DOES anyone remember what the internet was supposed to be? I have hazy memories of a limitless prospect, complete with William Gibson鈥檚 consensual hallucinations. Before we knew how connecting the world would play out, there was a low-res, mythical quality to our cyberspace future.
Two decades on, and Nicholas Carr鈥檚 Utopia is Creepy reveals the reality into which these promises have crystallised. Curated from his blog posts over the past 10 years, the book is full of wry vignettes and articles lampooning the motivated enthusiasm and game-changing promises of Silicon Valley鈥檚 tech bro elite.
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Carr鈥檚 targets of 鈥渄isruption鈥� range from music and cars to breakfast and bras. And what have we reaped after 20 years of this disruption? Well, it鈥檚 not utopia.
Then again, Carr has never been much of an enthusiast. He鈥檚 probably best known for The Shallows, a 2011 Pulitzer finalist, in which he discussed how access to an infinitely broad but infinitely shallow information landscape has changed our brains. Not for the better, he fears. As Microsoft鈥檚 smart bra suggests, instead of utopia, our petty oppressions have just been projected into a new dimension. The bra monitors emotions and heart rate. Why? To detect stress and stop emotional eating, of course.
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It鈥檚 all a far cry from Donna Haraway鈥檚 鈥淎 Cyborg Manifesto鈥�, an essay celebrating technology鈥檚 potential to free us from the constraints of gender roles. Carr鈥檚 book isn鈥檛 a polemic, but a mosaic with individual tiles, by turns cute, funny or chilling. And it鈥檚 more than the sum of its parts, as two big themes emerge.
The first concerns the steady drumbeat of criticism for web 2.0 and user-generated #content. The book鈥檚 10-year span shows the transition from promise to millstone. Content has become like a second job 鈥� we update Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to ensure our self-representation is polished and generating clicks.
Carr broadens the context: disguising unpaid labour as 鈥渇un! content! web 2.0!鈥� lets Silicon Valley shift its overheads to 鈥渃ustomers鈥� and clutter up their lives. It also allows the amateur to be monetised, as the efforts of volunteers are turned into 鈥渢he raw material for profit-making companies鈥�.
鈥淒isguising unpaid labour as 鈥榝un! content! web 2.0!鈥� lets Silicon Valley shift its overheads to 鈥榗ustomers鈥欌��
A quieter theme is the fear of freedom. A memorable takedown by Carr features Facebook鈥檚 first TV ad in 2012. Called 鈥淭he Things That Connect Us鈥�, it鈥檚 a montage of cosy objects and welling music, ending with a childlike voice-over: 鈥淭he universe. It is vast and dark. And it makes us wonder if we are alone. So maybe the reason we make all of these things is to remind us that we are not.鈥�
Perhaps this explains our drive to taxonomise things to death because we fear just experiencing them. In a telling example, Carr pokes fun at a famous critic鈥檚 notion that the internet improved poetry by 鈥渄isrupting鈥� its elitist allusions. The critic cites T. S. Eliot, who had to append notes to The Waste Land to allow readers to keep up with its many allusions. Today, he writes, 鈥渘o poet could outwit a reader who has an internet connection鈥�.
You can hear Carr鈥檚 heavy sigh. The more you Google the poem, he says, the less you hear it: 鈥淢uch of what鈥檚 most subtle and valuable in culture鈥� is too blurry to be read by machines.鈥�
This is an uncompromising portrait of the internet as a vulgar, cramped, unpleasant marketplace run by marketers, surveillance states and people shouting at you. But Carr acknowledges its upside: in 2014, the Pew Research Center showed 90 per cent of US citizens thought the internet was a force for good. Another statistic had the internet population spending $83,000 on Amazon per minute. Utopia perhaps, but an extraordinarily narrow vision of it.
Swallow the book in a few gulps and you sense we had the chance to create something new but that we let marketers and advertisers move in. Paradise lost indeed.
[book_info title=鈥漊topia is Creepy and Other Provocations鈥� author=鈥漀icholas Carr鈥� publisher=鈥漌.鈥塛. Norton鈥� title_link=鈥漢ttp://books.wwnorton.com/books/Utopia-Is-Creepy/鈥漖
