People are always attempting to reinvent themselves- hence the popularity of exercise machines, diet plans, self-help books. Few people believe they are perfect, seeking to better themselves, a sign that perhaps they have achieved something in the course of their finite lives. The popularity of the "cutting edge, worldwide communications medium" (McCormick 34) that is the Internet ties into this internal drive: as a relatively new technology, it represents largely uncharted territory, something new to learn and a place where important things can be accomplished, a fresh start. This appeal has not gone unnoticed by the corporate world either; who direct their ads at this human drive for personal improvement. Advertisements are structured around creating an image, a potential to be reached through the use of the showcased product. Computer ads do the same thing: packaging their product as part of an image. An ad for Lotus Notes depicts a man in a robe with coffee and newspaper and says to us in large yellow letters "Superman doesn't feel like commuting today." It is also sure to tell us that "Lotus Notes makes it easy to work the web." The Internet is a key-item here, the lynchpin in any advertising campaign for products that interact in our daily lives. It cannot be ignored; statistics show that most families have to deal with computers and the Internet at some point in their lives, whether at school, work, or in the home. Computers have become a fixture in most homes; transforming family life akin to how washing machines changed the way laundry is done, which in itself was a gigantic leap beyond the traditional methods of beating clothes with hard stones down by the riverside.
The transformation has been viewed as both good and bad, a mixed blessing. People are reading and writing more. An article in Time magazine reports that "Electronic mail is zapping first class deliveries... and could replace 25% of 'snail mail' by 2000."3 It is possible to communicate with a myriad of other people, experience ideas and credos from across the world. The matter is hailed as the coming of a new global society. An advertisement for Nortel Networks is not afraid to ask us, "what exactly, is the best way to share a thought? Do you post it on your Intranet? Or do you say it on the Internet? Should you e-mail it? Or fax it?" Never mind the fine art of print publishing, we look for the quick and convenient electronic fix nowadays. The ad shows us the blurry image of a beach: turquoise water under a cobalt blue sky while a man relaxes in the foreground. The horizon, the image of where sea meets sky, is calm and transcendent, almost religious in its idealism. Similar to the way we view the Internet as something greater than ourselves. Religion is yet another way people reinvent themselves: they amend their ingrained faith in favor of something new, discarding the old for a different way of looking at the world. As a result, the way they live is transformed to fit these new beliefs. Is it any wonder we can liken the Internet to religion so easily?
Christianity was once viewed as a mere "cult," as a small branch of the Jewish faith with no real power and unlikely to change anything. Today "Christianity is the world's most widely practiced religion... 33.0 percent of the world's population."4 Years are numbered as time eclipsed since the coming of Christ. Commerce is centered around the annual celebration of Christmas, which at its core still maintains its religious convictions in song and story. Despite the influence and emergence of other major world religions into Western consciousness, it remains a Christian world. The morals and values of Christianity are rooted in heritage: we take our core beliefs from our parents and later pass them down to our children. This heritage is reflected in a myriad of ways, Christian beliefs are rooted into our artistic endeavors, both painting and song. The greatest best seller is the Bible; medieval literature is saturated with the writings of saints including Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, featuring tales of religious triumph over sin and blasphemy. Art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods is permeated with depictions of Jesus and the Holy Mother. Religion was a major preoccupation of our predecessors.
While religion has not been completely driven from our society, neither does it remain our major preoccupation. Art, literature, and the omnipresent media have found their new darling: the Internet. Movies like "The Net" and "Hackers" are made about it, books are written in the cyberspace-oriented cyberpunk genre, including such classic works as William Gibson's Neuromancer and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. And what news outlet has not discussed the "Y2K problem" or the recent "Melissa" infection? In a world where a computer virus can grab higher headlines than accounts of war and suffering, human tragedy, and political stubbornness, there is little doubt where we have placed our faith.
Yet like any religion, the Internet has its critics as well. They decry it as a being that separates individuals more than it will ever bring them together. Instead of a casual, friendly conversation over the warm aroma of brewed coffee we have a series of detached messages sent via e-mail, seconds apart but their authors worlds away. An individual may "stay in touch with some friends nearly every day but knows little about their offline lives, their families, their states of mind."5 The two people know nothing about each other's moods; they can only glean a dim shadow from each other's typed words. A brilliant author could craft pure, glorious emotion with the strength of his words. Unfortunately not everyone is such a craftsman, and the ideas they choose to convey through the Internet are no greater for the method of communication chosen. The amount of information has increased in quantity, but no guarantee is made for its quality. Ideas and beliefs are being conveyed that one may find objectionable, offensive, or just plain stupid. As easily as literacy has increased and improved so it can be destroyed in the propagation of hatred and idiocy.
What the Internet has done to our society is largely an act of destruction. Traditional ideas have been destroyed and torn away. What we once believed is no longer applicable to our new lifestyle. No matter how we may wish for "times past" and how it used to be, there will be no U-turn. Yet for what the Internet has taken away, it has given back in abundance. Communication is more frequent and abundant, people from far away are brought together and ideas meet to create a new global consciousness. There is an idea that god is merely the entity that awaits this world at the pinnacle of evolution, he is the being created when all consciousness meets as one. Scott Adams takes the idea one step further in his comic strip "Dilbert" by asking, "what if God is the consciousness created when enough of us are connected to the Internet?"6 There is an internal need that drives people to connect to the Internet, in the quest to become part of something greater. They celebrate the idea of the Internet as a place to meets a myriad of new and interesting people, a place where their place in society is irrelevant. An ad for Egghead.com tells us "you were an egghead. You're still an egghead. Only now you're online." The Internet has become a social equalizer, where "the cybermall may be able to coexist with the dreams of hackers,"7 a virtual place where social pariahs are accepted and embraced, not unlike the early Christian church. As we near the new millenium, our society transmutes itself into a new entity. It is reborn. From the ashes of print media is born the electronic society. The digital messiah has come and the world has embraced it through the click of a mouse.