When the internet was about linking, not liking

«I remember when the internet was about linking, not liking, when it had a sublime lateral spread rather than scrolling into a hole.»

«I remember when others warned that we were beginning to fall into a system of self-surveillance, that people would begin to watch each other, to keep records, to aggress and suspect. I didn't want to believe it. Part of the appeal of the internet in the early days was that it was a semi-criminal conspiracy of people downloading pirated Weezer albums and Zizek books while cyber-cheating on their spouses and keeping anonymous blogs about their terrifying secrets. Who among these criminals would associate themselves with authority?»

«I have watched people being conditioned into screen addiction and once-unimaginable interpersonal viciousness. I have lost loved ones to paranoid screen holes and conspiracies and seen even self-identified leftists align themselves fully to corporate entities. Even as I stepped away, almost entirely, from most everything online — even, for a time, giving up email — I have felt such survivor guilt about those left behind, the ones still compulsively refreshing their twitter or facebook feeds.»

Extractos del artículo The earthly shadow of the cloud, de Anne Boyer, poeta y premio Pulitzer.