On NPR, a woman spoke about how we tolerate things on the Internet - like waiting for a browser to buffer in an online class or having to navigate through menus in job website and a whole slew of other examples. Whether or not I agree with her comments, the thing that really stuck out to me was when she said, "In the real world, we would never...wait for a professor who paused to refresh in the middle of a lecture, etc, etc."
Excuse me? Are we not actually, right now, at this very moment, living in the real world? I was under the assumption that when I wake up and breath air and eat food, and deal with annoying Internet things...that I am, in fact, living in the real world. It was as if she was implying that we had a choice. Either we could live in the Internet-world or the Real World. But the Internet-world IS the real world. It's not a choice. It is woven into the fabric of our society and our functioning. We don't have a world without the internet. We can't split the universe into some other dimension and just decide, "Hey, I'm not going to acknowledge the existence of the Internet, of an integral assent to our current version of working society." Yes, of course, there are people who live "off the grid", but I'm fairly certain that even THEY acknowledge that the Internet exists. Just as people who don't eat meat DO acknowledge that the REAL WORLD consists of meat eaters.
Maybe this woman was nostalgic (read: old) and wishing for a time when human interaction was valued more highly. But, lady, come on! Welcome to the Real World.
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