Sunday, March 8, 2009

Rehabilitating the electronic butterfly

Electronic socializing has become the craze recently. Boundaries are defined by the medium of communication being used. There is no obligation to answer and participation in every discussion is entirely the choice of the individual. In essence, control is what is given to the electronic butterfly. In any human interaction there are a number of ways that a person can interact in a negative way. We can look at it in terms of on-off phenomenon, for example, lack off or presence of endorphins. In reality to think about the whole range of possibilities in the neurotransmitter/receptor analogy, we would have to consider degrees of "off" and "on" (antagonist, agonist, partial antagonist, partial agonist, inverse agonist, inverse antagonist).
But in a black and white world, a world of ideals, a world of extremes, a positive feeling will lead the electronic butterfly to drone around the electronic interactions more so than the actual interactions. In the same world, the human or the actual interactions are giving a certain negative feeling to such an individual. The morale is not protected. Morale can take a hit in an interaction when invasion, judgment or deception take place.
A person who by Horney's construct "goes with the people", is an anxious person who lives in a dangerous world where control is a luxury. Anxiety and the need for control go hand in hand. This butterfly when laying its eggs, wants to control any invasion, judgment or deception. The barrier, alter persona and freedom to move is granted by the electronic socialization.
The same answer would be invaluable to the same person outside of the world of electronics. Utility of these principles is one of the arm of social skills training.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think you have given a very beautiful word electronic butterfly.