Both Good and Bad

Trey Smith

I spend a good deal of each day in front of my computer on the internet. A portion of this daily regime, naturally, comes from maintaining this blog. But the internet also has become my newspaper, magazines, TV and reference library! On those few days when my ISP is down, I feel sort of like a fish out of water.

On the positive side of the ledger, I learn a great deal from the internet. Each day I read a wide assortment of blogs, news sites and reference material. At times, I also have interactions with some of you plus the authors of some of my favorite blogs.

There is a negative side too. There is a real lack of face-to-face human interaction. Words on a virtual page can come across in sort of an aseptic manner. It can be hard to pick up on nuance, satire and irony. Many times I write things tongue-in-cheek, but people don't realize this because they don't hear the sound of my voice or they can't see my facial expressions.

Since I suffer from social anxiety, on the whole, my experience with the internet is more positive than negative. It offers me the opportunity to share and converse with people without being in a genuine social situation.

On the flip side, though, I realize it deepens my aversion to social situations because it allows me to avoid the need to go out in the public square. Because I don't engage the social scene very often, it generates more anxiety than it use to when I must go out in public!

I suppose the internet is like anything else. There are good and bad aspects to almost any activity we undertake.