My Relationship With The Internet

There have been a lot of articles recently published about how the internet, social media, and smartphones are killing ‘real human connections.’ I however believe that this is a reactionary knee jerk to a changing social landscape.

Virtual connections are not a replacement for real vulnerable and intimate relationships, and no one has claimed that they are. Virtual relationships or relationships supported by the internet are just a new form of relationship that we haven’t seen before. This does not make them bad, it just makes it new and different, and that’s okay. Trying to make a virtual relationship fit into the traditional relationship model is like fitting an iPhone charger into an old rotary phone, it just doesn’t fit and you need to get a new model.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do believe that the internet can be abused, and can become a replacement for human interaction. But, to let these cases distract us from the good that can come from the internet would be a disservice to humanity. It’s important to keep in mind that we still live in an age where the internet is still in its infancy. We have no idea what might come in the future if we allow the internet to grow and breathe.

I’d like to think that the internet has brought me closer to the people I care about, even if the relationship looks different than it used to.