This Digital Life: Basic Instructions for Coping with the 21st Century, a presentation by Truffle Pigs as part of the Capital Fringe Festival, points at the strange role the Internet can play in our daily lives. In a wired world where artificial identities are easy to acquire and where people ironically sit alone in front of their computer screens trying to connect with people, this play draws attention to how endless access to information leads quickly to misinformation.

The story follows three sets of people whose lives are similarly entrenched in the technological domain. It opens with none other than a masturbation scene; isn’t that what the Web is best known for? This first scene does a good job of portraying a man in the dark rabbit hole of addictive digital stimulation, but is full of awkward shifts. Next, we are introduced to two teenagers who spend all their time creating derivative videos to post on YouTube. They long for the love of the unknown public, but ultimately begin to question the quality of the audience that watches the fruits of their immature labors. The two YouTube obsessed boys go through all the classics – the wonders of Diet Coke and Mentos, the Hampster Dance, DDR, and many others – but they fail to create anything original.

The play ends with a young couple expecting a child. Joseph (the character is named after the playwright) is set on using technology to make his unborn child’s life as easy as possible. He buys all the Baby Einsteins and he uses Baby Names 2.0 to eliminate any possible names that have rented domains. But his fiancée Victoria reveals a sad secret about their baby that simply cannot be helped by ones and zeros, showing just where technology falls short.

Although This Digital Life misses on many levels –- the awkward pauses due to countless video cues are almost painful –- it does ask some intriguing questions. Should the brains behind YouTube and Wikipedia really be our ministers of culture? Should Second Life really take the place of our real lives? Should we produce low-quality "art" just because anybody can operate a digital camera?

Your last chance to see This Digital Life is Saturday, July 28 @ 2:30 p.m. on The Goethe Institut’s Mainstage. The Goethe Institut is located at 812 7th Street, NW. Tickets are available online.