When it comes to the textuality of the Internet, message rules and the “text” of the message doesn’t need to be limited to ASCII: animated GIFs, infogtraphics, videos, photos, etc — just as valid and way more accessible to people who don’t speak your native tongue.
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Matthew, I don’t agree with your comment, “overpopulated country of countless opinions and insensitive faceless folks.” I believe this may be a perception by some but I believe this is more along the lines of “we used to like this neighborhood until it got so ‘diverse’” — people only tend to cry “overpopulation” when they don’t like the sort of people, thoughts, or ideas that’re “taking over.” I am not at all accusing you of this, but it made me think of it: I, myself, don’t like how the Internet has changed since I was on it in 1993 in a big way: first, when AOL was let into USENET newsgroups (when the mental power of the questions spiraled down), then when it became more accessible to other political groups (happened in a big way around 2006) when it went from a haven for the liberal elite and science and became very conservative as well as Christian, and whatnot. And now the diversity continues as the digital divide is razed. It’s growing pains, methinks.
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We might be from a tribe we don’t like, appreciate, or identify with — so we go out looking for another tribe — and the Internet makes that easier and easier and easier. We can now create meta or self-selected tribes. Look at Austin, TX, or Brooklyn, NY, or Portland, OR — or, to be honest, Salt Lake City, UT — they’re all not so much based on family but based on “cult” — the cult of Faith, the cult of the Lifestyle, the cult of Friendship. And those tribes are as faithful, powerful, and willing to defend their own as any on the globe. Case in point: when I messed with the denizens of Second Life. Man, they came streaming out like fire ants to defend their queen, their home, and their way of life.
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Yes. Even though we play our part of the global family, brought together through the Internet, we’re still very tribal. To the point, the joke goes, that if someone is born just off shore of Charleston, South Carolina, in a fishing boat on a day trip, that baby will never, to its grave, be considered a Charlestonian — it’s not just Greece (or, tribes deep in Afghanistan) who are so jingoistic about who counts as “us” and who is “other.” One of the biggest jokes in America is the phrase, “you ain’t from around here” and that doesn’t change. And it goes both ways. Sometimes, that tribalism doesn’t exists formally, it only exists because you, yourself — we, ourselves — don’t feel a part.
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We have a sense of the world getting closer but it’s only useful when you have access to “dial tone” and you can get bandwidth. When the Internet‘s not available, we can be very vulnerable. And, just because we can “live,” via the Internet, on Toytown Germany, the English-language German message board I used when I was in Berlin — and because I can read German blogs and keep track of art and trends in Berlin via the Internet and German news sources, real time, doesn’t mean I am actually living in Berlin or making Germany or Central Europe my home. So, the “smallness” of the world can be very misleading and, in many ways, can allow people to disconnect from life and live in a fantasy world outside of what they really want just because they can remain “acceptably close” to their desire, via the web. Does that make sense? Thank for your comment.
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You are awesome! You totally get me. Thanks, Michael. I almost jumped on your comment before I read all the way through, “with the internet constantly expanding, our world is only shrinking.” Why? Because, while that may well be true-ish, it’s also completely wrong. It’s only making the world smaller the way the Post has made the world smaller, commercial airlines have made is smaller, etc. I guess it makes the world of cities, the “rich” and the literate together. Cell phones have done a better job — the old dumb phones with the SIM cards — the old flip phones have done more. Technology surely has, but the Internet has only allowed commerce, as you say, propaganda, if you will, news, as they call it, and media to make the world smaller. I have recently gotten into the world of overland motorcycling and the world is just as bug, lonely, and desolate when you’re on the back of a motorcycle in the wilderness. And, if you have a heart attack or break a leg, they’re still hours and hours away from help — even if you can communicate via satellite. It takes hours and days to physically get places from other places. But you get it, so I won’t go on.
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It’s not that we don’t know these things, it’s always that we’re either too close to it, it didn’t occur to us, or we’re just not experienced enough (or in the right way) to make the connections. That’s why I maybe write such remedial posts — the posts that 66% of all readers might say “duh” — but it’s not duh — it’s in the details (the stuff we think we know) that we gloss over where we get stuck. The Internet is not big ideas, the Internet is detail work. The devil’s in the detail. If I look back at the early days of message boards and newsgroups, entire conversations would end — convos of big ideas (even huge ideas) because an adversary sniped at a grammatical error. You can lose everything on one misspoken word. Politics, as well; entire careers.
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Thanks for quoting me. May I quote you? “As the internet has become an overpopulated country of countless opinions and insensitive faceless folks, the amount of voices via the internet only exponentially increases.” Here’s another secret. You only think that these people are insensitive faceless folks — they’re not! They’re you! They’re just you with an opinion that doesn’t match your concept of propriety and couth — or your concept of modernity, honor, or justice. And, I hate to say it, but when it comes to one’s perception of the internet as being “an overpopulated country of countless opinions” that only seems to count when you think “those people” are idiots. The downside of zero barrier to entry and universal access is that everyone gets a voice, not merely the educated, the rich, the “civilized” or the “modern” but everyone else, as well. I hate it, too, but I respect it and I love it. But it drives me crazy and I surely preferred the early Internet when everyone was Liberal, overeducated, and a nerd.
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True. I have been on YouTube since it began and I only have 1,725,117 views total! It takes a lot of hard work but it also takes an obsessive’s amount of persistence. Also, yes, there’s zero barrier to entry — and there’s not even a barrier to entry when it comes to look-and-feel or design (they just want you to believe that you’re screwed by CSS or HTML5 or stuff like that) — people still spend a lot of time reading text written by people they like — same thing goes for video blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts.
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Thanks, Giancarlo — yes, it is very general; however, it’s essential to remember. Two things, actually: “be kind” and “dress like the locals.”
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