The banal swill of anonymous postings oozing down the commentary sections of politically or celebrity oriented blogs and news sites worldwide is often crude and obscene enough to make one give up on civilization entirely.
– Roland Kelts, “Private Worlds”
“Banal swill” sums up how I often feel when browsing the Internet. There is so much mundane and stupid crap on it that I sometimes feel like withdrawing altogether. If there is one thing many news sites and blogs should do, it is disable reader comments. Cynicism and snark are endemic, and one cannot risk trying to initiate a serious discussion without some immature jerk butting in with what they think are witty comments, or being mocked and derided. While occasional sarcasm can be humorous, a constant barrage of people trying to outdo each other in what they think are clever remarks rapidly becomes wearisome. Examples of such can be found at the community site MetaFilter and a science fiction news site called io9 (the comments section of io9 can be particularly exasperating). I continue to visit these sites because they sometimes have links to interesting articles, but more often than not, such sites make me want to eviscerate their participants.
I honestly think that reading too much Internet snark is bad for one’s mental health – the cynicism has certainly subtly affected me (to the point of wishing for the catastrophic collapse of this inane civilization I live in), and genuine sincerity is regarded with suspicion.
On a related topic, popular culture – namely the entertainment, related consumerism and advertising that permenates Western civilization – is a particularly odious example of mass stupidity. It is designed to be superficially appealing (particularly to younger people who are especially seduced by its manufactured message of rebellion) and any other culture infested by it is guaranteed to have its collective IQ drop.
Bhutan is one country that has managed to resist much of such stupidity because of a policy of isolation, but the introduction of TV and the Internet is already changing this. I read an article a few years ago about how its children were becoming negatively affected because of the permeation of Western media. North Korea is another country that is determindly isolationist. In 2007 there was a Foreign Correspondent report on North Korea, aptly titled a “Parallel Universe”. I wrote in a journal entry:
A curious and somewhat unsettling place, like a hermit that is determined to shut out the world. I wonder how the people will cope when reality forces its way in (as it invariably will – what are their plans after Kim Jong Il dies?). The capital city seemed clean and tidy, but glimpses of the countryside showed people toiling in rather barren-looking fields without farm machinery. I have to admit it was a nice change to see a quiet city without advertising, rubbish, overcrowding, traffic, etc. (corporate advertising is just as much propaganda in its own way as the more traditional government sort). Also, it was nice to see children who had not been infected and warped by consumer greed and popular culture – but that will undoubtedly change if and when the regime falls.
