Media Free? That's easy...and scary. Know why? (Part 16)

Know More: Communications, Online Anthropology, Online Identity, Psychology, Social Network, Sociology Email Bankruptcy, Social Networks

NextStage: Predictive Intelligence, Persuasion Engineering, Interactive Analytics and Behavioral Metrics

The focus of this MediaFree and Gridless arc from what "accessibility" means to "how important is it to be accessible" to attempting godhood to figuring out God's big three -- omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience -- maybe aren't the big patooties we thought they were.

We then conjectured that the real demonstration of godhood and god-like ability might be creation, and that the ultimate act of godhood might be the creation of communities. Of course, the community you create can be very limiting. The best communities are always based on individuals and, as the Oracle of Delphi admonished "Know thyself and thou wilt know the Universe and the Gods."

Establishing community, entering and leaving community, takes time and effort. No wonder people are willing to establish virtual connections with people they've never had physical contact with. It takes less time and it's safer. You don't have to get out of your car. The more connected we are virtually the less connected we tend to be physically. When someone's an email or phone call away and it takes much less effort, what's the point in meeting with them in reality?

But I don't think we're psychologically mature enough as a species to recognize the difference between cyber- and physical-relationships. The normal boundaries and limits, the psychic and physical walls we place around ourselves for our own and others' protection, don't migrate easily between virtual and real worlds. Second Life is starting to experience real world crime and cyber-adultery is on the rise (I don't mean "pornography", I mean people going to a virtual world so their avatars can fraternize (how's that for an euphemism?)).

(more to follow)

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.

Links for this post:

The Curse of Social Networks

Email Bankruptcy blog posts

The Eventing Yourself Blog arc

Going Off the Grid

The MediaFree and Gridless arc

MediaFreeZones

Proof I'm a Luddite

Unplugging... why is it so hard?

Voluntary Simplification blog posts