The Age of the Web Hermit

The future

Web Hermits have never been exceptionally rare. However what is defining the modern internet dweller is not the amount of time that is spent online, it is how productive that time is and what can be achieved in it. For many people, the web can no longer be separated from their real life by the convenient ‘virtual’ tag. Reality, for more and more people, is inextricably tied up in the Internet. The web has allowed people to mix and congregate into social groups based on common interests rather than locality, and the result is that while physically the Web Hermit may appear more isolated than would seem healthy, he or she can still be a part of a close social unit.

Time will tell how strong the electronic ties that hold together internet societies will be. Civil society in the physical world could arguably be on the wane but on the internet, at least in these early years, we are seeing the reverse. Communities are becoming more stable and businesses to cater to them have been established. We are still in the relatively early days of the era of the Web Hermit and who is to say what will become of them? In years to come will we see grey haired old warhorses meeting up in their faded clan t-shirts sharing stories down the Dog And Duck of taking down the Molten Core fifty years ago? Will parents tell their children the enchanting tale of how they exchanged smiley faces in the Singles (19-29) room on Yahoo and knew that they were meant to be? There’s no way to know for sure where the Internet is going and where it will take the people who rely on it, but there can be no disputing that it is now integral to the fabric of modern society.

For our Web Hermit, being able to live, work and thrive in this environment with nothing more than a computer, an internet connection and a head full of passwords can only be a headstart in life.