The disconnecting connecter

The world wide web, Lanier agrees that it is a major success.  However, the idea of the web as connecting people is ironic.  As discussed in class, many of us agree that Lanier portrays people as 'trolls':  People who internet bully and criticize without the decency to to reveal their real identity.  For example, people can invent fake profiles on many different sites and criticize others.  The story in class about the scrapbookers comes to mind.  Someone can make fun of an entire group of people without the reprocutions that one might face if they revealed their identity.  Even with Facebook, where people create profiles as themselves, we can only learn as much about a person as the person allows us.  Facebook is intended to connect people around the world or even in a small college community.  However, all the conversations we carry out on Facebook, all the comments, all the messages, actually disconnects people.  Without the web, people would have to engage in face to face conversation.  During this conversation, one can read facial expressions, sound affects, gestures, posture, mood, and etc.  Online conversation disconnects people on a personal level.  Lanier expressed, "we are living our lives as if life could be represented in digital form and, actually, it can't be - that makes us not live life as much as we could."  I agree with Lanier because I feel the web allows people to live their life through the Internet.  One could write anything under their information under their Facebook profile.  Just because it is on their profile, many believe it to be true.  However, we have to take the web and the information on the Internet with a grain of salt.  We have to be more mature than the web.  We have to be scholars and research the credibility of certain blogs.  What use is information if the information is false and/or not reliable?