Thoughts on The Internet, Place, and "Fragmentation"

I was sitting in my living room today, talking on Facebook and playing a quiet piano version of Bon Iver’s “Beth/Rest” (link here). My mom and sister were watching a powered-up television show- I believe it was the monster-makeup reality-competition show Face Off. As my little sister cheered and laughed at the excitement of the drama, I sat calm and contemplative.

Such is the power of the internet. Two people can sit in the same room and have no knowledge of each other. Humans and society are used to being in synch. Space, as it is traditionally construed, is bound to emotion. It seems to me that people feel they ought to be feeling the same thing as those in the room around them. When my sister pulled me out of my music and told me about something funny that happened on the show, I was completely oblivious.

This is what people are talking about when they say that the modern world is “fragmented”. We can live in the same metropolis as people who don’t share our cultural experiences. We can sit down with our extended family and be living utterly different lives. And just as easily, we can be sitting in the same room as people and be miles away.

And yet, just as easily, we can be across the country from others and speak to them like we were in the same room. I’ve shared surprisingly intense relationships, given and received great advice, from people I could never see in real life. And I’m just dipping my toe into the pool of internet friendship, as I am reminded by the closeness of friendships and communities I observe on Tumblr. Not to mention the proliferation of internet humor. The prevalence of humor memes on the internet just shows that none of us have really gotten used to life with the internet. We’re constantly surprised that we have both seen the same silly things scrolling on our screens. The great shared cultural experiences of my generation will not be repeatedly watching Star Wars or hearing of Kurt Cobain’s death, but the inside-jokes we share with the world through Reddit.

The world, this new, digital, cosmopolitan world, is indeed fragmented. But maybe, if it goes far enough, we can reform those fragments into a new, beautiful, conjoined thing.

Just a thought.