I’ve read that’s made me happy. Obviously, one of the
Great benefits of the internet is just the fact that it’s communication with anyone anywhere, meaning that you can check up on friends or family who are far away, you can see how they’re doing, you can stay in touch, which is awesome. Another great benefit is just the fact that there are so
Many strange subcultures online that could not exist without the internet. There are certain pieces of art and media that could not exist without the internet. A video like this couldn’t exist without the internet because you know, obviously, you’re watching it through the
Internet. But also more than that, like whenever I make these videos, I just kind of throw whatever I want into there, I just kind of use whatever pictures or images or audio or whatever that I think would help make the video entertaining or prove my point of whatever. And so something like
This where it’s a big mishmash of things could not exist without the internet. As I talked about in my death of monoculture video, I kind of love the fact that things are just being thrown together, things are kind of blending together because it doesn’t feel like there’s a mainstream anymore,
It just feels like there are all these little subcultures. So I’m a big fan of that. I’m a big fan of the fact that things are just kind of thrown together, things clash together, I think it’s awesome. And so as I’m talking through this, and even as I’m describing the
Internet as an infection, I don’t mean for it to all be negative. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if there were no positives to the internet, that it would not have had the power to infiltrate our lives so thoroughly as it has. Obviously, there are good things about
It. Obviously, you learn something from the internet or obviously you benefit in some way, shape or form from having the internet in your life. So as I talk about the internet infecting every single faucet of our lives, I don’t think that that is entirely a bad thing. Because again,
I think there are a lot of freaking great things that we get from the internet. But there’s this feeling that I have that is kind of what drove me to make this video, which is that I can’t imagine life without the internet. And that’s scary.
I think that being unable to imagine life without the internet is a very scary idea, just because of the fact that the internet has really only been widespread for what like 25, 30 plus years, like really, we haven’t had the internet for long. And it’s just completely changed everything about
Life. I think it’s scary for me in particular to think about this just because of the fact that I think I was probably part of the first generation to be unable to remember life without the
Internet. So far as I can remember, the internet has always been there. So far as I can remember, everyone has had their own personal computer, there have been computers in schools, whatever, but I know this wasn’t always the case. And so I think that this feeling causes me to kind of think
About life before the internet and how I will never be able to know it. Not really. And so I think that some of the problems with the internet caused me to look at life before the internet and
Kind of caused me to bemoan the fact that I will never know that life. And let me make it clear, this is not me saying all things were so much better in the 80s or any bullcrap like that.
Rather, I think that my point in saying this is that it kind of feels like for me, at least as a person, just as an individual, it feels like I’ve hit the point of diminishing returns with regards to using the internet. I’ve gotten much better about it over the past few years, especially,
But there were times in my life, you know, when if I didn’t have school or if I didn’t have work, then I would just spend all day online. Like literally, I would spend like eight hours online,
And it was not good. But I would wake up and then you know, I would go and do whatever and then I would check my phone. And then I would just be like, Oh, you know, let’s look at memes for a
Bit. And then, you know, basically, I would just keep on doing that for the entire day, I wouldn’t do anything I wanted to, I wouldn’t, you know, do anything productive, I wouldn’t use my time in a
Manner that was even a little bit enjoyable, it would just be internet all day. And I’m hesitant to use the term technology addiction or phone addiction or internet addiction or whatever, just because I know that some people don’t like using the word addiction with regards
To these technologies. I think it’s probably a real thing because it’s like, hey, if gambling can be addictive, then why can’t video games, but whatever, I digress. At this point in my life, I’m doing a lot better with it. And so I haven’t had many days like, you know, for a long time
Where it’s like, oh, crap, I just spent the entire day on my phone, you know, and it’s like, no, I have too much going on to do that, which is great. It’s great. It’s actually great to have a bunch of
Things to do. Because of the fact that, you know, that means that I can’t just be online. It’s a great boon. It’s a great blessing. You know, it’s like the saying that idle hands are the devil’s
Workshop. It’s like, if you don’t have anything to do, then you might just default to internet usage, and you might just waste your day away. So it’s better if you fill your time. So that way you
Don’t do that. So in light of these experiences of being online and just wasting time and days and just not getting anything at all from it, I’ve taken great steps to try to minimize that and to
Try to minimize just that wasted time. So I try to do this every day. I don’t always succeed. But when I do, it’s always a great experience. I just tell myself, you know, oh, I’m going to be done
With my technology usage at like 830 or something like that. And then, you know, at that point, I’m going to turn off my phone, I’m going to turn off my computer, and then I can only, you know,
Write in my notebooks, I can only read, I can only, you know, practice my guitar or something. I can only do things that are not on my phone or not on my computer. And honestly, just knowing
That I don’t have to deal with anyone for the rest of the night, or that I won’t deal with anyone for the rest of the night, or I won’t, you know, take in new information or something, just knowing that
Kind of gives me a certain sense of relaxation and a sense of peace of mind, which is really nice. And I wasn’t expecting to feel so strongly about it as I do. But it’s great. It’s great to
Actually not be staring into my phone right before bed. Turning off your internet at home, like just for a day is also super interesting experience. Because you have to be bored. Because these days, it’s like whenever we’re bored, we just check our phone. And so it’s like, if you can’t do that, if
You take that away from yourself, then it’s like, oh, well, I’m bored. What do I do? It’s like, well, I guess I’ll do dishes, you know, I guess I’ll do my laundry, or I guess I’ll clean up.
