The Communication Age

by A. E. O'Neill

[Originally published February 4, 2000

While the Internet is rapidly becoming the commerce connection for the free world, uniting companies with hundreds of years of experience with those who chose their URL before their business model, it is also becoming the web of contact that it promised in the early days.

Friends, families and entire businesses now conduct parties, reunions and meetings in a virtual setting, without boundaries or limits. Which is remarkable, considering the inauspicious beginnings of the concept of online communities.

Initially, the only people who spent excessive amounts of time online for anything other than work were those who lacked a social life in the real world. As soon as the conversationally inept discovered that behind the charming facade of an online avatar, their lack of social grace could go virtually unnoticed, a parallel society blossomed. Freaks and geeks found a garden of e-den in the anonymous lizard's lounge that is the Chat Room.

The proliferation of sites using chat and video technology as a hook, and the increased sophistication of the average user, caused practical applications for communication and business to flourish.

The concept of "living online" evolved from these humble beginnings and has found its logical extreme embodied in DotComGuy (www.dotcomguy.com), an enterprising young Texan out to prove that he can survive a year in his apartment with only an Internet connection for contact with — and supplies from — the outside world.

His site, choked with links to contests and other gimmicks, demonstrates that this is not just one man's quest to make that first giant leap for mankind; it is equal parts publicity stunt, resume booster, singles advertisement and marketing ploy. The only other way to get this much free product sponsorship would be to break the octuplet barrier.

The first thing that strikes you about DotComGuy is how little he looks like someone who would be devoting a year of his young life to making a point about survival behind the monitor. Every time I checked in on him, he was kick-boxing with a personal trainer or doing an unfathomable number of crunches while a female voice shouted "3-2-1-Okay! Five more!" in the background.

While I'm sure this frat-boy-turned-marine-turned-systems-manager does more than flex his muscles for the 16 cameras positioned throughout his apartment, I couldn't help thinking that if I were unable to leave the house for a year, the last thing I'd be doing is exercise.

It's a shame that no one from the Cam family thought of it first. Imagine the media frenzy if AnaCam.com or JenniCam.com had realized the potential of this idea and promised to provide 24-7 coverage of life under house arrest to their adoring fans. Although both women have acquired a sort of cult following, sponsors draw the line at female nudity — but not at a hunky homebound kick-boxer begging potential Valentines to compete for an evening of exhibitionistic ennui.

Less than a month into his mission, DotComGuy has exhausted my short attention span.

It's not as if, suffering a disconnection from his service provider, he would quietly starve to death in streaming video. The concept may be new, but it seems strangely redundant. Who isn't living online to some degree? Who, given enough tech support, credit, home entertainment and a home office, couldn't survive a year in their apartment? The challenge for most of us will be finding time to get out of the apartment!

When the Internet was new, people initially feared that we would become increasingly distant from each other, but in many ways the opposite is true. Keeping in touch with people around the world has never been easier and more than a few of my close friendships have thrived through email correspondence, spurred by the illusion of distance.

Even my mother and grandmother, who live in a mountain hippie paradise and tune out words like modem and server when we talk about technology, have decided to get connected. What finally convinced them, of course, was the prospect of keeping in touch with me and other distant friends and relatives.

All of this illustrates how comfortable we really are with the technology that's rapidly changing the way we buy, sell, bank, read, educate, socialize and advertise. Among the technophobic and those too set in their ways to adopt a new definition of "community," online options are more limited — but given time, these communities are sure to offer something to almost everyone.

If you yearn to debate the latest social issues, you can join salon.com's Table Talk, or a "community of thoughtful hedonists" at nerve.com's highbrow erotica site. You can stalk your old high school flame using gradfinder.com or save yourself a trip to Abbotsford and play bingo online at bingo.com. Whatever it is that moves you — chances are you'll find like minds online.