Journal #1 - Dreyfus

"If the essence of technology is to make everything easily accessible and optimizable, then the Internet is the perfect technological device.  It is the culmination of the same tendency to make everything as flexible as possible that has led us to digitalize and interconnect as much of reality as we can.  What the Web allows us to do is literally unlimited."  These words are located in the introduction and they immediately triggered red flags in my mind when I read them.  The more I thought about it the more I realized just how many people actually believe that the Internet is limitless.  It is almost revered to a god-like status.  Although I find the Internet to be an amazing and useful tool I am constantly aware of its vast number of limitations.  Perhaps my biggest concern is the belief that the Internet makes "everything easily accessible."  Granted, there is very little information that cannot be found on the Web but since when is information alone "everything?"  The Internet primarily makes use of one of our senses....sight...but what about the other 4?  We have somehow diminished their importance and each generation continues to hold them in less and less regard.  Sure, the Web makes some use of sound but can anyone honestly say that the sound of waves crashing on the shore on the computer is the same as actually being on the beach and hearing it in person?  I lived in Romania briefly and the pictures on the Net don't do it justice.  Nor does it capture the overwhelming sense of despair and hopelessness that pervades the entire country...it's not something that can be seen accurately in pictures or described adequately in a Wikipedia entry...it is something that can only be felt.  These distinctions may seem trivial and perhaps they are, but I can't help feeling as though ignoring these subtle differences now are the first steps leading towards complete desensitization of society in the future.