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Welcome to IMHO, a weekly column written by the staff members of Internet Underground. Every Tuesday, we bring you fresh commentary and present our own personal takes on the Net. |
Internet Apathy
By Tom DeMay Jr. April 7, 1997
Everyone gets awfully riled up when discussing anything about the Net. On one side of
the virtual fence are the Net
Me? I'm pretty ambivalent about all of it these days.
Sure, the Internet has a lot going for it. E-mail is probably
the one singular piece of technology that has forever changed the way I'll communicate.
And the proliferation of online zines and Web sites has been great for the dissemination
of ideas (like the crap in this piece) . And if underground
and non-conformist ideas can be spread
more efficiently, without interference
from corporate sponsors or without
the pressures of huge operating costs, then I'm all for it.
With that said, I must also add that the Net has not progressed into the great international
soapbox that I had once hoped it would. As great as the online world is in many ways, I
can also understand why some people are disappointed, even disgusted by it. I've seen
stuff in my short Net-browsing life that would kill my Mom. (I'm not speaking figuratively.) And as
always, when some unscrupulous person sees an opportunity to deceive and swindle
someone else, especially in a cold and impersonal manner, of course they're going to
exploit it. But that's not the Internet (despite what Ann Landers
would have you believe.) That's
human nature.
Not that I really even care. I can't feel passionate about the Net these days. Maybe it has
to do with the fact that I spend too much time working with it. Our magazine is singularly
focused on online culture. If that weren't bad enough, everyday I have to be reminded of
it on the way to and home from work. When driving, I'm bombarded with
Microsoft billboards. And when I sit down in front of
the tube, I'm confronted with Web addresses that pop up at the end of every other
television commercial. Even on the radio, which I hardly listen to anymore these days,
DJs utter more www's than a rabid Porky Pig. It sort of sickens me, and makes me
want to curl up in my little burrow,
like some Kafkain protagonist.
The Net is not ruling my life right now. OK, so I spend way too much time on battle.net
playing Diablo (damn those game creators at Blizzard!). And I do sort through the 100
odd messages I receive daily from the music mailing lists I subscribe to and assorted
other e-mail. But I'd like to think these things are not what define me.
Maybe I'm waiting for something big to happen--something that will force the Internet
out of its current corporate-induced stagnation and into the highly anarchistic
forum of free thought that it was supposed to
be. I'm waiting for it to fulfill my expectations of a publishing
and intellectual revolution.
But I'm really impatient.
I think I've finally reached my Internet saturation point.
March 4, 11, 18, 25
April 2
