The world is way too interactive (reprise)

(I originally wrote & posted this last July. I'd been meaning to run it up the flagpole again.)

The internet has shrunk our world; it is responsible for a myriad good and great things; that there is no denying.

And I realise the internet is any marketing executives' wet dream. The very net itself is a virtual maze where you can endlessly click ahead to new realms and lose yourself in the e-hedges; enter a room as the door slams behind you, find your way out through a new door; a new path. It's an infinite "if this, then that" virtual world under your fingertips.

It's sort of like a ride at DisneyWorld; an endless chain of adverts really. Wait on line, build the anticipation for the wide-eyed tyke, ride the ride, thrill the thrill and then unbuckle your seat belt and there you are, somehow, dizzy and bewildered in the middle of the gift shop! How perfect! Such utter and shameless evil genius.

It's like some psychologists go to school because at the end of the road they wanna help people by researching the human mind for the benefit of mankind...

Then there are the evil psychologists. Somewhere along the way, on campus a guy hiding behind a bush said "Pssst... come over here" and they sold their souls to the devil for a good GPA and a new BMW.

The well-dressed, gold toothed cackling man hidden behind the campus bush seduced them to use their systematic investigation of the human mind to help make people money.

So instead of using their degree and helping the mentally ill or studying the human brain to make life better, they will figure out ways to get people to buy shit.

They'll figure out ways to trick people into buying shit they don't need; that pack of gum by the register, that magazine, that pack of batteries, the rollercoaster that spits you out into an aisle of gift shop, the commercial that leads you to believe you'll get chix if you eat these noodles and use this deodorant, etc.

That's evil psychology.

But, my point was that the world is way too interactive. Chances are your local garage has a website, your corner store or deli, too. Needlessly. I was making coffee before in the pantry and every machine I look at, has a website. What reason would I ever have to peruse the styrofoam cup company's artfully designed web page? Oh look honey, the company that makes the disposable "birch wood" coffee stirrers in China has a website, too!

Everyone is on the bandwagon, I realise its nothing new. I watch the news and they're referring me to their blog and their webcasts and podcasts and there are all these web addresses flying at me from every which way; everyone is interactively insane! It's too much. It's not enough they've got my attention on my couch staring at the screen, now I've gotta do homework!

Give me the story NOW; give me my news NOW; don't tell me to log on to this or that for this or that so you can ambush me with more adverts and contests and shit to click on! I just hate feeling like these people prey on fools and assume most of the world is naive and apt to deceit and psychological subterfuge.

I look under my soda cap, theres some hieroglyphics on there that I need to enter into a computer to see what they mean. Now Coca-Cola has got me doing data entry gratis!

I can't just unscrew the cap and see if I've won the prize; now I've gotta go home and log on to their website; where I will undoubtedly be inundated with more adverts and tests of impulse and whim.

More than likely, I will be so overwhelmed with all the bells and whistles on their website I'll either forget all about why I logged on or I won't be able to find the spot where I'm supposed to enter my 196 digit secret ASCII code to see if I've won my all expense paid trip to Disneyworld where I will undoubtedly ride a rollercoaster which will spit me out unwittingly into the middle of a gift shop with toys and stuffed animals all perfectly placed and planned at 5-year old eye level.

Oh, its a vicious cycle boys and girls... a vicious cycle.