§ three: expression requires creation, connection, and recognition.

What does it take to express yourself in a network? If you feel depressed or lonely, there is no physical space in which others can recognize the physical symptoms of depression or the bodily cues that indicate loneliness. In The Virtual Community, Howard Rheingold writes about Blair Newman, an avid participant in discussions on the WELL (an early virtual community), who, after struggling with depression for some time, committed first virtual suicide (by erasing everything he ever posted) and then actual suicide. His virtual suicide was perhaps the only informational manifestation of his actual problem. For others less active in networks, it is often not as easy to express oneself as it was for Blair Newman.

First, expression in network culture requires creation. One must post a comment, create a Web page, role-play a character, write an e-mail, produce a Web film, write a program, etc. In the network, voice must be backed by artifact. Because the network is asynchronous, the ephemerality of voice must be extended indefinitely.

But it is not enough to create. The creation must also be connected. The e-mail says nothing if it never reaches its destination. The Web page is futile if it cannot be accessed. Characters cannot interact without a world in which to interact. Comments are meaningless unless they are embedded in a discussion. Thus, we see the importance of the hyperlink, packet switching, the virtual world, the threaded discussion board.

Perhaps the most depressing failure of expression, however, is when one has created and connected something which then goes unrecognized. Writing an e-mail that is never read or posting a comment to which there is never a reply is like shouting into the void. This is why recognition is crucial to expression in a network culture. Our ability to articulate is dependent on the ability of others to listen and to respond. The connections of creations that receive no response shrivel and eventually disappear. The most vibrant sites in a network are those with the greatest dialogues, sites where the cycle of creation and response is endlessly fertile.