What is “Internet Distance”?

Hmmm… Illinois doesn’t want sex offenders to use social networking.

Actually, the state is making it a felony for them to do so.

“The idea was, if the predator is supposed to be a registered sex offender, they should keep their Internet distance as well as their physical distance.”

For the longest time, I was able to make a very simple distinction.

There was stuff that was real and that was important and that mattered…

And then there was stuff on the internet.

The Internet was a fantasy world; it wasn’t a real world. People on the internet weren’t real people. That was the fun. They were characters. Characters being played by real people perhaps, but characters nonetheless.

This wild and wacky internet still exists to some extent (anonymous jerks and trolls still throng around) but it’s shrinking. It’s being crowded out by internet banking and e-commerce; it’s being replaced with social networking, where people have real names and real relationships, because they’re real people. Can’t the two internets co-exist? The internet may have infinite space, but people have limited hours, and they’re spending them differently.

It’s not as much of a game anymore, because when you post something from a Facebook profile, real friends can take real offence. Real crooks can steal real money from real bank accounts.

The real world is bleeding in, and it’s going to get worse. Taxes. Libel suits. Angry employers tracking what you post, when you post.

Certain aspects of the change will have to be approached carefully, because certain concepts just aren’t the same online.

Distance doesn’t exist on the internet. Well, maybe distance does exist, but it follows different rules entirely than physical distance. But these rules are going to be studied and mapped and understood, because the stakes are just too high.