The Internet as a Substitute for Organic Connection

In the digital media environment, the synthetic is seen as superior and interchangeable with the organic, blurring the distinction between digital phenomena and real life. The initial excitement that the Internet would connect human beings into a collective brain has been overshadowed by the realization that it has become a substitute for organic connection. The Internet, instead of serving as a practice for a more connected form of consciousness, seems to be accepted as a replacement for the innate, organic and unfolding shared consciousness. This acceptance ignores the deep, innate connection humans have, possibly related to mirror neurons, oxytocin, eye contact, polyvagal theory, or mycelial networks of mushrooms, which connect all species in a shared ecology of nutrition and compassion.