25 August 2024

I grew up on the internet and I have no cultural home

Do you ever think about home? I'm not talking about the physical location of where you live or where you grew up. I'm talking about your intellectual home. What informs you, what inspires you, what excites you, where does your mind come from?

I grew up on the internet and it helped me learn English, programming, maths and much more at a young age. My parents told me never to share any private information, such as our names, birth dates, phone number, address, or bank account numbers, so as not to fall prey to people who could take advantage of me on the internet. With that advice, they sent me on my way to explore the internet — a thoroughly modern and reasonable approach, especially back in those days. Because nobody on the internet knew I was a kid, I was able to interact with skilled and knowledgeable people in forums, people I would have never been able to connect with without the internet. Of course, I didn't absorb all this knowledge in a vacuum. I was part of online communities, and despite the fact that the community members were scattered across the globe, we shared a common cultural context.

Internet culture, whose central tenet is the free exchange of information, is a culture unlike any other. It is a culture of curiosity, of boundless exploration. Every other culture has its hang-ups. Chinese media must not show any skeletons. Americans are squeamish about sex and nudity. The Germans censor all Nazi symbols. I want to play Indiana Jones games with uncensored swastikas. I don't subscribe to Nazi ideology, I just want to experience the original story which takes place during the second world war. Do you really think that I'm going to turn into a Nazi when I play Indiana Jones, a character who beats up Nazis, just because there are swastikas on the walls of a Nazi castle? Stop taking yourselves so seriously, all of this is completely ridiculous. The internet, the free exchange of information, exposes all these sensitivities and norms for the stupid charade that they are. What I want is to experience the full breadth of everything the world has to offer. The place where I was born, raised, and currently live is completely irrelevant. I want to access and enjoy whatever books, movies, and games I like, and no one should tell me about their sensitivities on any given day or that something is not accessible in my country for whatever reasons. Sure, you can ban it from your living room but leave me alone with your sensitivities.

The culture I am part of has no home, it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I can't just go down to the local pub or soccer game to connect with like-minded people. Our worldviews are built on different foundations, and all we can do is smile and wave at each other from far-apart windows. But even worse, a fierce war is being waged against my culture. All over the world, the political machine is doing everything in its power to assert control over the internet and impose whatever censorship and sensitivities are in vogue. The reason is obvious: If you control the means of communication, you control the people who use them. Regardless of why this is happening, this means that my culture is dying. It may be the most short-lived culture to ever exist, lasting only one or perhaps two generations: People who grew up with a largely open and uncensored internet had their minds opened to take everything in and their horizons expanded. The people before us had horizons that reached only as far as the newspaper or TV screen in front of them. The people after us have horizons that extend no further than their smartphone screens, which show government-approved and sponsored content.

But there may be another angle to look at it. Throughout the ages, there have always been people who saw through the veil created by cultural and political sensitivities, even millennia ago. They didn't need the internet to think clearly and independently. Perhaps they were isolated and all alone, but their inner fire burned bright enough to illuminate entire communities. These people — who dared to question what should not be questioned and proposed what dared not be proposed, all on their own, with conclusions reached solely in their minds — were the real pioneers. You can find evidence of this in many old writings; sometimes, you have to read between the lines. Back then, it must have been incredibly difficult to have certain insights, whereas with the internet, it can literally be child's play. Thus, perhaps the culture I am part of may not be the most short-lived culture ever to exist. On the contrary, it may well be the oldest and most enduring culture in existence. And if we are to be separated and isolated, remember that this is how our culture existed for millennia.