system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Internet IS representative of the real world and it has done more than people usually give credit for

I don't know how many times I have heard this both offline and online "Internet is not real life. Meet people in real life". My teachers, parents, friends, politicians, people from Quora, people from Reddit, etc have often said that internet is different from real life, that politicians use internet for propaganda and that offline life is different.. They always pretend that internet is something 'different'...a 'thing'.

It ISN'T.

Internet is just connected computers. It is a network. And guess who is behind these computers? Yes, YOU. You, a guy from this world, a real person, not a bot, not a person from Mars. And the internet mainly consist of these very people. I come from a small city in India and I have witnessed both people offline and online, Indian and foreigners. I spend most of my time not interacting people, but watching them interact. And what did I learn from it? They aren't any different.

The same people who used to sit on street shops, cracking sexist and racist jokes are now on the internet, doing the same thing. The same guys who used to bully and insult others all day long are now in CSGO and other game servers. The same guys who used to engage in debates, used to see the world in terms of 'left and right' and used to write articles bitching the right/left wingers are now on the internet doing the same thing. The same pedophiles who used to hunt for little kids on the streets and kidnap them is now just using a different platform for doing the same. The same men and women who used to trap young women and men and marry them for their money or have a flick with them is now using the internet for doing so. People talk about how many people are addicted to games and social media and that it is harming studies. These people are the same people who had been addicted to gossiping and playing outdoor games and bunking school/college when there was no internet. These are the same people who fell to peer pressure and became addicted to alcohol or smoking before the internet.

If the internet has done anything, it has made people see the world more broadly. Before the internet, people were naive, living in their own cultural bubbles, thinking that their city/state/nation is the entire world. Now, with the internet, people are connecting, meeting many people, finding similar people from all over the world. My old relatives think Americans are a bunch of sexually immoral and hedonistic lunatics who have nothing to do except eat and sex. I, exposed to the internet, know that this is not necessarily the case...that there are parts of America, like Alabama, which is nothing but just like third-world countries. I bet many Americans think India consists mainly of people shitting on streets and living poor lives. But the internet has made us interact and we have come to learn so much about others. Imagine a gay guy in India or Pakistan or some other such countries. If he open his mouth, he will be socially shunned (in India its legal but still socially unacceptable). But internet is a hope for him. With that he can explore his sexuality, meet gay guys from all over the world and feel accepted in this 'virtual world' of the internet.

TL;DR - Internet is not a 'bad' thing anymore than meeting friends is. Rather without the internet, people were extremely biased and naive.
gpt
# Internet IS NOT YET representative of the real world

  


As weird as it sounds, internet is still in its infancy, and had not penetrated society fully. MOST people on the planet never use the internet, or rarely so. Either because they are too old, or too young, or too poor, or live in a country where internet is hard to connect to.  


Most importantly however, the vast majority of moves and shakers of this world (politicians, leaders, generals, CEO's bank directors etc) rarely ever use the internet and do not participate in its culture. Hence why there is a dissonance between what people write on the internet, what they argue passionately about, and what their politicians end up doing anyway. Internet is the tool of the powerless, and will remain so until the curent 30 year olds grow up to become 50 year olds, and join the cohort of people who actually matter in shaping politics, culture, economy and society.