Some reactions to a previous blog post I wrote, in which I expressed a nostalgia for my early ventures on the internet, when I found it a much more creatively exciting and socially rewarding experience than I do now, made me start to think about how some of the changes I see on the internet actually just mirror what's happening out in the real world.

The Place Survey was commissioned by the Department of Communities and Local Government to find out how people feel in today's society. The results, which were made available in late June this year, unsurprisingly suggested that community spirit is rapidly dying out in our fleshspace society. People spoke of a lack of respect and care for each other, citing that neighbours “go their own way, rather than doing things together and trying to help each other”. They spoke of a lack of positive leadership, with authorities not seeking public views on community issues. The results suggest society sees itself as becoming increasingly isolated and powerless.

That's quite a scary and serious conclusion, and using it as a comparison for the way one's experience of the internet, which is after all just a form of mass media, has changed is perhaps ridiculously shallow and trivialising. But the consequences of a culture that accepts that individual self-interest takes priority over the social is mirrored in both. Both fleshspace and many cyberspace communities are largely controlled or dominated by self-interested cliques more concerned with personal goals. In promoting our own interests, it feels like we've all forgotten how to play nicely with each other.

There's also the "McDonaldization" of society and the homogenisation of mass culture to cater to the lowest common, and consumerist, denominator. We're losing cultural and national identity and diversity as we increasingly conform to common global standards - just like the world's microcosm, the internet is getting blander and more visually standardised.

It's perhaps too late to prevent the death of community spirit in our societies or halt the global cookie-cutter, but at least one can still switch off the computer and go take up another hobby!

"I'm against a homogenized society, because I want the cream to rise." ~ Robert Frost, US poet (1874 - 1963)