Lauren B. Lentini

Day something. The natives are restless. Jerald is coping by disinfecting every inch of the house. Lauren and Jordan, meanwhile, are napping extensively and fighting over screens. Screens are life.

I’m a big fan of the internet on regular days., but I think social distancing may become the golden age of social media. After 10+ days with Facebook and Instagram as virtually my only connection to the outside world, I’m ready to write my

Ode to the Internet

At least from my own little window to the world wide web, it appears that everyone came inside and went online. And instead of being awful to each other, as usually happens on the internet, we’re banding together. We’re physically distant, but clinging to each other digitally.

All of the parents who have suddenly become homeschool teachers are swapping resources left and right, and the companies behind many of them are offering their wares for free. The memes circulating aren’t just about how bad we are at homeschooling, but reassuring people it’s OK to be bad at it. Teachers are posting their credentials and offering to help. We’re venting and supporting each other when it’s needed.

The local groups are active with posts about school closures and where to find scarce grocery items. Restaurants are letting us know when to order take-out and advertising growler fills to use up their kegs. People are offering to help each other out. Yoga and karate and dance classes are moving to Zoom instead of being canceled.

Many of my friends are vlogging or singing songs or talking about Shakespeare or posting videos of their kids. My watercolor group keeps posting paintings of toilet paper. I think it’s more than just boredom. We’re reaching out to each other, trying to do our parts to build up the community we suddenly find ourselves confined to.

Then there’s the art. I’ve watched concerts from Dropkick Murphys and the Indigo Girls on Facebook Live, as well as broadcasts from Stephen Colbert’s bathtub and Trevor Noah’s living room. I downloaded a free coloring book from Liz Climo. I haven’t caught any of the operas the Met has been streaming, only because it starts around Jordan’s bedtime. Patrick Stewart is reading a daily sonnet. I’m so impressed by the artists who are making the best of a bad situation by making it a little brighter for the rest of us.

I find myself thinking about the future, assuming there is one, and wondering which memes will make the history books. I feel like they’re serving an important purpose, exerting social pressure to do the right thing where our so-called leadership is failing. They’re also giving us a sense of solidarity and shared experience, even when we’re all apart. Not to mention the much-needed levity.

We couldn’t survive this without the internet, to inform and distract us, to enable communication and connection, to give us the means to help each other through.

This post took me forever to write because I don’t usually wax philosophical like this. I try not to generalize this much, either, and the above is all written with the awareness that one’s social media is an echo chamber and not necessarily a representative experience. But I hope others are seeing similar glimmers of hope and beauty in all this time of dreadful news and terrifying uncertainty.

In related news, I’ve been trying out this collective journaling app that I rather like. You get a fill-in-the-blank prompt every day, so it’s basically as easy as a journal can get. After you post, you can see your friends’ responses as well. If you care to join me in this (free) experiment, you can use this link: https://longwalks.page.link/fyNg.