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It seems a little like the
warnings on cigarette packages, only voluntary: A British group is using
its
website to urge folks to log off the Internet.
International
Internet Free Day is a project of DoBe.org, a London-based outfit that provides
“free bulletin boards on the web where people can propose participatory events,
groups and meetings for others to sign up for.” Queen’s English indeed. In any
event, “international” is apparently confined to the United Kingdom although
DoBe.org also promotes events in the United States.
The group derives
its name from the slogan “Do London! Be London! Do Be or not Do Be London!,”
which owes as much to Sinatra as Shakespeare. The site grants permission to
adapt the motto for other cities, even if “Do Be or not Do Be Boise!” doesn’t
have quite the same ring.
DoBe.org’s aim is
to “retribalise the cities, to help overcome people’s feelings of alienation and
loneliness, to increase networking, to give a voice to clubs and voluntary
organisations.” While this is all very British (which you can tell by the s’s
where there should be z’s), we have voluntary organizations tribalizing American
cities too. We call them “gangs,” though DoBe.org’s goals are nobler.
DoBe.org wants to
overcome urban isolation by offering web space to those wishing to form “a
football club, or a walking club, or people setting up a book discussion group,
or a social invention workshop, or a film writing group, or a breast cancer
self-help group.”
I have no idea
what a social invention workshop might be but I did not spot any at DoBe.org,
nor any football clubs, film writing classes, or cancer support groups. There
were a fair number of alternative concerts and raves, which might help with
loneliness but are probably either a cause or symptom of alienation. Maybe
both.
But I pick nits.
Sometime in the last six or eight decades technology began to cross the line
between easing human drudgery and inflicting it, often in the guise of
entertainment. Without a little discipline the Internet and other electronic
distractions can keep us self-contained, free from the need to interact, think,
or even move. OK, technically web-heads do move, however Olympic freestyle
mouse clicking is unlikely to catch on as a fitness regimen and it’s not much of
a social mixer.
According to DoBe.org, “The
Internet did not start off as a vehicle for social isolation and damaged
eyesight.” That’s television’s job. The web is catching up fast, begging the
question of whether we can have satisfying lives voluntarily cut off from
others, mainlining electronic opiates until our pupils become pixels.
Internet Free Day does not
target the casual user, among whom I count myself. I can quit anytime I want,
but while I don’t buy every “addiction” that bobs up in modern victim culture I
do see how one could get lost in the virtual life. No fuss, no muss, no
attachments, no meaning.
Maybe chronic web
surfers are little more than latter-day hermits, finding solitude where they can
in a hectic world. I don’t begrudge anyone a little mindless diversion, but
while mankind will debate the purpose of life until the end of time I’m
reasonably sure it won’t turn out to involve electronic exile.
If you didn’t make it to London
for this year’s Internet Free Day festivities, be patient. It shouldn’t be long
before we have our own, probably sponsored by Microsoft like everything else.
If I’m right, Internet Free Day will join the ranks of American guilt holidays
alongside TV-Turnoff Week and the Great American Smokeout.
Guilt is good if properly
applied, even motivating, so go ahead and log out, turn off, and drop in. Real
life’s not so bad once you get used to it.
© 1997 – 2002 Brent Morrison
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