Virtual semiotics

The history of mankind can be considered as the history of communication (forms, methods and means of communication); historians of the Internet include it among a number of other technological inventions that allow people to overcome the impossibility of instant “face-to-face” communication.

(Photo: East News)

Some trace the Internet back to 1961, when Leonard Kleinrock published an article outlining the packet switching theory. Others believe it all started in 1957, when the Russians launched Sputnik and the Americans responded by creating the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Still others argue that the Internet began in the last century - either with the laying of the transatlantic cable in 1850, or with the invention of the telegraph in 1832. Some go back completely into the depths of centuries - to the 8th century BC, when the Greeks came up with the idea of ​​​​using pigeon mail, or even further - to the fourth millennium BC, when the Sumerians invented pictographic writing.

Arguing in this way, it is easy to reach the dubious (if not absurd) assertion that the history of the Internet is equal to the history of humanity, since the latter is the history of communication. Nevertheless, it is not at all absurd to say that the Internet is primarily a communication medium. Communication in one form or another and of one intensity or another is, if not the flesh, then at least the lifeblood of the Internet. Just like blood, information must circulate. Otherwise, it ceases to perform its functions, and then the body dies. At the very least, he falls into suspended animation.

The material of communication on the Internet, as in life, can be anything - from a primitive cry, the purpose of which is the cry itself and the mental release that follows, to heated philosophical debates about the fate of Russia and existence. The latter is a very common thing on the Russian Internet, unlike the Western one. “Communication on the basis of truth that is not scientifically binding, not alienated from the depths of the individual” is our national one. The reader can easily find examples of this type of communication in the “guestbooks” (guest books) scattered throughout the Runet that exist on sites with a literary, artistic or political and cultural orientation.
Among the technological methods of network communication, the most common is, of course, email. According to a recent survey conducted by the Stanford Institute for Quantitative Society Research, 90% of respondents use e-mail, while only 24% use chat rooms. These figures are close to those published by the Russian agency Monitoring.ru: “communication and chats” are of interest to 22 to 26% of users. E-mail is obviously used by a much larger percentage (the report says 47% - this figure seems to me to be clearly underestimated).

As for chat rooms, they are, as a rule, much less intellectual than guest books, and often suffer from an erotic bias and the danger of psychological addiction. More details about chats can be found in the subtexts of other authors; I will only note in passing that I could never understand the point of such a waste of time. At the same time, it doesn’t even occur to me to judge, since I am sure that to an outsider, a “non-networked” person, my daily work at the computer may well seem like the same “withdrawal from the world into virtuality.”
Another common communication technology is “instant messengers,” which allow users to exchange notes, files, and links in real time. The most common program of this type in Russia is ICQ (www.icq.com). In addition to it, this class includes AOL Instant Messenger (www.aol.com/aim/), now included in the Netscape Communicator distribution, but used mainly in the USA (49 million users), as well as MSN Messenger Service (messenger.msn.com ). A logical continuation of this technology are programs that make it possible to “see” who is currently on the same site with you and come into contact with them. The first program of this kind was Gooey (www.gooey.com), then they began to multiply like mushrooms after rain.
Leaving without consideration such almost out-of-fashion communication environments as Usenet (a worldwide system of “news groups” or, in Russian, teleconferences) and IRC (“switchable Internet chat”), I will only mention multiplayer role-playing games - MUS and MUD with their in countless varieties, both text and graphic. In these games, users connect to the game server and, having chosen their name, gender, appearance and personal history as part of the overall plot of the game, fight each other or monsters generated along the way by the program. And they not only fight, but also talk, become friends, and fall in love.

The big question is how much online communication narrows and devalues ​​“real” communication. It is impossible to answer unequivocally here. The advantages of electronic communication - the elimination of distances, the possibility of a delayed response, the creation of virtual communities of interests - do not outweigh, but at least neutralize the disadvantages.

The reader has probably heard at least once that the Internet makes people antisocial, harms face-to-face communication, destroys families, and ultimately inevitably leads users to a madhouse. Any Internet user, on the other hand, knows that the danger of Internet addiction does exist, but I deeply doubt that it is much worse than TV addiction, or alcoholism, or the habit of picking your nose, or regularly shooting at your neighbors with automatic weapons. In addition, any plus is generally unthinkable without its antipode, a minus. And the advantages of network communication are countless.

