O Brave New World: The Dark Side of Cyberspace

This article focuses on some of the negative aspects of cyberspace andcyberculture. First, it offers an examination of the impact of our use ofsocial media, and Facebook in particular, on our psyches, pointing out thatusers of social media can be thought of as audiences. These audiencesand information about them can be sold to marketers and advertisers.Next, it offers a case study of a widespread social problem in Japan, morethan a million media-obsessed Japanese young men (and some youngwomen), the hikikomori, who shut themselves off from society for monthsor years at a time. This is followed by a discussion of the impact of mobiles,primarily smartphones, on American adolescents, some of whom textone hundred messages a day to their friends. The effects of the enormousamount of face-time young people spend with screens—around tenhours per day--are also considered. Finally, there is an examination of theimpact that Amazon.com, the leading e-commerce Internet site, has hadon American shopping practices and American culture and society. Thearticle concludes with a discussion of the work of Hubert Dreyfus aboutsome negative effects of the Internet and, by implication, cyberspace andcyberculture, which, he argues, drain life of meaning.