So close yet so far.

I am an avid Facebook user. I join quite a few groups on the site. Most of them are related to personality types based on a typology and a few of them are founded by progressive or reformist religious people. I always crave to meet like-minded people which I find difficult to do offline and Facebook helps me a lot. For the last few years, I spend many hours per day on Facebook just to have interactions with those like-minded people; some of them become my good friends. Facebook also helps me expanding my mind; I become more of an internationalist and more tolerant of other ideologies. But, there is one problem: it makes me more distant from people in the real life.

I mentioned before that I spend hours per day on Facebook and I prefer to do that inside my bedroom. Once, I am logged on, it is hard for me to log off. I barely interact with my family and roommates. I prefer to interact with a person from Norway! It does not help that Youtube, a website, is my biggest source of entertainment and intellectualism which gives me more excuse to browse Facebook. That is my personal experience. How about on a global level?

Because of communication technology , countries all over the world are starting to get connected with each other. There is more internationalism. The cyber world, in particular, is borderless. Global culture is forming. It is easier to get connected with foreigner than before. But, there are downsides to it. Regional cultures are starting to disintegrate; many believe that in order to be a global citizen, one must completely leave his/her heritages. At the same time, there are many people who want to protect their heritages; they are starting to see internationalism and globalisation as works of evil. For them, their cultures are the only “good” cultures. The world is becoming more united and more divided at the same time.

When it comes to my personal life, it is obvious that I fail at balancing my online and offline life; I need a personal improvement. But, on a global level, I consider myself successful at balancing my regional and global identity. I am a nationalist and an internationalist; an Indonesian and a global citizen. Some people are able to balance their personal life, some are able to balance their cultural identities and some are able to balance both! There are some people out there who are unable to balance both and it is worrying if they form the majority of human population.