Internet and Writing, Caregiving, Sanity

It’s a strange new world today, that of webs and nets that are not only invisible to the naked eye, but that are morphing and being manipulated continuously by people most of us would never have had any contact with a decade or so ago. Like all the significant developments of man, there is the positive and the negative side to the new cyber world we live in.

The Internet is accessible to all economic and education levels. It only takes a half a dollar in many underdeveloped countries for a person to walk into a cyber café and sign on to the internet for a half an hour. This ability changes the perspective, the awareness, the goals, the possibilities and the self-esteem of a whole generation world-wide. It makes the world a smaller place, our differences, values, morals more obvious, but as we are exposed to them less scary, more manageable.

For the writer, the Internet has opened possibility of making a lonely job less so. Whole communities of like minded people develop with our technology and meeting your writing group doesn't neccesarily mean you go down to the coffee shop anymore. Though I still prefer it.

My last two and half years have had an odd shape of solitude, yet of feeling I was never alone. I was the primary caregiver for my mother, who passed away several weeks ago, (thus the long absence from blogging). I spent most of the time alone in the house with her. A good deal of that time, she was not present. So though I was alone, I wasn't. I guess the Internet saved my sanity. It gave me a connection to the world. Let me feel as though I was still fully present in my own work, yet it also gave me opportunity for escape. I learned a lot. Alot about the way the Internet functions, the vast variety of uses, the scary lack of control and how you can fool yourself into thinking you are accomplishing something...when maybe you aren't.

I know first hand the Internet is not always used for what we Westerners consider the common good. In fact there is a large faction of very clever users around the world, perhaps more motivated in third world countries, whose goals are to damage in some way users in developed countries. I try to remember the positive aspects and possibilities of this new world, when I am inundated with ever evolving and more clever scam emails and with spammers who find new ways around filters and new ways to waste my time.