Social Psychology Benefits along with susceptibility to abuse and accentuation of the shallow

The idea that “it’s actually real, not digital” is something I often talk about when talking about online community, and it’s possibilities. I would go further (and often do) and say that it is BOTH digital and REAL. This brings into view what I think important to stress: That “digital” or “virtual” or “online” is not only NOT a “disqualifier” for authenticity and relational health of humans, but it can be (and for me, has been for decades) an advantage and often makes possible deeper relationships than would exist without it. So it’s not a “machines are evil” and “AI is demonic” moral panic about virtual/online/digital communications, but taking advantage of the opportunities we have to not only connect with people we would otherwise and previously never have met, but also to connect in ways that do not suffer (at least not nearly as much) from the kinds of “bad or fake” relationships that also exist in traditonal , face to face relationships. In fact, many people find the online world to be freeing and allows them to overcome the social hesitancies and fears that keep them bottled up. I certainly found that to be true in my communicating these very things about online community to the larger world, and gained friendships arond the world, a significant portion of which led to face to face meetups (which is always good).

Having said all that, the potential for abuse and misuse and using it in devious or shallow ways is there, and often rampant, full of examples. The AI mess becoming a major example. Even there, AI COULD (and SHOULD) be a massive avenue for improving EVERYTHING, including implementing it in far more sustainable ways, and utilizing the full field of human knowledge to feed it ecological data to weigh in on everything it does and “suggests” for us. Just like the idea of “Ecological Civilization”, there is an Ecological-AI that is so badly needed, if only some AI builders would do more to ensure that this data about our ecological reality is a major “consideration” behind all it’s “decisions”, and then warn us humans about how stupid and suicidal we are being with our world.