> While not deliberately concealing his identity, the flâneur preferred to stroll incognito.
...
> However, anyone entertaining such dreams of the Internet as a refuge for the bohemian, the hedonistic and the idiosyncratic probably didn’t know the reasons behind the disappearance of the original flâneur.
If the flâneur is operating incognito ... how the hell can you be sure he is actually gone? Maybe he just upped his flâneurism game and dropped off your flâneuradar.
People do still just surf the web instead of trying to only get stuff done---that's how we get interesting submissions on HN and why we are here to rummage through them.
Twenty years ago I might have surfed the web for fun, but picked up the phone to get stuff done; now I can just use the Internet for most of that latter thing too.
You are missing the main point, man. I am sure you never experience the internet in the 1990's or early 2000's. You must live in a very parochial place! You don't know anything about arts, films, music.
This website is one example. I like this website because there is something that is "HIS". He owns his individuality.
The joys of the world wild west are still out there for curious surfers. Admittedly it does require a lot more effort, especially for a younger generation who may not remember what the early web is like and how you would traverse it. I still get a thrill finding 'hidden' communities on the internet.
I've started collecting my weirdest links, though I'm not sure what to do with them yet. Hundreds of watercolors featuring Nazi war criminal Reynard Heidrich transforming into a female bird, a studio producing sexy anthropomorphized American warships that's started shifting towards Trump propaganda, a network of alt-right teenage girls' tumblrs, mostly based out of Nebraska, subreddits for conspiracy theorists focusing entirely on an unremarkable seeming dude who is apparently at the center of the new world order... the internet's weirder than it's ever been.
I used to enjoy visiting StumbleUpon and seeing what kinds of random places I'd end up. Then one day they asked me what kind of content I enjoyed, and wouldn't let me do anything else until I told them. Stopped going after that. I miss the ease of ending up somewhere totally unexpected that it once gave me.
i feel like a lot of the freewheeling gibsonian stuff is happening on tumblr - it provides a relatively easy way to push content to the internet without overly constraining the form of that content.
The article is totally wrong. The internet is now more than ever a good place for this kind of thing.
> Hardly anyone “surfs” the Web anymore.
Doesn't the whole click-bait "industry" specifically because people are surfing?
What's more, even on social media, things like "Weird Facebook" come into existence. Huge groups form with no clear purpose other than seemingly to be exactly the kind of internet "arcades" that the article is describing.
I'm not sure I agree. I think the whole idea of a flâneur or "surfing" the web is that you choose where you go. There's an illusion of control.
The whole click-bait industry depends on you browsing within walled gardens (facebook, reddit) and being on the conveyor belt of places your attention has to go.
A flâneur or surfer can just go somewhere else. There's only so much physical real estate you can own. There isn't exactly another facebook or reddit to go to...and if there is, BuzzFeed is all over that shit too.
Basically, the internet has driven the minimum cost of advertising/branding down to bit-transmission prices. Anybody basically can afford to throw shit everywhere and see what sticks.
You can get a similar experience browsing directories of Tor hidden services (I'm sure there are other darknet equivalents). There's a little bit of everything in those lists, including the illicit, inexplicable, and of course, illegal.
The point Morozov didn't make explicit that would have helped his argument: the internet is turning into a perfect Panopticon, a total environment of confinement for control and subjectification as highlighted by Foucault. I first read that for architectural theory in college, and now it only seems to get increasingly vital to understanding everyday culture and identity. When the idea of the web as a terrain for the flâneur to be the main focus, the rival and dominating idea of the web as a terrain of control via total surveillance clarifies which direction the mainstream skews. Sure there are outliers, but emphasizing that to dismiss the wave in the direction of the Digital Panopticon is to miss Morozov's point.
The internet was the place for playfulness and wonder. DeviantArts, Rate Your Music, Geocities were really fun.
Now, the internet is full of BS. Startups are full of BS ("This is a site that spits out whole websites of fake bullshit web companies. Hit "get started" to refresh. http://tiffzhang.com/startup/?s=243648772317). Reddit is a rare phenomenon because it was founded by Aaron Schwartz and he never got any credit. And I am pretty sure Aaron Schwartz would never go to “Hackathon”, “Entrepreneurial leadership at Stanford”. They are full of BS. No one has a deep passion for truly improving people’s lives. Everything is for efficiency.
