A wonderful thing is happening in the world at the moment. That thing is global warming. Or rather, that thing is a reaction to global warming: the reaction to having to make a collective effort to make a global change. This growing sense of social and global responsibility is causing a lot of people to become less enveloped by what was viewed as a ‘me-first culture’ and make changes to their lifestyles for the good of something greater than themselves, something greater even then the human race: to prevent irreversible damage to out planet and its systems.

Interestingly, this new sense of unity actually makes itself economically viable thanks to its scale and urgency. The millions of people around the world sacrificing a little here and there in the form of spending a little more on sustainable alternatives causes this market to become competitive, and will subsequently drive down the prices of these alternatives. That, in turn, will make the uptake of the alternatives easier and more appealing to those more resistant to making changes. It also allows the alternatives to compete with more conventional products and services, which opens the market, and thus the positive cultural shift towards sustainability, to the significant (and growing) portion of the population for whom financial stability is not taken for granted.

Does being ethical make it hard to be successful? Yes, to a point. But once ethics itself becomes a major factor in determining success, such as with environmental sustainability, ethics goes from being somewhat of a financial hindrance, to being an extremely valuable and desirable quality to have to your name. Right now, we are in the middle of this shift, and with the current economic state, it is particularly important for us to allow this shift to occur, and to let our society become sustainable

Recently, I have begun to feel that I have truly migrated to a digital media diet. I now get all my news courtesy of Google Reader, my casual research from Wikipedia and elsewhere via Google, my instant communication via Meebo and Twitter, my music and film recommendations from Last.fm and Criticker respectively, and a large chunk of my entertainment (and other information) from podcasts. Despite all that, (or perhaps indeed because of all that) I’ve all but lost interest in my dedicated social networking account on Bebo.

Suddenly, surrounded by all this useful and interesting information, I’ve pretty much abandoned the banalities of social networking and the mindless hours of wading through random people’s pages that go with it. Now if I’m at a loose end, instead of counting the numerous spelling mistakes in the awful quizzes created by pop-culture-obsessed tweens, I can discover a new band in a matter of minutes, read my feeds of the latest news/‘LOST’ spoilers, or idly write a rant-y blog entry like this one.

Instead of whiling away the hours on online communities created for the sake of feeling like part of a community, it is possible to dip into the internet communities naturally formed by collective interest in subjects like movies, music, science, art, lawn bowls, chinchillas, or anything else which might take your fancy. What I’m really trying to say is that to me, social networking seems redundant. If you want to network socially, go out and meet people “IRL”. As I have observed, internet communities are only effective when they are founded on interests and discussion. General existence is what the real world is for.

There is something quite tragic to me about creating a ‘digital doppelganger’ to sell to the world in the form of an internet profile. I’m sure social networking sites are founded with the best intentions, but in the cases I’ve seen, they end up being places where people retreat from the harsh light of the real world, create idealised masks of themselves, then call it socialising.

The way I have come to use the internet is more like using it as a reference than as a proxy for my actual life. I use it to learn and gather information that I then absorb into my everyday life. It is not, however, a replacement for a life. Having a thousand friends on MySpace is no match for having a relationship of any kind in the real world, and I’m deeply, deeply concerned that it is currently far too easy for young people not to understand that.

As an everyday user of the internet, I obviously have no problem with it. In fact, I think it is a fantastic thing. I firmly believe that people can have good experiences finding fellowship or friendship, and occasionally love online, but those are exceptions. The internet is an information tool, not a replacement for any of the conventional methods of finding those things. It’s like a library. It’s possible that one day you will go to your local library, strike up a conversation with a stranger and end up being lifelong friends, but you don’t go there when you need company.

The Emo culture (if you can call it that) is an anomaly in a lot of ways, but most recently what’s been bugging me about it is its relationship with hip-hop. Emo has a strange, almost reverential view of the hip-hop canon in much the same way a young child looks at his teenaged, unfailingly cool brother. It’s almost as if, like the younger brother, Emo knows that it will never have the cultural significance of hip-hop. Sure, current subscribers to the trends may look back at it with either a cringe or a chuckle when they’re older, but it will never have been such an integral part to their surrounding culture like hip-hop is to a lot of its fans.

I turn over to the music channel and I see music videos for mediocre Emo-ish bands, and I see all these references to a culture totally separate from their own, as if depicting other people break-dancing will give them some cultural integrity. It just doesn’t work. Another example is Pete Wentz’s relationship with Jay-Z. They know each other; they probably consider each other friends, as Pete Wentz always makes a point of saying in interviews. But Jay-Z and everyone reading those interviews knows that hip-hop started long before Emo, and that it will be around long after Emo has been forgotten.

I don’t have a problem with Emo. Some of the music is rubbish, but some of it’s ok. I do, however have a problem with the proponents of Emo taking themselves too seriously, and thinking they have some kind of wider social influence the way hip-hop has.