Communication on the Internet

# Communication on the Internet ###### tags: `Higher Ironies Project` [TOC] <img width="450" height="480" src="https://c.tenor.com/21R08B2UoZ4AAAAd/bo-burnham.gif"> *(Welcome to the Internet!)* ## Unique Properties of the Internet as a Means of Communication In one way, the internet has dramatically expanded the avenues for communication between human beings. Today, it is possible to have a video call with someone on the other side of the planet in real time--something that would have been unimaginable two decades ago. Email, chatrooms, forums, social media, video calls--all of these methods of communication allow people to interact in ways that were not available to anyone else in human history, and to interact with a wider potential number of other people than ever before. However, at the same time, communication on the internet has limitations that communication in the real world does not. Compared to real-life, face-to-face communication, communication on the internet is different in several ways: * Very often, communication takes place exclusively through text. * Very often, communication is between people who are strangers to each other. * Very often, one cannot see the face of those with whom one is communicating. * Very often, one has the sense (rightly or wrongly) that one is anonymous. There are exceptions to all of the above, of course, but as a general matter communication on the internet takes place exclusively by text, between strangers, who cannot see eachother's faces, and who believe that their activity on the internet is anonymous or in some way divorced from their real life. In other words, many of the things that help people to filter their thoughts in real-life communication--nonverbal cues, familiarity with the people one is talking to, the ability to immediately see how one's words are recieved, and the knowledge that one may be held to account for what one has said--are absent. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that communication on the internet so often involves the use of **irony.** ## Irony and the Internet <img width="500" height="350" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDmTgdcW4AE6wUU.jpg"> The internet is not a kind place to **sincerity.** In part because many of the social restrictions that encourage people to be civil in their face-to-face communications are absent, communication on the internet is very often brutally critical and cynical--or, to put it another way, **deconstructive.** The rise of the term "**cringe**"" is related to this trend. When someone expresses a **sincere** idea, belief, or emotion on the internet, he or she is--at best--most likely to be labeled as "**cringe**" and dismissed on that basis. At worst, whatever the **sincere** message was will be subjected to a barrage of **traditional irony**; it will be **deconstructed** into its component parts and ruthlessly mocked throughout the process. <img width="700" height="300" src="https://i.imgur.com/dMYAd7Q_d.jpg?maxwidth=520&shape=thumb&fidelity=high"> This trend is so pervasive that the internet has developed, more or less out of whole cloth, a new term to serve as an antonym to "**cringe**", namely: "**based**". I will discuss the rise of "**based**" more extensively in the section on **[Post-Irony](/YI8fzFBRS4KUdc6YFnuQfQ)**. But for our purposes at this point, suffice it to say that, on the internet, **sincerity** is no longer the default mode of communication as it is in real life. Instead, on the internet, **traditional irony** has become the default form of communication. ## Postmodernism and the Internet However, there is a bit more to the story. The internet's limitations as a form of communication may well incline more towards **irony** than face-to-face interactions do, but these limitations are not in and of themselves sufficient to explain just how pervasive **traditional irony** has become on the internet. The internet is not the first time that communication has suddenly become possible in ways that had never before been dreamed of. The printing press, the telephone, the television and radio--all of these were revolutionary new means of communication in their day, and certainly the communication that took place in those new mediums sometimes employed **irony**, but in none of them did **irony** become so common as to be expected. That is a new phenomenon. Indeed, even on the internet itself, a change is perceptible when comparing the internet of today to the internet of the early 2000s. <img width="650" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/6Zrs0m9_d.jpg?maxwidth=520&shape=thumb&fidelity=high"> It is worth asking, then, what else has facilitated this rise of **irony** beyond simply the limitations of the medium at is the internet. What has caused the internet to evolve in the ways it has even since its relatively recent inception? It was never a guarantee that **ironic** communication would become the default--seeing that it has, we must ask: what pushed communication on the internet in that direction? And one answer to this question that cannot be ignored is the rise of **Post-Modern** philosophy. This is a complicated topic that requires some historical context to understand; I will discuss it in detail in the next chapter. Next Chapter: **[Post-Modernism](/2dAVGsHITN6uCoIMInRJHg)**