1. The Internet: Between commerce and Culture Nikos Koulousios Week 3
Is the Internet like the Netherlands or like a hammer?
If the effect of the Netherlands upon people within it is to make them Dutch- a debatable
proposition especially for internationals who live and work in the country in this era of
postmodernism, multiculturalism and “europeanisation”- it seems to me that the Internet is
like the Netherlands, more like it is like a hammer. The Internet is more like the Netherlands
because it is not a mere technological tool for transmitting and exchanging information, but
rather a “discursive place”, a cultural forum where people/users and institutions are
negotiating their involvement in and interference with the production and reproduction of
culture. The technology that allows for this negotiation is also an active actor in this interplay
of cultural production and transmission, not a neutral player. For example, not all Internet
users have the same skills of fixing and reproducing information, and that may effect on the
way they participate in this discursive practice of culture. The difference between the Internet
and the Netherlands is that the latter has the intend of making its citizens Dutch, whereas the
Internet does not exactly intend to make users netizens but it is more the result of people’s
choice and the result of people’s need to be part of the information society they live and work
in. The Internet is not like an institution that aims to mould netizens by exercising authority;
rather it is a pool of diverse opinions and it subverts any claim to authority, since another,
different and potentially opposing viewpoint is just a click away1
.
Does it matter whether the computer you use is made of white or black plastic?
If style is substance, and we assume that aesthetics may influence performance, then it
might matter whether the computer we use is made of white or black plastic. But we have to
be careful in examining how aesthetics, or in general the material components of the
Internet, affect the attributes of this technical medium i.e. how they might affect fixation and
storage of information, reproduction and participation. At face value it looks like the only
attribute that the colour of our keyboard may affect is the degree of participation, but only in
terms of aesthetics and how colours may boast or hinder performance. Computer and
Internet skills however seem indifferent to colour.
Organising routine online
The Internet can organise our routine more accurately and in more detail. What is more
radical is that it can bind people in time and space in an unprecedented way. Farmers for
example have a routine that is dependent on weather and temperature. Whereas in the past
with the “old media” like television or the radio farmers had to wait for the weather bulletin to
come on - and that was on fixed times and schedules- now they can have accurate weather
bulletins around the clock in the form of emails that they can receive on their mobile phones.
Another example is Internet banking. While in the past we had to physically go to the bank
and arrange some routine transaction between 9:00 am and 17:00 p.m. weekdays only, write
a letter to the bank or call the bank within fixed times, with the Internet we can pay bills and
make transactions online, any time of the day from any place we are at….provided that we
have an Internet connection!
1
Lurie, P. Why the Web will Win the Culture Wars for the Left: Deconstructing Hyperlinks. In CTheory
Journal. Article 125, Vol. 26. (http://www.ctheory.net/)