the internet and the "underground"

[kirilov]

ladies and gentlemen, do you not think the internet has done more to precipitate the realization of unfathomable numbers of "underground men"? if so, should this not shame us into the occupation of "living life"? Dostoevsky's characters are,after all, redeemed by their "living of life"-which i am sure is not done whilst sat in solitude in front of a computer screen.

[jushoff]

Hey kirilov, did you turn into god after you killed yourself or did you just think... fingers don't taste very good.

and yes, the internet is kind of stupid.

and yes, llamas are really cool.

[mudgopher]

Yeah, it does make me feel kind of impersonal.
Just a little.

[Mogwai]

It's true - computers and the Internet have created a smaller, impersonal world.  It's a great invention but it's negatives may soon prove to be moreso than the positives...all that and I'm a web designer.  

[kirilov]

The best part of two years and only two replies. I suppose the erudite and pensive are immune to the corrosive draw of superhighway. Forgive my spelling-i am from Liverpool(like the Beatles).

[highseas]

     You guys are too negative about the internet.  I think it's a great source for information and learning about people.  Dostoevsky would have loved it----he could gamble from the comfort of his own home.

[lerik]

Internet is definately a great thing.After all,this forum wouldn't exist and we wouldn't know each other if it wasn't for internet.
Though of course,internet should never become the only source of information.So many people just find everything through the internet and don't bother to read books,which has of course negative outcomes.

[Worm]

internet is super, but much info is subjective... and i share a same opinion about it as i have about television: it's better to actually swim in the ocean, than to go to a website/watch a program about the ocean.

internet isn't xperience

[highseas]

    The internet is a place used by many with one idea in mind--- to make money.  So there is alot of misinformation floating around and we must be careful who we believe.

[Radio Saturday]

I think the internet is a difficult thing to deal with because it is absolutely unlike everything that came before it. However, in terms of Kirilov's original statement, I would say that he is definitely right. The internet is simultaneously one of the most personal and most impersonal ways to connect with other people. It reminds me more than anything else of the part in "White Nights" when the narrator claims to know "the whole of Petersburg" because he walks by certain houses and sees certain people but never talks to them all the time. In many ways, the internet gives a semblance of friendship, camaraderie, the marketplace -- whatever. It's not really that kind of connection. We can feel as if we're friends, but we would not recognize each other in the street, and really, none of us know each other beyond the images we project.

It's ten minutes until 2am, so I can't really tell if I'm making any sense. Excuse me if I'm incoherent.

[Worm]

what i personally find interesting about the internet, and e-friendships, is the lack of a face... a voice, a sound, a movement.. which is a large part of a person...

or maybe the lack of that is a good thing

[Nadia]

humans are movement and sound, touch and sight, and all things aesthetic, those things are needed to fully comprehend their true personality and traits...

[highseas]

     The internet is definitely an impersonal means of communication.
     That is why I enjoy the "DOSTOEVSKY FORUM".  Thank you for your efforts to be a source of discussion & enlightenment in the pursuit of understanding the genius of Dostoevsky.  

[Worm]

humans are movement and sound, touch and sight, and all things aesthetic, those things are needed to fully comprehend their true personality and traits...

i agree

a person is body and mind


now we are all half people
it's like pieces of our existence are phased out


i wonder how you all look and sound IRL

[Joumana]

I guess after few years the internet effects will be clearer. it definitely has a positive side but I think we are becoming more and more in the underground.