Air Waves vs. Surfing the Net
by Gabriel Laszlo
They, you know . . . them, said the Web would change the world in boundless and unimaginable ways. I can't really argue this point, nor do I want to. For me the Web has replaced television; stupid sitcoms and depressing news shows have been displaced by websites and newsgroups. They're still stupid and depressing. But at least I have more than 90 channels to choose from.
Television was always so omnipresent and imposing; such a popular replacement for conversation and an open exchange of sentiments that it was hard, if not impossible, for me to ignore it or to push it from my consciousness. Television has a special and inexplicable way of ruining the world of ideas: Think about it, every time you walk away from the television don't you feel just a little bit dumber, duller?
Having rejected television, I often find myself feeling superior, more than I did when I still watched regularly. We all know there's plenty of crap on TV to prove we're cool and everyone else is stupid. But the Web effortlessly bursts an enormous head, it keeps everything in perspective, and it reminds us that we're all dumb.
The Web hasn't made the world boundless but is instead itself boundless. Websites dedicated to subversive ideas have proliferated; you can get the "truth" there, and a twisted humor that has been trapped just below the surface of the world's mainstream now has a venue for expression.
Someone once told me that laughter was an expression of rejection, a saying "no" to something that falls outside the realm of good taste and acceptable human exchange. I thought this was absurd, we argued the point . . . I lost.
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