Chap. 4 Response

What would the future look like if it only consisted of the Internet, as Douglas Rushkoff suggests? Probably not much different than today. People would still use it to connect to one another, they would still use it to go shopping or pay bills, or catch up on the latest news. The way in which people do these things might evolve, but the primary activities that people do on the Internet would remain the same.

I’m having trouble figuring out what is meant by Web “culture.” I have yet to see how Lee Siegel defines it. Is this culture defined by the web sites that are visited? Is it a present day society where people spend more time online than any other activity?  Is it a new generation that doesn’t know what its like to live in a world without the World Wide Web? I find it hard to be able to explain how Web culture has been shaped when it isn’t really clear what that culture is. When Siegel says things like “Web culture, as it exists today, has been shaped by some of slickest, most utilitarian forces in the larger culture,” it doesn’t make much sense as he doesn’t expound on what he means. How does web culture exist today? How is it being shaped, and who are these slick, utilitarian forces in the larger culture? It just comes across like a general statement where the author fails to convince the reader. When reading a book like this, I want to be convinced of what the author is trying to say, not just reading conjecture.

I fail to see how the Internet “plays to the lowest common denominator of youth.” Is he referring to sites like YouTube where people do stupid stunts and post videos of it? I’ve seen plenty of videos like that with adults in them, so does the net play to the lowest common denominator of adults too? While I do agree with Siegel that success is typically determined by popularity, I find it a bit offensive when he says that a person who seeks popularity is the most basic kind of human. If popularity equals success, then wanting to become successful sounds like an ambitious person in my opinion.