Reaction: "The Museum of Me"

While I think that Ellen Ullman's somewhat reactionist assessment of the rise of the Web is not completely accurate, especially in the light of the continuing popularity of social media, she does illuminate some concepts that I only vaguely recognized before. Disintermediation - removing the intermediary from transactions whenever possible - is very real. I've bought car insurance online without using an agent. I've done my taxes on Turbo Tax's website without any tax education or training at all. I've traveled around the country and to Canada without ever talking to a travel agent. The face of service employment is changing, shrinking, and if things continue as they are now, will soon be non-existent.

I've also noticed that "real life" and what people do on the Web are merging. I began using the internet in earnest in 6th grade, when I was 11 years old. The acronym IRL (in real life) was used extensively back then, and continued to be used extensively until maybe 4 years ago. Who I was online was separate from who I was IRL. Because of the extremely dysfunctional family unit I grew up in, I had more friends online than I did IRL. Any IRL people who found out I had friends on the internet that I had never even met were horrified.

I had a couple of conversations like this:
Other person: "How do you KNOW that she's a 14-year-old girl in New Jersey?"
Me: "She told me so. We've been friends for 3 years. It's hard to keep a charade up that long."
Other person: "But they could have. It could be some old perverted man."
Me: "I've spoken to her on the phone."
Other person: "Well, he could have gotten someone to talk on the phone for him."

I haven't heard anything even remotely resembling a conversation like that in 5 years.

I think that the structure of the Web makes it easier than ever for people to get stuck in their own Museum of Me. I think that Facebook is helping make it less likely that people will do that.

But this is still frightening. We are experiencing the biggest societal shift since the Industrial Revolution. Change isn't bad, but it's scary because of the uncertainty that it causes.

While I don't think Ullman has it all right, I am a bit frightened.