Network Culture
2005 11 16
|
etc
no date
2024 +
2025
entries
home
Following is a comment I left on the forums for a course I was taking on Literature and Hypertext. It will no doubt appear a little lacking in context, and it was written on-the-fly. I have long since lost the date this was actually written. The closest I've got is Nov. 16, 2005.
I've seen the WWW, for example, grow from an almost imageless domain to one that has more eyecandy than any visual sweet-tooth could ever want. Since my first days on the 'net, way back in the dark ages when some folks still subsisted with terminals that had no graphic capability at all, and all communication was dependant solely on the words, I've seen this bursting freedom come on so quickly, it seems, that a lot of people seem barely able to keep up with the pace. And, as with many new things of this nature, we're reeling, and not always rolling so well with the punches.
The freedom to create and broadcast via various Internet tools, is one that has been relished with gusto by some, and abused horrendously by others. There is a particular quirk about Internet freedom that isn't quite so evident in the offline, waking world, and that is the faceless audience. While offline, there are certain activities one would never dream of engaging in, they are engaged in with much too much relish by some, once the power button is hit, the modem handshake got through, and the browser loaded and ready for bear.
I am in no way a proponent of censorship, but I have seen what amounts to wholesale abuse of freedom of speech, and decent humane behaviour towards others. One day, I might go into more detail about that, but I'm not sure this is the appropriate place or time to lay that sort of dirt out on the carpet. I have seen people treat freedom of expression in a way that leaves me in no doubt that they have no real appreciation of how wondrous a thing it truly is. I have seen this, and worse, done, and the tacit excuse has many times been that people don't often consider that there are people on the other side of the screen, that you're not abusing a Babbage Engine, that the enemy is not faceless or somehow less feeling because that "enemy" cannot be seen.
There are days I've been utterly disgusted with this aspect of the 'net, days where I've been tempted to shut off the box and embrace the joys of being a Luddite, but I am always reminded of the good side of the freedom force: the ability to create unimaginable amounts and types of work from the completely obscure to the utterly mundane, from the surrealistic pillow to the clockwork orange to the esoterically scientific. I am reminded of the fact that this demon box has allowed me to meet some of the best people I'll ever know, allowed me to read some of the best writing I'll ever see, and allowed me to create relationships and creations of my own, that are in turn enjoyed by others and kept them keeping on when netsplits, bad routers, insidious people, and technical frustration have made them want to throw in the towel and retreat to a life of pastoral bliss.
Of course, abuses of any thing, any privilege, any right, any creation, are unfortunate, frustrating, sometimes tragic, sometimes in poor taste, but the Internet has one thing that real life does not always have in situations where one can't choose between thumping one's head against a wall or thumping the tiny-brained jerk next to you - it has an off switch. It may be a right pain in the netherparts at times, but you can get away from it a lot easier than you can get away from Uncle Jackass.