Philosophy and Spirituality

Countless pages have been written about the effect of Internet communication on human beings. Presented with a medium in which they can express themselves anonymously, people can develop extraordinary powers of self-expression and sociability. The most common comparison is to the far older technology of the ham radio station, which to a previous generation (or three) was the outlet by which many a shy, retiring individual became a confident, communicative speaker.

Without the social feedback loops associated with being identified and judged (as it may appear to the socially nervous and shy), a long-held desire to speak out and entertain can flower unrestricted. Of course it's not all good - many many people given this kind of unlimited freedom of expression without limiting factors become, in sociological terms, irredeemable fucktards.

To me both the good and the bad raise interesting possibilities for the development of the human mind when immersed in different situations. We know that as humans we are supremely flexible - thrown into an extraordinary range of environments we can adapt with startling ease. It seems to be all about growing - the mind is a construction of memories and habits and patterns, layer upon layer, which is built just to grow and grow. It sucks down information (fastest of all in childhood) and expands as far as it can within the local constraints.

Around this frantically expanding core we have a series of shells - first the restrictions of the body (the needs for food, water etc., the desire to avoid pain), then the needs of the deeper psyche (security, a safe future), then the needs of our self (love, fulfillment) and so on. Those of you who know Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs may already know where I'm going (and how badly I'm butchering Maslow because I can't be bothered to go back and recreate his whole

Image by breezeDebris via Flickr

Maslow said that until we have satisfied the requirements of one level, we can't proceed to the next - until we have enough to eat and drink right now, we can't start planning for the future. Until we have a secure future we can't start thinking about lifelong fulfillment. But to me these needs also present a series of barriers which force the mind and personality to grow only up to a certain point and into a certain shape - the desire to express oneself is one of the strongest demonstrations of this effect.

Once we learn that speaking out and saying what we feel isn't going to endanger our body needs (we're probably not going to go hungry because we said something someone didn't like - at least the majority of people likely to be able to read this article aren't, those of us in the impossibly fortunate and overindulged North/West), we expand a bit further but are brought up by the next shell - maybe the need for security (are we endangering our future security by getting a reputation as a loudmouth or troublemaker?) or the need for love (are we risking being unloveable by being too outspoken?) or even the final tier in Maslow's pyramid - self-actualization (fulfillment) - are we closing doors in our life by speaking out?

To some extent the anonymity of the Net allows us to break through at least some of those shells. This is true however much we use that anonymity - posting under a psuedonym gives us almost total invisibility, while others (like myself) give away pretty much everything about themselves. But even I'm safe in a sense, I don't have to stand face-to-face with the people to whom I'm speaking!

If we can't be (easily) traced, we are shielded from consequences to our safety and security. If we don't have to show our face, we are less easy to mock or put down...we are safe from the social repercussions of expressing our views. A lot of the time this has a positive effect - much of our fear is either a useless stub from (often prehistoric) times when we needed it, or it is a pointless or even destructive consequence of traumas we suffered during childhood.

A lot of writers present the Net as a whole new world which we can inhabit, transcending our bodies and normal reality. I think this is a bit overenthusiastic. The Net is an amazing thing because it is a completely new and incredibly open method of self-expression. At root, it's just another medium (like the telephone or writing) by which we can exchange information. To me, trying to make it into something more, something mystical, actually devalues the amazing thing about the Net, which is what it brings out in people.

If it was some magical environment which transformed us into different people, we could say "oh, that's just the Net doing its thing". But when all the Net provides is an opening in our hereditary barriers, we can see that the transformation comes from within ourselves - the shy, nervous person who suddenly develops the ability to express him/herself freely to the world is still the same person, but has lost some of their restrictions. Ditto the inarticulate person who suddenly discovers a joy in speaking out. That ability was there all along, it just needed letting out.

We can't predict the effects of these new freedoms on our species as a whole. The most extreme predictions - those that predict the evolution of the human race onto a new level of existence - seem a bit optimistic. But we have already seen how this new informational freedom is chipping away at established opressive governments, like the Chinese Soviet regime where the government are having to make more and more concessions because they can no longer keep information from their people reliably. That is wonderful, but maybe first we should be looking at (and glorying in) the effect our new communication freedom has on ourselves - our personal evolution as we experience this new way of talking to each other, and saying what we feel. We've spent our lives being told what we cannot express or communicate. Maybe it's time to throw out all those can'ts and start thinking about what we really want to say.

Labels: Human, Maslow, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Psychology