The Internet as a Product of the Hype Machine

In his 1995 Newsweek article entitled, “The Internet? Bah!” Clifford Stoll declared the internet to be mere hype. Stoll was perplexed: why would people want to shop, order airline tickets, make restaurant reservations, or negotiate sales contracts online? The “electronic wonderland” lacked human contact, he said, and that just won’t do. He mocked the idea of buying books and newspapers over the internet with a succinct “Uh, sure.”

Yet, all the activities he mentioned have now become commonplace. Apparently, human contact isn’t so indispensable.

The article makes fifteen years ago seem as ancient as the Mesozoic era. One would imagine that this kind of thinking has all but vanished from existence, but apparently, to this very day, some people still deride the internet as being an overhyped and particularly enduring fad.

The progressive, anti-establishment Artist Formerly Known as Prince is one of those people. Prince has become the figurative equivalent of that cranky old man yelling for kids to get off his lawn. “The internet,” he says, “is completely over.” He likens the internet to MTV, describing how the channel was at one time “hip” and then “suddenly [became] outdated.” Such is the future he predicts for the internet.

Prince discounts the significance of computers, since “[t]hey just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you." He is so completely out of touch with reality, which is unfortunate, considering he used to be ahead of the curve in many ways. He pioneered the online distribution of music. Prince was the very first artist to release a full length album (1997’s Crystal Ball) over the internet. For this feat, he even won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Webby Awards (the Oscars of the internet).

I’m half tempted to download his entire discography off of torrents. Out of spite, naturally. And for research, of course.