Or for me, even if I don’t have the internet, I still have video games. And so it’s like, oh, I can’t, you know, be online. Well, I guess I’m just gonna play Resident Evil or something, which is way better than being online. I’m not gonna lie, like it sounds silly to be like,
You know, get off the internet. So that way you can play games. But like, no, it’s so much more engaging. It’s so much more engaging. And it’s so much more fun. It’s a much nicer break than just scrolling Twitter. And then as I’ve mentioned, probably the single biggest factor in helping
Me limit my internet usage has just been having things to do, just having deadlines or goals or something like that. It’s really hard to spend all your time on the internet, knowing that you
Have to make a video this week. And so you have to take steps to prepare for it. And you know, I had to set up the lights and the camera and whatever else the camera is my phone, I did take
A shower and pick out a shirt and get prepared and I have my notes here and whatever else. And like, this sounds stupid, it sounds silly. But honestly, having stuff to do is like so OP and trying to
Break bad habits, because this is so simple, but it never really clicked until recently. But it’s like, if you want to stop doing something, then you have to start doing something else instead. It’s like if you have a bad behavior, then you can’t just not do that. Because you have 24
Hours in a day still. So it’s like if you spend an hour online, and you don’t want to be doing that, then you have to spend your hour in a completely different way. But I’ve talked about this before
In other videos, but it’s like making a video a week for me, or I’m also working on a novel, and I’m sending out chapters every two weeks. Both of these things are kind of huge for me
And staying focused and they make me feel good, they make me feel good, they make me feel like I’m being productive, and they make me feel like I’m moving forward in life, which is a much better
Feeling than the days when I would just, you know, sit there online and do nothing, which all that is kind of regrettable. But we persist and we move on, so I think that living without the internet
Is impossible, but I do think it is possible to limit its influence. I do think that if you set goals for yourself that you’re serious about keeping, then you’re able to limit your internet usage just because of that, because it’s like I literally can’t be on my phone right now,
Because I have to make this video. I literally can’t be online, because I have to work out at the gym, or just by doing things. It’s like, I can be on my phone at this concert, but like,
It’s kind of why would I want to be on my phone when Metallica is up there, you know, it’s like, let’s just watch the band. So as I mentioned, I think that there are so many positives to the
Internet. I think that there are a lot of movies and books and concerts and games and whatever else that I would not have found out about any other way but through the internet. I think it’s awesome
That you can talk to people anywhere around the world. I think it’s awesome that you can just buy stuff and have it show up at your door. I think that it’s awesome that you can just teach yourself
Skills and you can learn things without having to go to college unless you want to. If nothing else, I’m grateful for the internet because it allows me to make these videos and produce them and then
To stick them out on YouTube where you then watch them. And so thank you for watching them on the internet. I think that the internet is a marvelous thing. And I think it’s kind of miraculous. It’s
Kind of insane to think about it and to think about how quickly it changed our culture. And I say our culture because I mean like our culture as a world. I don’t mean just like American culture
Or something. I mean, the entirety of the earth has changed because of the internet. But in spite of that, I’m still kind of sad about the fact that life without the internet seems impossible because
It feels like there are just so many distractions that we have available to us now. So I think there are so many great and wonderful and beautiful things about the internet. But at the same time,
I can’t help but feel that it kind of sucks the way that the internet has infiltrated every single aspect of our lives. I’m just frustrated by the fact that it feels like you have to be tapped
Into this other world. I’m just kind of frustrated by the fact that it feels like I can’t just live a normal real life. It feels like there’s always this other world, this world of the internet, where things are happening, and where people are, and whatever else. And it feels like
You always have to be kind of tapped into that. Even though the internet is wonderful, and there are a lot of things I love about it, I just kind of hate the fact that I have
To worry about it all the time. I hate the fact that the internet is always on. I do think that self control plays a role in how we use and view the internet. And I think that as with anything,
We have our own free will, and we can do whatever we want. We can choose to not get the internet, we can choose to never look at a web page again for the rest of our life. But the problem with it
