"Hymn to the Internet"

[moon_custafer]

Originally posted by browngirl at "Hymn to the Internet"

I probably shouldn't post more than a poem a day, but when Tigerliliy sent me this one she titled the email as I have titled this post, and she wasn't wrong.

"I swear to every heaven ever imagined,
if I hear one more dead-eyed hipster
tell me that art is dead, I will personally summon Shakespeare
from the grave so he can tell them every reason
why he wishes he were born in a time where
he could have a damn Gmail account.
The day after I taught my mother
how to send pictures over Iphone she texted
me a blurry image of our cocker spaniel ten times in a row.
Don’t you dare try to tell me that that is not beautiful.
But whatever, go ahead and choose to stay in
your backwards-hoping-all-inclusive club
while the rest of us fall in love over Skype.
Send angry letters to state representatives,
as we record the years first sunrise so
we can remember what beginning feels like when
we are inches away from the trigger.
Lock yourself away in your Antoinette castle
while eat cake and tweet to the whole universe that we did.
Hashtag you’re a pretentious ass hole.
Van Gogh would have taken 20 selflies a day.
Sylvia Plath would have texted her lovers
nothing but heart eyed emojis when she ran out of words.
Andy Warhol would have had the worlds weirdest Vine account,
and we all would have checked it every morning while we
Snap Chat our coffee orders to the people
we wish were pressed against our lips instead of lattes.
This life is spilling over with 85 year olds
rewatching JFK’s assassination and
7 year olds teaching themselves guitar over Youtube videos.
Never again do I have to be afraid of forgetting
what my fathers voice sounds like.
No longer must we sneak into our families phonebook
to look up an eating disorder hotline for our best friend.
No more must I wonder what people in Australia sound like
or how grasshoppers procreate.
I will gleefully continue to take pictures of tulips
in public parks on my cellphone
and you will continue to scoff and that is okay.
But I hope, I pray, that one day you will realize how blessed
you are to be alive in a moment where you can google search
how to say I love you in 164 different languages."


By http://befitzgeraldwriting.tumblr.com

Comments

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is awesome, thank you!
There's a viral video at the moment suggesting that the internet/social media is isolating us, and while I do understand the complaints about people sitting around a table with their heads down over their phones, I also want the complainers to recognise that the internet is a lifeline for the isolated, a way for the socially phobic to socialise, an international meeting place where physical ability doesn't matter, a place where I can have dear friends I've never met in person and where I can keep in touch with the in-person friends I left three thousand miles away when I moved; it allows me to watch my niece grow up and her to blow kisses to the strange lady who occasionally pops up on mummy's ipad. Every new technology has its downsides, but to ignore all the fantastically positive things about the internet and focus on one negative thing (which, of course, is much more about the way people choose to use it than the technology itself) just seems to me to be missing the point.

[donald hutton (from livejournal.com)]

There were also isolationist concerns back when I was one of the early Walkoids with my own personal audio device. (I even had the extra 2 'C' cell battery belt pack so I could play cassettes for over an hour!!) People would turn to stare at you on the subway - "Look! It's one of them!