What Does the Internet Say About Us?

Even though the Internet has been around a relatively short while, people often pontificate about what this digital domain says about us. And that’s a complicated question, isn’t it? The Internet, after all, is such a vast collection of disparate bits, pieces, raves and rants. So what couldit possibly say about its creators?

Well, when you think about the Internet as an extension of the human “self” into a digital world, it might be saying quite a lot. Some would suggest that it points to us as a nation of porn addicts, for one. A 2013 stat sheet from dailyinfographic.com, for instance, reports that some 40 million Americans are regular online porn site visitors—a group that accounts for 35% of the total Internet downloads and pays out $2.84 billion a year for their favorite brand of smut.

And then there’s the celebrity monomania, trolling, terrorist screeds, racial tirades and all of humanity’s other idiocies crammed into that webby world. Based on search engine reports, The Guardian writer Stuart Heritage states that to cater to “every single one of the public’s current prevailing trends,” online personalities of interest would have to be either dead, naked or famous.

There are some, however, who think of the web as something far more than a collection point for human detritus and debris on an electronic downhill slope. A recent Newsweek article titled “The People Who Perform The Internet” talks about a number of thoughtful individuals—from poets to filmmakers—who are turning to our digital world for inspiration and insight.

For instance, a pair of actresses have created a popular sketch comedy group called the Blogologues. They pluck blogs and tweets directly off the web and turn them into social commentary comedy routines. Then there are other staged endeavors such as the Off-Broadway musical Tail! Spin! that’s drawn verbatim from the “leaked e-mails, raunchy texts and tell-tale tweets” of politicians.

Now, I can’t show you any examples of the above-mentioned fare because it can still be pretty nasty stuff. But these creative stabs are, at least, designed to make pointed statements about the world we live in.

Montreal filmmaker Mark Slutsky takes his online discoveries in a different direction: back online. He created a blog called “Sad YouTube” that focuses on the routine, but often poignant, comments that people leave in the YouTube comment sections. For example, on his page Slutsky points to a buried comment by one “mistermaster2000” on a vid of the song “Sing” by the group Blur.

this song brings a very special memory and emotions. Poland, the 90s. Small industrial town. 18 year old me and my 19 year old brother are lying on our beds in pyjamas. Late evening. Sounds of distant trains passing by our town. Our parents divorced, living with our father who always ignored us. Dreaming and falling asleep together to Trainspotting soundtrack playing from our 90s black two-deck casette player with auto-reverse option. I will never forget it.

Slutsky summed up his reasoning for his blog with: “When an archaeologist wants to learn something about a civilization, they go through the trash. That’s how I feel about YouTube comments. They’re sort of the trash of our culture.”

And just that says a lot about us, on all fronts.