Nets, Webs & Other Traps By Karen Wendelboe

One of my first rules when writing is to define my topic, but how can I define the Internet? It is not a place, yet it is spun together by home pages, commercial sites, academic libraries, scientific research, religious gathering places and much more. Apparently it is considered a community, where friendships are formed, marriages are arranged and children are educated. Even my new spell-checker insists the word Internet be capitalized. Strange, I don't have to capitalize the word hammer, or telephone, or even water nor have I ever struggled to define these terms. The Internet is also referred to as a virtual reality, yet it's everywhere in my reality. I can't browse through the shelves of any bookstore without encountering books on how to surf the Net, where to go on the Net and how to spin your own home page. These books are larger than War and Peace , and outweigh any travel or how-to book I've ever referred to. The Internet has invaded the television, radio, newspapers and conversations. Worse, it manages to evaporate hours of my time, causes endless frustration and forces me to answer my mail immediately.

Yet I sit mesmerized by the glowing screen, hypnotically pointing and clicking. I pour over strange codes, imagine elaborate graphics and extend my credit to purchase the equipment needed to enter this strange world. I'm even using a new language filled with abbreviations, like URL and IRC. No longer do I curse, now I flame and if feeling relaxed, I might even spam just for the fun of it and should I really want to impress someone, I can start talking in html code.

So what exactly is the Internet and why has it begun to dominate my life? Designed as a tool for military communication in the event of apocalypse, the net suddenly descended upon us. It was embraced as a forum for democratic expression, a medium for global communication and an infinite storehouse for collaborative information gathering. Suddenly the Internet sounds like the liberating ark of deliverance. Certainly it seems that our society reveres it, and technically it has the potential to accomplish these tasks, but what exactly is it doing?

Long ago Plato philosophized that democracy dissolves into anarchy and anarchy will eventually produce a tyranny. The Internet has not yet fallen to tyranny, but it certainly has anarchistic elements. In cyberspace a web page promoting world peace, or linking together international aid organizations simultaneously exists with a web page spewing forth racism or violent pornography. While some spend hours trying to develop a pleasing and informative site, others delight in developing viruses that can crash your entire system. In this Information Age, I'd rather be stricken with a bad head cold than lose my computer data to a virus. Consequently, we struggle to develop screening devices to shield ourselves from undesirable expressions, spend countless dollars developing virus protection and burden our legal system with new dilemmas. But this is freedom, provided of course that you have the equipment to access the net.

Global communication is possible through the Internet, but even this promise carries a dark shadow. European industrial nations are concerned about a growing Internet lag that they predict will result in the loss of millions of jobs. Committees have been established to promote the utilization of the Internet. Before the Internet has even been defined, it has become another necessity in our already complex lives.

It is estimated that the Net already contains over two trillion bytes of information in the sites that are freely accessible. This figure is growing exponentially, creating chaos. Automated web crawlers are constantly creeping through this abyss, organizing these strands into word search strings. Still a search can bring up tens of thousands of sites, leaving users to wade through piles of empty gibberish, and misinformation in the hope that they may discover that fragmentary gem of useful data. Professionals pour their energies into developing elaborate technology to organize the data, diverting their attention from the chaos that exists in the real world. As a tool, the Internet still needs an instruction manual to be worked effectively.

We'll sacrifice our lives for promised freedoms, hide underground to covertly print manifestos of our beliefs, search endlessly for someone to break down our walls of isolation. Thus we jump through our computer screens into the labyrinth of the Web wherein we seek information, companionship and expression. But in this web, we are both the spider and fly. We create, sustain and alter the Internet, and we get lost in it. The Internet is not a separate virtual reality, but a reflection of our reality. Let's use it like a mirror, assess the image...then turn back and adjust the reality. I know I will continue to use this technology and try to refine it as a tool that will be beneficial to my life, but from now on I refuse to capitalize internet, web or net.

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