While watching Jane Austen's Persuasion on PBS last night my girlfriend asked me "Wouldn't you feel so unconnected and alone back then, without electricity or the internet?" I explained that a few summers ago I was at the Omega Institute, (way out in the middle of nowhere) and that there was no cell phone signal and very limited access to the internet - and I loved it. There is something so peaceful about being UN connected to the world at large and being fully present where you are.
Check out this fantastic article by The Idler's Tom Hodgkinson, questioning the value of social networks:
And does Facebook really connect people? Doesn't it rather disconnect us, since instead of doing something enjoyable such as talking and eating and dancing and drinking with my friends, I am merely sending them little ungrammatical notes and amusing photos in cyberspace, while chained to my desk? A friend of mine recently told me that he had spent a Saturday night at home alone on Facebook, drinking at his desk. What a gloomy image. Far from connecting us, Facebook actually isolates us at our workstations.
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