The Internet: It's Where We Live Now

Last week, a few of us went to a Internet panel at the Kitchen, which is not a kitchen at all, but a nonprofit organization offering performance space to all types of artists. The Kitchen has been especially innovative in its choices of media and literary artists, so it was the perfect place for n +1 magazine  to host its panel, “The Internet: It’s Where We Live Now.” The panelists were all going to “present reports from the online world.” Topics included porn, blogging, and commenting and commenters. It seemed particularly applicable to us (well, not the porn) as a window into the way information is digested online.

They certainly delivered invaluable information, even if as a group, they are not fans of the Internet. The first panelist, editor Mark Greif, made his reservations poetically apparent in his discussion of the aesthetics of the Internet. He mourned its two-dimensionality, suggesting that unlike even channel surfing, the Internet couldn’t provide a well-rounded, soothing experience. As someone who surfs the Web all day, I understand what he means: the constant clicking, loading and closing creates a disconnected feeling, for sure. But I like to think of findingDulcinea as a sort of TV guide to the Web: here are the programs you can explore to have a cohesive, fully formed experience.

 The second panelist, author Caleb Crain, provided a somewhat less intense critique of the Internet. But he still felt like everything online—headlines, advertisements, blog posts—is a one-second-sales pitch. “Hey! Have I got a ___ for you! Give me a minute, and I’ll give the best darn ___ you’ve laid eyes on.” I definitely agreed with this. But my work on Beyond the Headlines allows me to break through the more shallow offerings on the Web and fill in information beyond the catchy, alluring and scandal-based headlines.

But not every Web surfer has the chance to do the kind of thorough exploration I do. For example, Moe Tkacik, an editor at Jezebel, confessed to humiliating herself on a daily basis to get hits on the blog. Anyone who works with me knows that I do in fact humiliate myself on a daily basis, but this is free of charge, and not published online.

The role I do fill online is one described by the last panelist, Benjamin Kunkel, a former editor at n +1 and the author of the novel “Indecision.” He argued that not all anonymous commenting was bad, that some users were “information angels.” He was talking about the people who moderate and contribute to sites like Wikipedia, but I feel I can include myself in this group of people as well. The Internet may have paved the way for blasphemy, pornography and a truckload of bad grammar, but it can be a beautiful, rich and intensive resource. It provides the wings that enable information angels to fly.

Rachel Balik
Senior Writer