A Society of Overloggers

The newest episode of South Park once again has tailored itself to our Interactive Media class and analysis of the internet. For some reason, the "national internet" stops working and the community realizes that they have a serious problem with "overlogging" onto the internet. Randy Marsh has trouble sleeping and some personal problems "getting off" without obscure internet porn. His daughter has an internet boyfriend who she is suddenly disconnected from after the internet goes down. At the conclusion of the episode, Kyle has an ingenious plan to fix the internet and gains access to the top secret location of "the internet". Then he does the unthinkable--unplugs it, then plugs it back in. Miraculously, the internet is back up and everyone can go back to their lives of overlogging.

Humorous as usual, South Park also brings up a point that our class has been making all year and should be obvious to anyone who is more than a product of their environment: the internet world is addictive and has become more important to many people than the real world. We feel insecure and nervous when we can't send emails before bed, look at goofy youtube videos or communicate with our online friends, some of whom we will never meet. I don't know if Trey and Matt read our blog, but they sure are playing a tune that rings true and in key with what we have learned in our exploration of social networking and the medium of the internet.