It’s been a long while since I’ve posted to TMV but I am going to try and get back to it.

With that in mind I thought I’d revise/repost something I put up a few years ago regarding how the internet has impacted society.

If anything it is more accurate no than it was then. It came to me from a good friend who was a radio host and he was discussing this topic

He talked about being back in high school and there was the stereotypical kid who had completely different musical taste from everyone else

For purposes of this discussion let’s say he liked Scandinavian jazz, if for no other reason than I like the concept of Scandinavian jazz

This kid was basically on his own musically because nobody else like what he did, until one day he saw somebody wearing a t-shirt for the Trondheim Trio and realized “Hey he likes the same stuff”

They became good friends and eventually formed a band together

The point being that in the past it was difficult for you to find people who shared your unusual tastes whether it was Scandinavian jazz or absolutely reprehensible white supremacist views

You weren’t able to find people who said “Yeah shooting up a room full of people is a good idea”

In fact if anything your friends would rein you in

But of course today on the internet no matter how insane your views are you can find hundreds or thousands of people to say go man go

People are generally beings who lacked inertia, you need something to give you a push to start that particular activity and in the past you couldn’t find someone to support your insane homicidal views but today you can

And the flip side of that is that you no longer have that group of actual in-person friends who take you aside and say hey you’re going a little too far with this thing

Indeed you’re so isolated from other people that you almost wonder about some growing up today not really having that value for their fellow human being

I think this is the biggest thing that the internet contributes to the problem

Obviously there are many other factors, but that’s kind of the point that we can’t solve this problem by simply pointing at one thing and saying it is the cause of the whole mess

However the above is one aspect we need to address I’m just not sure how.