#yknow that study that children literally dont compute the difference between an action on a screen and an action in real life?

[skull-m0ss]

I find a distaste towards people who see the internet as being less true or less valuable than the "real" world. Because yes there's things on the internet that ultimately don't matter and things people get wayy to angry or invested in to be healthy (read; chronically online) but the internet is ultimately just a virtual space that has just as much complexity and nuance as the real world.

Like, you cant say "the internet doesn't matter, go outside" when you do all your work on it, you create friendships through it, you explore and shape your identity with it, you get your news through it, you learn through it, etc. That just doesn't make sense. People don't spend 3-5 hours of their day staring at a screen they spend 3-5 hours of their day with music, art, people they love, people they hate, playing games, engaging in hobbies, cataloguing their life, etc. Technology has just become another limb for younger people. We grow up with it, it's just an innate part of our lives now.

The internet has, for a lot of people, just become another space they exist in the same way that there school or their work is a place for them to be. It's online but it's still there. The internet is limited in it's capabilities, certainly. There's no way to connect with physical hobbies and The Corporations™ encourage us to spend all our time on it/money/become divisive for the purpose of their financial gain, But it's also, a bigbig part of a lot of people's lives these days and to say the internet can't be beautiful or worthy of emotional investment feels just dishonest and dismissive to me?

The internet is filled with beautiful art and beautiful people just as it's filled with idiots and misinformation. It's a place people tell stories, make art, form and break apart relationships, communicate, and to say none of those things have the potential to be beautiful is just. eugh. And yeah stupid things on the internet exist but stupid things and people exist in real life the internet just gives you the ability to see it more regularly and thus put it on blast.