Looking back on my youthful days... I want to write various things in detail. For example, I can still remember when was the "first contact" with the internet, this global network for me. It was when I belonged to a university in Tokyo, and in 1995 I started using that university's computer rooms as a student (maybe, the first site I accessed could be a Japanese musician I've always respected, Motoharu Sano's). Yes, there was not any smartphone, and even any cellphone yet... The days when we didn't have any so-called social media.
Now, I try to imagine how it could be when I was in my teenage, or in my 20s (now I am 49). The age almost everyone (yes, even children) has a device to enjoy connecting themselves to the internet... I don't want to have any jealousy of them, because if I did so it would mean that I deny my whole life's value, what I have achieved in my life itself. However, for example when I was alone in my town with a wounded heart, maybe those devices/tools would ease/cure my loneliness with a certain feeling of being connected to the world.
Whether I affirm or not, at least I have to accept that the internet has been helping my life a lot. However, that connection also brings serious problems to us. An English teacher of mine once taught us that modern people tend to receive too many bits of information than once in ancient times, therefore our brains can't accept or reflect on them carefully because this era needs our speedy solution abilities.
Then, the main issue about the internet for me can be this: How can I control my time and my free will (not free wi-fi) in my daily life, preventing so-called internet addiction? How can I avoid being controlled/swallowed by the virtual but fascinating network's charm? Reflecting on this, I have to accept that once I had been soaked into that horrible virtual relationship, and even pretended to be a successful, almighty superman. Certainly, it must sound very ridiculous, but one lesson I have learned from this internet era.
