The Internet: Is it Redefining the Family Unit?

The other day, I was talking to a elderly internet friend of mine who’s almost like an uncle or a dad that I never had. My friends like to call him “Shiz.” Shiz and I had an interesting conversation about the internet and how more and more people are creating another life online. In American cultures and possibly other cultures around the world, the family unit is broken, backwards, and in some cases, completely destroyed. We have working parents who have no time to raise their kids or pay attention to them, some parents who have still act like they are teenagers, kids raising other kids their age, and relatives who avoid and distance themselves from other relatives. It’s not always the case with every family, of course, but many people are in similar situations with their own.

Although, it is often looked down upon, the internet is starting to become a more legitimate form of getting involved in the community. It is not just the local community that people can get involved in through the internet, but they can also get involved in the global community. It is not uncommon these days for people to forge friendships and develop feelings for each other over the internet. People who just can’t relate or forge a deep, meaningful relationship with those in their local community see the internet as a means for social interaction with others across the globe who they can better relate to. Some would even consider their online friends as family and go as far as to say that they know their online friends better than they know their own family. Although this idea of having an “online family” may seem comical, I can’t help but wonder if the internet is picking up the pieces and taking the concept of family to a whole different level above and beyond the traditional idea of family as relation by blood or by marriage.

In a free world where all people can easily travel anywhere at anytime on the globe like taking the daily commute, visiting your online family in real life may not be such a silly or impossible notion. Easy global travel often leads to less isolation and more involvement. It would make it easier to embrace and connect with all people all over the world. Idealistically, the idea of family could be extended to all different people regardless of distance, blood, or legal contract, which is almost like a radical quantum leap from what we consider “family” to be today.

Interesting video:

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