I read today about how the rumor is out that Google is going after Facebook's user base by coming up with their own social networking site, Google Me. I also read today that Neuroeconomist Paul Zak has discovered that social networking triggers the release of oxytocin....the 'generosity/trust' hormone in our brain. And, I read that Foursquare got another injection of cash. Great...more unhealthy voyeurism, and new ways for people to stalk you.....all while your 'own generosity and trust' levels go up............
It figures that the technical and financial geeks out there are determining the perfect neurological and hormonal equations designed to keep us all enslaved to our own egos and hubris. As if we are all not isolated enough, most people will take the bait, and 'click to join'.....so they can sit around, and observe everyone else 'live' his/her life.
This takes 'keeping up with the Jones' to a new and surreal logarithmic carnival maze of horrors in the virtual...and literal sense.
I love technology....but I'm no fool. Are you surprised that University of Michigan recently turned out a study that showed that today's kids lack empathy? Apparently, many people see the current group of college students — sometimes called 'Generation Me'— as one of the most self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident and individualistic in recent history. Do you find that a good thing? And how about adults? What about all those current articles on the lack of civility?
Technology is a double-edged sword. It is proving to have a paradoxical effect. Sometimes, less truly is more.
And if you're still reading, here's a good read on sympathy, understanding, and emotion, and true tolerance. The writer, Anthony Daniels, goes on to state that Flaubert's story shows us the redeeming power of love. 'This love is not so much in return for any service rendered to us by the world, for the world and those who inhabit it can play many dirty tricks, but an approach to the world that in the end is rewarded by an assurance that the world is itself good and that suffering is not arbitrary but has some meaning. Whether or not this is true, it is certainly consolatory in a way in which we all need consolation sooner or later.'
Flaubert's simple heart by Anthony Daniels - The New Criterion
