3 ms·

Wonder what headlines we'll make fun of in 17 years?

by HunterV 14y ago

sliverstorm 14y ago
I think the headline is actually self-mocking. Pretty sure the author is not actually arguing the net is a waste of time.
- mtrn 14y ago
  If I understand it correctly, Gibson describes his writing even net-driven in this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVnt_Rr-TB4#t=49m12s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVnt_Rr-TB4#t=49m12s (49m12s). At least partially.
- femto 14y ago
  I read it as "The web is currently (1996) a time waster, but it will evolve into a time consumer."
- networked 14y ago
  Gibson's point seem to be that the 1996 Web is not so much itself a waste of time as a great tool for wasting time, and that that's not necessarily a bad thing. He also notes how this state of freedom and freeform-ness that encourages "surfing the Web" is fleeting and will pass to be replaced with something more conventional and structured. I came back to this essay several times over the years and each time I read it I take a moment to appreciate how true its core observation rings. It can be considered a successful if somewhat vague prophecy about what the WWW has since in large part become: a delivery mechanism for traditional, one-to-many media. You could see that same thing happen in miniature on YouTube throughout its short history: the many-to-many system of its early days has been overshadowed by prepackaged shows. I'm not saying it's a bad thing (personally, I enjoy some of the shows), but it's different.
- smosher 14y ago
  He might have been saying it basically was at the time, like the analogy to television. I don't see how he could endorse the idea that it was a fundamental time-sink though. He expresses his inability to predict it, and prior to its widespread popularity he wrote of a cyberspace that was as woven into the fabric of daily machinations as ours is today, and not in the sense television is. But he was right about it not feeling like a conversation. It still doesn't. We are still connected mostly to the things other people have done in the past. Even this particular mode of conversation, comment threads, is guilty of that.
OGinparadise 14y ago
" Wonder what headlines we'll make fun of in 17 years?" "Smartphones are a waste of time"----if you waste your time on them with useless apps and especially if you get in the stupid game of telling everyone, every bite you take. Gibson realized it was a double edged sword, useful but also a procrastinator's dream.
smegel 14y ago
Hopefully something about Facebook becoming the "new internet"

Wonder what headlines we'll make fun of in 17 years?

by HunterV 14y ago

Wonder what headlines we'll make fun of in 17 years?

I think the headline is actually self-mocking. Pretty sure the author is not actually arguing the net is a waste of time.

mtrn 14y ago
If I understand it correctly, Gibson describes his writing even net-driven in this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVnt_Rr-TB4#t=49m12s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVnt_Rr-TB4#t=49m12s (49m12s). At least partially.
femto 14y ago
I read it as "The web is currently (1996) a time waster, but it will evolve into a time consumer."
networked 14y ago
Gibson's point seem to be that the 1996 Web is not so much itself a waste of time as a great tool for wasting time, and that that's not necessarily a bad thing. He also notes how this state of freedom and freeform-ness that encourages "surfing the Web" is fleeting and will pass to be replaced with something more conventional and structured. I came back to this essay several times over the years and each time I read it I take a moment to appreciate how true its core observation rings. It can be considered a successful if somewhat vague prophecy about what the WWW has since in large part become: a delivery mechanism for traditional, one-to-many media. You could see that same thing happen in miniature on YouTube throughout its short history: the many-to-many system of its early days has been overshadowed by prepackaged shows. I'm not saying it's a bad thing (personally, I enjoy some of the shows), but it's different.
smosher 14y ago
He might have been saying it basically was at the time, like the analogy to television. I don't see how he could endorse the idea that it was a fundamental time-sink though. He expresses his inability to predict it, and prior to its widespread popularity he wrote of a cyberspace that was as woven into the fabric of daily machinations as ours is today, and not in the sense television is. But he was right about it not feeling like a conversation. It still doesn't. We are still connected mostly to the things other people have done in the past. Even this particular mode of conversation, comment threads, is guilty of that.

OGinparadise 14y ago

" Wonder what headlines we'll make fun of in 17 years?" "Smartphones are a waste of time"----if you waste your time on them with useless apps and especially if you get in the stupid game of telling everyone, every bite you take. Gibson realized it was a double edged sword, useful but also a procrastinator's dream.

smegel 14y ago

Hopefully something about Facebook becoming the "new internet"