What is the Internet?
People are feeling helpless about the next phase of the Internet. But this is because they see the internet as being made of technology and companies and metrics and analytics, whereas it’s actually made out of dreams and love and imagination and fear and emotions.
If you look at these dynamic forces, both the trajectory of the Internet and what to do to save and improve it become much more evident. Contrary to what you might imagine, data, analytics, and finances only show a small sliver of the true picture of behavior and worth of the Internet. Conversely, the forces of dreams and imagination are not as nebulous and unquantifiable as one might assume. They are powerful, world-shaping forces that we can all intuit, and that we are starting to be able to tap into on a larger human scale as never before in history.
The imaginary plane of the internet that we interact on is already here, and it is impacting us in an all-consuming way that is unprecedented, even in my lifetime. A fever pitch of need to be broadcasting is permeating everything, and we have reached a near-total flattening of a culture where things done or said in the past have as much weight and relevancy as things yet to be said. This is terrifying because we don’t know which of our past private moments or experiences or memories, collective or personal, will be held up to the scrutiny of the world.
The audience size is the entire globe on the one hand, but also a tiny niche audience on the other. Messages cannot be crafted for specific audiences even in good faith if bad actors are seeking out material for that audience to ridicule. Nothing is private, and everything is written in ink.
However, every idea is also as potent as another, and just because a moment passed doesn’t mean it’s too late for an idea. People who were ahead of their time are now getting their day in the sun. Art and media that made no sense in the contexts in which they were created and didn’t resonate with people when they were launched are finding a voice now.
We have all the equipment, we just need to read the manual. The world is our easter egg.