INSTRUCTION: CHATTER

Games of our time

Anyone on the Internet can try to find a soul mate - and, imagine, they find it much more often than offline. Here you don’t meet people by their clothes (conventions of this kind often get in the way in real life), because the clothes are simply not visible. This is why communities of interest are so numerous and vibrant. For example, the virtual get-together that has developed at Auto.Ru has long been known and popular; there are many more places where video or preference lovers, music lovers or football fans, political buffs and aquarium experts can chat without leaving home. All these discussions differ from traditional methods of communication except by the need to buy a modem. But there is also a place for talking about nothing - chats.

When I first visited a few chat rooms out of curiosity a few years ago, I immediately remembered my teenage problems. Both the “nicknames” and the topics that caused the most heated debates, and the very manner of communication left no doubt that the vast majority of participants in the virtual discussion were very young people or, with extraordinary persistence, attributing to themselves a “golden” (in their opinion) age. In addition, all the inhabitants of the Internet look like people from a distant happy future. If a young man, then usually a tall blond, fond of sports (somewhat younger than 30), but the girls are a little older than 20, and, of course, with the curves of Lara Croft. Oddly enough, such monotony does not bother the site’s participants at all; conversations about nothing continue 24 hours a day. I must say that for an adult, “sitting on a chat” is not a very exciting activity. Any conversation without a topic, especially with a large (and unregulated) number of participants, turns into a bazaar, regardless of the cultural level of everyone. What is it that fascinates these people so much?

In my opinion, online chat is a type of computer game that teenagers have long dreamed of. Apparently, every age has its own toys - to play in the “Silver Age” of epistolary art, you need a real and well-known correspondent (and e-mail), and the whole point of the chat game is the complete anonymity of the participants. An absolutely free and unpredictable plot, “realism”, no restrictions and the already mentioned opportunity to create your own image - this is the game of our century.
It seems to me that conversations about the dangers of the Internet for health cannot be considered serious, and the testimony of doctors about patient X, who spent 18 hours a day at the computer, reminds us that in any matter a sense of proportion is needed. After all, even if you jog for so long, your health will not survive!

Dmitry Genin

INSTRUCTION: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Non-stop fanaticism

Football (and hockey) in leisurely pre-Internet times began a few hours before the match over a leisurely beer somewhere in the vicinity of the Park of Culture or in the famous “Seven Roads” in Petrovsky Park; there were no other occasions. Today there is no need for this - the new generation chooses the keyboard. Keyboard.

Fan sites on the Internet, where discussions continue in guest books around the clock, have existed for a couple of years. Fan sites on the Internet, where discussions continue in guest books around the clock, have existed for a couple of years. The most visited, naturally, are Spartak - "VV" (www. spartak.msk.ru), Dynamo - "Western Tribune-2" (www.soccer.ru/php) and army - "U Fontana" (www.cska.ntl .ru) - they are among the thirty most popular sports sites. The Dynamo Kyiv website (www.dinamo.kiev.ua), which contains links to all of the above, occupies consistently high ranking positions. It’s convenient - you click on the line “What are they talking about”, and in front of you is the whole range of opinions.

Like the entire Network as a whole, fan sites are a living example of humanism and democracy. Thanks to them, the Ukrainian Spartak fan does not feel alone in his Zaporozhye or Vinnitsa. Or a Kuzbass fan of the hockey “Dynamo”, who in theory is obliged to rejoice at the rapid progress of the Novokuznetsk “Metallurg”, can rejoice with might and main along with the “blue and white” about their victory over his fellow countrymen. What is the collective image of a fan - a regular on the Internet? The age is most often up to 30 or a little older. The love for the native club is fierce, as is the criticism towards it, splashed out not only on days of defeat, but always. A tendency to make extreme judgments, despite the regularly used acronym IMHO (from English “in my humble opinion”). But, on the other hand, verbal extremism on the Internet does not automatically entail hooliganism at the stadium. Apparently, the “network” has a place and a way to throw out emotions without damaging furniture and opponents.

I.K.