Ezra Marcus, who writes for The New York Times, tells us about Eileen Kelly, a podcaster and internet "influencer" with more than 400,000 followers. That is Eileen, pictured above. Marcus' column, focusing on Kelly, is titled, "Deeper Layers of a Life Lived Online." That title is, let it be said, the hard copy version. Online, Marcus' column is headlined, "Sharing It All After Baring It All." The online title is explained this way: "Known first as a provocative Instagram influencer and sex blogger, Eileen Kelly is now equally frank about her mental health struggles."
I was struck by Kelly's claim, in the article, that she "took refuge online." Kelly was, apparently, about fourteen years old when the online world offered what she interpreted as a "refuge." Based on what Marcus says in his profile, Kelly has never returned to what some might call "real life."
It is my opinion that the online world is not (however it may appear to those who "live" there) any kind of a "refuge." The difficulties of our "real life," and the "real world," cannot be escaped by moving our life "online." Thinking that they can is an illusion.
Obviously, this is only an opinion. Mark Zuckerberg is hoping to shepherd us all into an online "Metaverse," where he will charge us for whatever refuge we may find there. As Bob Dylan says, in the last line of "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream": "Good luck."
Way before there was any option to seek "refuge" online, Dylan wrote a song that explained, I think, what was to come. Here's a verse from "It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)," copyrighted in 1965:
Advertising signs they con
You into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you
Such, in my estimation, is the nature of the online world. It's largely a "con." I have made that point before. In fact, I have made that point more than once.
Let's not be fooled. No refuge there!
Image Credit:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/03/style/eileen-kelly-going-mental-podcast.html
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