A Shrinking World, A Growing Community

The potential of the Internet is astonishing. It allows us to grow our community without regard for borders and reach out to those who share our values and beliefs. It entirely redefines what community is. The Internet is the biggest revolution since mail systems gave us the ability to communicate beyond our immediate vicinity.

The reason for that is that while telegraphs and telephones sped up our ability to communicate with people around the world, in order to use them, we still needed to know what was at the other end of the line. We needed to have someone to send our message to, or they did nothing for us. The Internet encourage exploration, growth, and interaction beyond our immediate community.

The result is that we are no longer forced to rely on traditional models. We no longer need to have met someone in the real world before we develop some kind of friendship. We can be the people we truly are, instead of trying to fit in to the world to which we were born. We don't have to rely on chance any more. We can make what we want of our life. The world is no longer limited to what is within reach, because the whole world is at our fingertips.

So what do we choose to do with this? Generally, we stay in our own, small, pre-Internet communities, and wish for change. It requires a different model, and that relies on us being willing to take the plunge and actually change. We need to take the next step, but our teachers tell us not to. They tell us to fear the outside world, to resist that kind of break with tradition, because there might be predators out there. There may be people who would take advantage of us. They want us to live in their world, the place where strangers cannot be trusted, and where we must rely on them. So how do we deal with this?

Simple. When we are communicating on the Internet, we either remain anonymous, or we require people to use some sort of Government issued identification. If we remain anonymous, then we can develop friendships, but we don't divulge the information that would be needed to locate us. We don't share our gender, our age, or our picture. We maintain our identity separate from our online persona, so nobody we meet can take advantage of a friendship developed online. If we require Government identification, then there is a means of proving who we are meeting, but why would we need to do that if we never need to meet these people in reality?

There is no reason that we can't be part of global communities, ones that actually represent who we are, and encourage us to be our truest selves. There are, of course, still risks, as in anything, but are the opportunities as small as those who would stop us would lead us to believe? I think not.