Palo Alto becomes a dead place now. There is only one bookstore in Palo Alto area and no students ever visit. Stanford students do not love to learn at all. They are “excellent sheep”.
The dark net is okay and it becomes boring after a while.
[+] [-] kazinator|9 years ago|reply
...
> However, anyone entertaining such dreams of the Internet as a refuge for the bohemian, the hedonistic and the idiosyncratic probably didn’t know the reasons behind the disappearance of the original flâneur.
If the flâneur is operating incognito ... how the hell can you be sure he is actually gone? Maybe he just upped his flâneurism game and dropped off your flâneuradar.
People do still just surf the web instead of trying to only get stuff done---that's how we get interesting submissions on HN and why we are here to rummage through them.
Twenty years ago I might have surfed the web for fun, but picked up the phone to get stuff done; now I can just use the Internet for most of that latter thing too.
[+] [-] ernestosoo|9 years ago|reply
This website is one example. I like this website because there is something that is "HIS". He owns his individuality.
http://www.novaexpresscafe.com/main.html
It is not just about information. It is about aesthetics! The fun of flaneuring! Surfing the internet for spontaneity!
[+] [-] jack_rabbit|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alva|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IsaacL|9 years ago|reply
http://ribbonfarm.com https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/ http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.co.uk/ http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ https://meaningness.com/ http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/
Enjoy :)
[+] [-] bbctol|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tvanantwerp|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] monknomo|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] randomnerdiness|9 years ago|reply
Sorta bummed about that, but I get why. Too few people contributed to the discussions
[+] [-] zem|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GuiA|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vonnik|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jack_rabbit|9 years ago|reply
> Hardly anyone “surfs” the Web anymore.
Doesn't the whole click-bait "industry" specifically because people are surfing?
What's more, even on social media, things like "Weird Facebook" come into existence. Huge groups form with no clear purpose other than seemingly to be exactly the kind of internet "arcades" that the article is describing.
[+] [-] busterarm|9 years ago|reply
The whole click-bait industry depends on you browsing within walled gardens (facebook, reddit) and being on the conveyor belt of places your attention has to go.
A flâneur or surfer can just go somewhere else. There's only so much physical real estate you can own. There isn't exactly another facebook or reddit to go to...and if there is, BuzzFeed is all over that shit too.
Basically, the internet has driven the minimum cost of advertising/branding down to bit-transmission prices. Anybody basically can afford to throw shit everywhere and see what sticks.
It's messy out there...
[+] [-] panglott|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rocky1138|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] v64|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philippoi|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ernestosoo|9 years ago|reply
In addition, nowadays, people do not create webpage for fun. They want to commercialize their online presence. Everything, including oneself, is a brand now (http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/50-tips-to-brand-yoursel...). This leads to the totalitarianism of minimalism (https://www.sitepoint.com/less-minimalist-websites-still-rul...) where they want to people to "see" their webpages "efficiently". People are wearing a mask in and out. There is no authenticity and honesty.
The internet was the place for playfulness and wonder. DeviantArts, Rate Your Music, Geocities were really fun.
Now, the internet is full of BS. Startups are full of BS ("This is a site that spits out whole websites of fake bullshit web companies. Hit "get started" to refresh. http://tiffzhang.com/startup/?s=243648772317). Reddit is a rare phenomenon because it was founded by Aaron Schwartz and he never got any credit. And I am pretty sure Aaron Schwartz would never go to “Hackathon”, “Entrepreneurial leadership at Stanford”. They are full of BS. No one has a deep passion for truly improving people’s lives. Everything is for efficiency.
Palo Alto becomes a dead place now. There is only one bookstore in Palo Alto area and no students ever visit. Stanford students do not love to learn at all. They are “excellent sheep”.
The dark net is okay and it becomes boring after a while.
[+] [-] AndrewUnmuted|9 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.openbsd.org/hackathons.html
[+] [-] networked|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gumby|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Juz16|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GabeN|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nosuchthing|9 years ago|reply
http://i.imgur.com/BLJl7f0g.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/pdJsQDh.png
http://i.imgur.com/UaWoV.jpg
[+] [-] ernestosoo|9 years ago|reply
Obscure Music Blogspots, IRC chats, usenet, ASCII art, Slsk, DC++, penpals in Finland, Botwana, Iceland, and Uruguay, grainy and idiosyncratic university-websites, Tunak Tunak Tun, Albino Black Sheep, Zombo.com