“... but you post stuff on the internet ...”

In this article about the internet:

https://medium.com/@stevenwelzer/cyberspace-is-the-new-heaven-ede893d44544

. . . I had written: “It’s time to shatter the mystique of the cybernetic dystopia that is threatening to envelop us in an electronic daze. It’s time to recognize that, rather than the ‘next higher stage’ of technological development, it constitutes the next misguided milepost on the road to a pathological future.”

Someone asked if it’s not hypocritical to be posting critiques of the internet on internet platforms like Medium, etc.

Well, private automobile transportation is probably one of the most ecologically problematic phenomena in the history of the world, given the emissions, production pollution, resource usage, traffic congestion, urban sprawl, paving over of the surface of the earth re: roadways, parking lots, driveways, etc. etc. etc.

Yet I drive a car.

A major consternation of these high technologies is how they become infrastructural bedrocks that force us not only to use them but to become dependent upon them.

I do regret contributing to the noise of the internet and the electronic daze in general. But, then, so many of the standard, near-unavoidable behavioral patterns of the mass institutional-technological society that we inhabit are regrettable. The internet is the au courant way of communicating, regrettably. I could imagine that if I were living in a real community (ecovillage or cohousing) I would make a decision to turn my attention away from the insanely hypertrophied domain of technological society toward the immediate social circle of the community — in which there would be a critical mass of in-person sociality. But I live a typical atomized modern suburban existence. Outside of my nuclear family my social circle is far-flung, sporadic, ephemeral, etc. An awful lot of my communication comes in and goes out via media, internet, phone, etc.

It’s hard, lonely, out-of-the-loop to live “off the grid.” It’s especially hard to do so and still be a participant in the social change movement. I think we should not be judgmental (“are you fully vegan??”) but, rather, appreciate every step taken in the better direction. It’s a dispositional thing re: how much change we each can accomplish personally.

Avoid holier-than-thou attitudes. Try to make change together (families, communities). Model better practices for the next generation. Keep in mind that the “greening of society” will be an incremental process.