I was reading an interesting snippet on Techdirt about people and the Internet which echoed and reverberated among things I have been thinking.

I’m becoming aware of the strange world in which I live. I spend a great deal of time, fiddling on the Internet. I say fiddling, because I read my friends pages which heaps of feeds from other blogs, although I’m not particularly regular about updating this journal. I live in a world that is almost hypereal. I’m not sure if that word is right. I know it has specific meanings within specific disciplines and I am not in those disciplines. But, I sense that when I walk around in the real world, that the people around me may not even be aware of the things that I know. There’s a vague schism between what my reality is and what everyone else experiences. I’m very hyperconnected, even if I’m not hyper-inter-connected. I sense a strange discontinuity between myself and these other people.

Then I read my friends page, both here and elsewhere, and I sense a different kind of schism. It’s one that has its nexus in education, knowing phrases that seem esoteric and are easily misheard (button down the hatches, people). There’s a sense that when I think, it’s almost in hyper-terms, in ways that other people may not be aware. There’s an extra level of awareness about the context in which I do things. Beyond everyday living, I can critique basic facts about life and living. I can choose to go outside the perceived norms of an externally imposed reality (Does this mean I’m insane?). Perhaps it’s the way in which I am aware of the perceived norms of society, that social pressures don’t necessarily effect me in the same way as others. Sure, I can choose to engage in some practices that appear to be accepting of social norms. But I’m very aware that I am choosing them.

I’ve thought recently about the possibility of working in other countries, particularly non-Western countries. But I don’t think I would do that because I know the norms here, I know the consequences of stepping outside them. I can deal with that. But knowing the norms and knowing that I can choose or choose not to step outside them, provides a further sense to that hyper-ness of my life. It’s different. I am online, I am educated. Heck, I have a PhD in online communication. The sense that I have of people in my University not being aware of the nature of the Internet and then lots of people on the internet aware of the kinds of education available means that my circle of peers (in the narrowest sense of that word) is very limited.

But getting back to the Techdirt piece, I still find it strange that people don’t have the internet. What do they do with their spare time? Perhaps it’s the housework that I can cheerfully ignore while my screen provides further entertainment.