It is now over two weeks since I was in Greece to observe the tumultuous political events in that country. In this time I have been in my family's ancestral town in Salerno, Italy. I have been spending my summers regularly here since I was a kid, and this summer will be no different. While here I am staying in an ancient house that is livable because it was renovated in the mid-eighties. It is the house where my mom was born and where many of my ancestors lived. The view from the bedroom where I sleep is gorgeous, as the house sits on a hill over 300 meters above sea level and overlooks luscious green slopes and ridges and the Mediterranean shore. The house, in addition, does not have many of the modern amenities that we take for granted, like internet.
This is more than just fine for me; it is an an ideal escape from my frenetic life in North America which is characterized by an utter dependence on technology. I am not completely disconnected, since I use the WiFi at my uncle's house, and my friendly neighbor Angelo (who I have been friends with since I was a kid) has given me his WiFi password just in case I need to go online. But I am now connected for only brief periods, around 15 to 20 minutes per day. This is helped by the conscious decision to not use a smartphone during my stay in Italy. While here, I am using my Italian cell phone, which is an old device that I bought around 5 years ago for 20 euros. There is no internet access on it, and so I can only make local calls.
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| When in Rome, do as Romans do |
This much-needed distance from internet has helped me to focus on things that are more valuable, like reading books in a sustained, focused, and uninterrupted manner. I am currently slogging through Hitler's Mein Kamph, which is a dense treatise that outlines his political philosophy; no, I am not becoming a Nazi. The text is on the list of a book club that I am a member of. Reading it will also enrich my lectures on the great wars of the 20th century that are part of a course that I will be teaching in the winter of 2016. After finishing Mein Kamph, I plan on reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Tolstoy is one of my favorite writers and I am positively delighted to finally have a chance to be fully absorbed in that book. In Italy I am also doing a lot of academic writing; just the other day I finished a 9000 word paper on the politics of emotion that I intend to present at conferences this year and, eventually, submit to peer-reviewed journals.
Drastically reducing my internet use has also given me more time to reflect on this revolutionary technology, on what is lost and what is gained from always being connected. My age--37--allows me to compare the present time with the pre-internet age; I was a young adult when the web became ubiquitous, and so I have clear memories of what life was like before the internet. The benefits of the web are undoubtedly many, one of which is convenience. I remember very clearly what it was like to own a cell-phone in the mid-nineties (can't believe it's already 20 years). The service was shoddy, they were expensive, and I would have to go and pay my phone bills at the local bank. Now, the service is good, the costs are low, and I can pay online. Ditto for my other expenses, like my mortgage and electricity bills; all are now done online, in seconds, at the touch of a button.
Another benefit of internet is connecting with others. On Facebook I have stayed in touch with people I have met at conferences in the US, and even developed deep bonds of friendship with them. I have also reconnected with friends from elementary school, some of whom I have not seen in almost 30 years. Social media has even allowed me to connect with long lost relatives whose ancestors emigrated to the US before my parents emigrated to Canada. But I have also come to realize that there is something faintly ridiculous about Facebook. Many of my friends post useful articles and updates, but much on my news feed has little value. Take the example of selfies. Why do some people constantly post pictures of themselves? Because it makes them feel good. The pic they are posting is one out of many, the one they feel is the prettiest. We will take many, perhaps dozens, of pictures, some with duck-lips, others with half-smiles that hide the unseemly creases, shadows, folds, and other imperfections of the human face, all with the purpose of capturing that perfect angle that makes us feel attractive. Then we will share it and hope that friends will like or comment on it. I myself sometimes engage in this process even while I recognize how artificial it is.
Sometimes Facebook is used to boast; the most annoying in this category are those who feel the need to say "I love my life" or "I have the best boyfriend" or who post pictures of themselves in luxury cars, or flying first class. These status updates are the most mysterious to me. What exactly is the person trying to accomplish by posting these things? It seems to me that they are similar to childish ego-boosts, the kinds that happen on elementary school playgrounds, where some boys engage in forms of chest-thumping to display dominance and some girls brag about how pretty they are. Usually adults grow out of this, but evidently not all of them if some status updates are a guide.
Some posts are easier to understand. For example, those who constantly share inspirational quotes are probably troubled souls who find comfort in memes that give a higher or noble meaning to some source of emotional pain. People who share memes about heaven are likely mourning the loss of a loved on; people who share ones that proclaim how wonderful it is to be single usually are lonely, have just experienced a break-up, or are unable to form stable and loving relationships; and memes with some quote from the Dalai Lama or other spiritual leader are often shared by persons who are dissatisfied about the perceived moral decline of society.
I am aware of the hypocrisy of sharing this blog post on Facebook while being harshly critical of the same. After all, what is my motive? Is this not a form of the very exhibitionism that I am condemning above? I will admit that it is, and that I feel very ambivalent whenever I post something precisely because I am conscious that, in one form or another, I am reproducing the very things that I find so artificial. On the other hand, the purpose of this blog post is to reflect on my distancing from social media. It is not about completely severing myself from it because I do not plan on doing such a thing. That would be extreme, and it would cut me off from the many benefits mentioned above.
