The New Conectivity, The New Exile

The last ten years have been tough on my soul. I have been involved in surfing the Net much longer than ten years but the last decade has been exploding. Myspace, blogs, Tweets, Facebook, etc. have allowed us a global reach akin to space travel. Our access to people, events, and information is so ubiquitous we sometimes get the feeling that we can know all 7 billion souls on the planet if we wish.

We can access virtually any subject we are interested in from our chairs, or cars, or even the beach. While for many this is a good thing, for some it is not. But for most of us it is a little of both.

Digital humanities are gaining ground in the Academy. Downloading movies, music, books or papers gives almost instant gratification to our whims and wishes. Wealth can be only a click away whether legit or criminal. There seems to be no end to the places vying for our attention, and dollars. And no end to the falls and virtual skinned knees we must now endure.

Those that don't even own or use a computer cannot escape being part of the digital landscape because any action they take is captured in someway in electronic form somewhere. And someone can find anything if they know how. And millions do!

The exile referred to in the title of this post is not quite the same as the exile of Napoleon, or a Russian dissident. It shares some aspects to be sure. Disconnection may be forced upon us. It may be self imposed. The information we gather online may be true or it may not. Just as it is in real life. The exile, or type of exile, I am talking about has to do with the way we now rush to judgment based on what appears on our computer screens rather than the reality outside our windows.


The apartment cell is cold without your words on the screen. Sorry at being unworthy. In the end, though, I will always be your friend. No matter what may or may not come.