NOTE: This is a general, multi-purpose rap. It is about
a phenomenon that I think affects the entire Internet,
not just the forum you are reading it on. If you think
that it's about "your forum," or you in particular, you
might just be suffering from ISIS yourself.
Overcoming ISIS (Internet Self Importance Syndrome)
Those of us have practiced meditation for many years
often forget what it was like before we started. Before
we learned how easy it was to ignore thoughts, most of
us would have said, "Stop thought? Don't be stupid. No
one can stop thought. My head has been filled with
thoughts pretty much every second since I was born.
My mind is a 'captive audience' to my thoughts."
But it isn't. The only thing that made us believe that
our minds were a "captive audience" to the endless stream
of thoughts was not knowing how to Just Say No to them.
Now we know, and we can tune them out any time we want.
I think that -- because of its intense McLuhanist nature
as a hot medium ("hot" meaning "absorbing," in the sense
that you "just can't look away") -- a lot of people have
come to believe that they are a "captive audience" to the
seemingly never-ending stream of words and images being
beamed at them from the Internet.
I'm sure you know a few people whom you would characterize
as "Internet addicts." I certainly do. At various times
I've probably been one myself, as have you if you've paid
your dues on this medium for any length of time.
So you know the syndrome. You get hooked on a chat forum
or a Facebook discussion list or a Twitter feed and part
of you feels as if you just "must" keep up with it. You
start to feel uneasy if you *don't* keep up with it, as if
you were "missing something." This is ISIS, Stage One. In
this first stage of the dis-ease, people start to feel more
owned by the forums they haunt than owners of or users
of them. They develop paranoias: if they don't "keep up,"
for all they know Bad Things might be said about them or
about the people or groups they identify with. Can't have
that. So they compulsively read every line of every post
or tweet, and equally compulsively respond "as needed"
to any that "demand" a response.
And that's when ISIS Stage Two kicks in. Stage Two is where
these now-compulsive readers start to believe that everyone
else is equally compulsive about reading *them*. They start
to believe that these other users are their own private
"captive audience."
Again, you know the type. People who just *assume* that
everyone on the forum reads every word they write, the same
way that they read everything everyone else writes. ISIS Stage
Two sufferers often *berate* others for not reading everything
they write, as if in not doing so they have committed some
kind of sin, and require penance and absolution. "Bless me,
Father, for I have sinned...I failed to read all of the posts
by Whatshisface this week," to which the Cyberpriest replies,
"Say 20 'Hail Bill Gates'...go and sin no more."
ISIS Stage Three is where those who have begun to imagine
that they *have* a "captive audience" start to imagine that
the *influence* they have over the people in that "captive
audience" is greater than it really is. Stage Three sufferers
start to post fantasies about how they've *affected* some-
one, how they've "ruined their day" or "gotten them" by
posting the utterly brilliant and devastating response that
they just posted. If you've been around the Net for a few
years, I don't have to tell you how nasty some of these "I
control your life because you're a part of my captive
audience" fantasies can become. Sometimes you wish
you could just turn these self-important Internet Self
Importance Syndrome sufferers OFF.
That's where the reminder of meditation comes in. You
*can* turn them OFF.
Just do what they cannot. Don't read what they write.
They *have* to read what you write. Every word of it.
*Especially* if you start not bothering to read theirs.
ISIS Stage Three sufferers tend to interpret someone
writing them off as a kind of personal attack, in the same
league as being dumped by a long-term girlfriend or
boyfriend. And, like some of those dumpees, if they're
already far enough gone into ISIS Stage Three to feel
as if you're their own private "captive audience" and
that they control you, they're not going to *like* the
notion of "losing control" over you, even though they
never really had any.
So they'll kick and scream and put up a fight, just the way
that certain thoughts or trains of thoughts do when you're
meditating. They'll *fight* for the imagined control they
believe that they have over your "captive audience" mind.
Just Say No.
Just Say No to all the kicking and screaming. Just Say No to
these voices on your screen, the same way you Just Say No
to the thoughts in meditation. The silence that rewards you
when these voices fade away is more than worth the effort,
and yes, can be compared to the bliss of meditation when
the thoughts fade away.