Using social media much less than I usually do has been a salutary reminder of the ancient adage that moderation is important for well-being. In small amounts, Facebook is enjoyable and provides many benefits. In large amounts, it is a colossal waste of precious time that reinforces some of the childish elements of human nature, like the need for approval. Facebook is also often artificial, but not intrinsically so. Rather, it accentuates and reproduces those aspects of life that are artificial. People who reproach others for being "fake" perhaps are not aware of just how much we play roles and follow scripts of behaviour that are not "natural" or "genuine". We will always tell friends and relatives how cute their babies are, even if the opposite is true; when encountering someone attractive, we often act in ways that try to make ourselves more appealing; when trying to impress someone who is perceived to be important to our career, we almost always try to sell ourselves by hiding some things are emphasizing others; in "polite" society, there are too many unspoken codes of behaviour to list here. In other words, life itself it a series of performances that change according to context. In this sense, almost everyone is "fake" or artificial sometimes. Facebook, I would argue, incentivizes and promotes this tendency by encouraging us to share those posts, memes, and pics that we want others to see. This process, including receiving "likes" and comments, provides a kind of satisfaction, which is what makes Facebook so seductive.I am therefore very grateful for the opportunity to spend my summer in a sleepy little Southern Italian town while living in ancient house that allows me to disconnect from the web.
Another benefit of internet is connecting with others. On Facebook I have stayed in touch with people I have met at conferences in the US, and even developed deep bonds of friendship with them. I have also reconnected with friends from elementary school, some of whom I have not seen in almost 30 years. Social media has even allowed me to connect with long lost relatives whose ancestors emigrated to the US before my parents emigrated to Canada. But I have also come to realize that there is something faintly ridiculous about Facebook. Many of my friends post useful articles and updates, but much on my news feed has little value. Take the example of selfies. Why do some people constantly post pictures of themselves? Because it makes them feel good. The pic they are posting is one out of many, the one they feel is the prettiest. We will take many, perhaps dozens, of pictures, some with duck-lips, others with half-smiles that hide the unseemly creases, shadows, folds, and other imperfections of the human face, all with the purpose of capturing that perfect angle that makes us feel attractive. Then we will share it and hope that friends will like or comment on it. I myself sometimes engage in this process even while I recognize how artificial it is.
Sometimes Facebook is used to boast; the most annoying in this category are those who feel the need to say "I love my life" or "I have the best boyfriend" or who post pictures of themselves in luxury cars, or flying first class. These status updates are the most mysterious to me. What exactly is the person trying to accomplish by posting these things? It seems to me that they are similar to childish ego-boosts, the kinds that happen on elementary school playgrounds, where some boys engage in forms of chest-thumping to display dominance and some girls brag about how pretty they are. Usually adults grow out of this, but evidently not all of them if some status updates are a guide.
Some posts are easier to understand. For example, those who constantly share inspirational quotes are probably troubled souls who find comfort in memes that give a higher or noble meaning to some source of emotional pain. People who share memes about heaven are likely mourning the loss of a loved on; people who share ones that proclaim how wonderful it is to be single usually are lonely, have just experienced a break-up, or are unable to form stable and loving relationships; and memes with some quote from the Dalai Lama or other spiritual leader are often shared by persons who are dissatisfied about the perceived moral decline of society.
I am aware of the hypocrisy of sharing this blog post on Facebook while being harshly critical of the same. After all, what is my motive? Is this not a form of the very exhibitionism that I am condemning above? I will admit that it is, and that I feel very ambivalent whenever I post something precisely because I am conscious that, in one form or another, I am reproducing the very things that I find so artificial. On the other hand, the purpose of this blog post is to reflect on my distancing from social media. It is not about completely severing myself from it because I do not plan on doing such a thing. That would be extreme, and it would cut me off from the many benefits mentioned above.
Using social media much less than I usually do has been a salutary reminder of the ancient adage that moderation is important for well-being. In small amounts, Facebook is enjoyable and provides many benefits. In large amounts, it is a colossal waste of precious time that reinforces some of the childish elements of human nature, like the need for approval. Facebook is also often artificial, but not intrinsically so. Rather, it accentuates and reproduces those aspects of life that are artificial. People who reproach others for being "fake" perhaps are not aware of just how much we play roles and follow scripts of behaviour that are not "natural" or "genuine". We will always tell friends and relatives how cute their babies are, even if the opposite is true; when encountering someone attractive, we often act in ways that try to make ourselves more appealing; when trying to impress someone who is perceived to be important to our career, we almost always try to sell ourselves by hiding some things are emphasizing others; in "polite" society, there are too many unspoken codes of behaviour to list here. In other words, life itself it a series of performances that change according to context. In this sense, almost everyone is "fake" or artificial sometimes. Facebook, I would argue, incentivizes and promotes this tendency by encouraging us to share those posts, memes, and pics that we want others to see. This process, including receiving "likes" and comments, provides a kind of satisfaction, which is what makes Facebook so seductive.I am therefore very grateful for the opportunity to spend my summer in a sleepy little Southern Italian town while living in ancient house that allows me to disconnect from the web.
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