That Time That I Lived On The Internet

| ,

One of the things that I want to do is get better at producing content, and I’ve started a few projects to do just that in 2016. The first is a weekly newsletter for interesting stories about internet culture that I curate, the impetus of which I share below.


Reposted from the launch post for This Week in Web

I live on the internet. What some in the past would have said is to an unhealthy degree, even. Fewer people say that these days though, and not just because I make my living with the internet, necessitating a fair amount of engagement there.

Clifford Stoll has already been picked on quite a bit, as the two decades since he shot down the idea of human contact becoming meaningful on the internet (and indeed the idea of meaningful anything on the internet), has been proven quite decidedly wrong. Even Clifford himself has acknowledged this, but you cannot blame him for that view at that time. Surely we cannot expect that the large machines that we are forced to interact with in the office, jealously guarded by the esoteric knowledge of the smug class known as “The IT Department”, connecting to other large machines via the arcane mysticism of many a bearded sysadmin would fundamentally revolutionize the way that we live, work, and play.

But the revolution has indeed come, and we’re all currently feeling the effects of it. The struggle with what the internet does to us, as both individuals and as society, is ongoing and unrelenting. It seems unthinkable to suggest that the average person in a developed nation could depart from the internet, to the point that the UN has suggested that unimpeded access to the internet should be a universal right.

This newsletter is an extension of my interests concerning the internet, and how it has changed how we think about the world and each other. Expect stories about internet subcultures, digitally mediated interaction, and the political and legal battles surrounding all of this. I dig around constantly for interesting stories concerning the internet, and will surface the most interesting finds every week via the newsletter.

Do you have anything that you think I’d find interesting? Share it so I can include it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post’s permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post’s URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)

🌙 ☀️