Is that it will have major impacts on our life. Like I was saying, you can’t apply for jobs if you don’t have the internet, or you can’t apply for school, you can’t turn in school assignments, it’s harder to meet people without the internet, it’s harder to talk to people if you don’t have
A phone or text. And really, there are some cool products. There’s like the light phone where it’s like, oh yeah, there’s only talking and texting and no apps or no music or whatever else. And it
Seems like a cool idea. But at the same time, it just doesn’t feel like it’s sustainable almost, it doesn’t feel like it’s possible to be completely away from the internet in this day and age, it feels like being a part of the world involves being online. And so it’s a strange feeling,
Because there’s a lot of joys to the internet. But at the same time, it can feel like a cage, the internet can feel like a prison sometimes, because there are points where you just want to be left alone. There are points when you just need to be by yourself and reflect. I honestly
Think it would probably be super healthy to be able to detach from the internet for long or even short periods of time. But at the same time, think about how many friendships or family relationships or just relationships in general, think about how much your social life would fall apart,
If you weren’t online, or if you didn’t text people, or if you didn’t call them, limiting your accessibility to the internet goes both ways. So if you can’t reach the internet, then the internet or people can’t reach you. Or if you don’t have texting, so that way people
Can’t reach out to you. That means that you also can’t reach out to them if you want to. So I do think that this is a very different world that we are currently living in than previous generations
Before us lived in. I think that the world has changed. I think that it’s always changing. But I think that especially because of the internet, it’s changed more than it ever has. And I don’t
Think there’s any going back from it is the thing. I don’t think that there’s any real way to revert to how life was before the internet. I think that even though we can take breaks from the internet as individuals, I think it will always be there. And of course, I’m grateful that the
Internet exists because it allows me to share these essays with people. So that’s awesome. But at the same time, it feels like this is something that cannot be stopped. It feels like the internet will never stop. And it feels like the internet will never go away. So life without the internet
Is impossible. And yeah, I think it’s possible to rid yourself of your phone. It’s possible to rid yourself of your computer. It’s possible to get rid of your Wi Fi to get rid of your router, whatever else, it’s possible to never access a web page again for you as an individual. But as
An overwhelming global force, the internet is here to stay. And so whenever I say that life without the internet is impossible, I mean, it is literally impossible to live your life in this day and age without being affected in some way, shape or form by the internet. And I think it’s obvious
To anyone and everyone that this is the case. But I still think it’s worth thinking about the fact that this wasn’t always the case. And like I said, there’s no going back, there’s no way to revert to
What life was before the internet. It’s just not gonna happen. I think it’s already clear now. But I think it will become even more clear through the following years or decades or even centuries that having access to anyone and everyone’s thoughts 24 seven forever is probably not the best thing
To do for our mental health. It’s probably not the best thing to do for our well being. And honestly, there are so many good things about the internet. So life as a whole might be better with it than
It was without it. If you can remember what life was like before the internet, then you’ll have to let me know what you think. Honestly, though, if I had to bet money on it, I would probably say that at the end of the day, life without internet was probably neither better nor worse,
Or rather it was probably better in some ways, worse in other ways. But at the end of the day, it was probably just different. It was probably just a different life. But also, I don’t know,
Because I don’t know what it was like. And so as with most things in life, I think that because of the fact that the internet is here to stay, all you can really do is just try your best to make
Something of your life. The internet is here, it’s not going away. So let’s just do the best we can. So anyways, I wish I had a more positive note to end on. I mean, I guess it’s kind of positive. But
I don’t know, vaporwave is pretty cool. That’s a cool thing that exists because of the internet. You know, my videos exist because of the internet. So that’s cool. I’m grateful for that. Thank you for watching. This is what I have to say. So anyways,
Hopefully you got something out of this. But thank you. So goodbye.
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