The Internet As Subculture
"To shock is chic" (Hebdige 96). This statement, found in Dick HebdigeUs book, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, refers simultaneously to both a subculture and its imminent demise. Phil Cohen defines subculture as a R...compromise solution between two contradictory needs: the need to create and express autonomy and difference from parents... and the need to maintain parental identificationS (Hebdige 77). TodayUs vast world of cyberspace exemplifies such a duality. On the one hand, the internet allows users to be creative and virtually free from any restraints, but on the other, it must employ technology from the parent/creator culture in order to function. A brief historical view of the internet examines its origins and how it spread into the internet of today. Created initially as a military subculture and progressing into a subculture of the 1990s, the internetUs use of familiar objects and language becomes problematic since it permits people outside of the subculture to either integrate it completely into mainstream society, or at least commonalize it and make it ubiquitous so that its shocking value, coming as a result of its freshness and cutting-edge technology, becomes more chic than shock. Unfortunately for a subculture like the internet, its transformation from a secondary role in society to a dominant one, though beneficial in some aspects, may have drastic repercussions for society as a whole.
Subcultures engender themselves by first breaking away from the dominant culture. Jean Genet explains how this process begins with a crime against the natural order, but ends in a gesture of contempt or defiance that signals a Refusal (Hebdige 3). This signal, continues Genet, possesses meaning and value for the subculture itself, even though it may only represent Rthe darker side of sets of regulationsS (Hebdige 3). The subculture acts as a vehicle of rebellion against popular culture for those who create and support it. However, the resistance to the dominant culture is not created by the subculture itself, but rather by the signs and objects employed by it. The subculture captures these signs and objects and transforms them or their meanings to signify their ideas, as opposed to those of the dominant culture. Thus, within the one hegemonic culture, a subculture or subcultures may attach different meanings to the hegemonic signs and objects. Hebdige explains:
The struggle between different discourses, different definitions within ideology is therefore always, at the same time, a struggle within signification: a struggle for possession of the sign which extends to even the most mundane areas of everyday life. (17)
Signs and objects take on new signification that, whether valuable or not, possess some meaning for the subculture. These subculture icons develop because the members of the subculture do not Rhave more say, more
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opportunity to make the rules, to organize meaning,S as a result of having Rless power to produce and impose their definitions of the world on the worldS (Hebdige 14). Consequently, the alienated group or groups breaks away from the majority in society in order to create such icons that Rexpress, in code, a form of resistance to the order which guarantees their continued subordinationS (Hebdige 18). These groups, if successful, then create their own subculture.
A chronological view of the internet shows the evolution of the subculture:
1969: The US Dept. of Defense (DOD) commissions the RAND corporation to work on a network that would connect widely dispersed computers to preserve communication even after a direct hit by a nuclear bomb. A decentralized network, known as ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), is created and four computers are connected. Three are in California and one is in Utah.
1973: The first International connections to ARPAnet (England and Norway). Vincent Cerf, known as the "Father of the Internet," and his graduate students show their early versions of communications protocols to ARPAnet pioneers. These protocols later become known as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocol).
1979: Usenet, a collection of newsgroups, is established, and the first MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) appears, using Telnet which opened 5 years earlier.
1981: BITNET (Because ItUs Time network) and CSNET (Computer Science
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Network) are founded and both play important roles in forming the Internet. Consequently, electronic mail (E-mail) and file sharing begin to be used by academic and research institutions.
1982: TCP/IP is established as the ARPAnet protocol and adopted by DOD as the standard. Vincent Cerf goes to work at MCI managing development of MCI mail.
1983: Due to the fast development, ARPANET splits into two parts: ARPANET and MILNET (Military Network). MILNET is created to insure military communication through a network. ARPANET becomes the Internet at this point in time. It is during this time that the idea of Domain Name Servers is developed, in which the only requirements to send mail are a name and a relative pointer. Both inputs allow the program to find its own way. In addition, during 1983 EARN (European Academic and Research Network) and the IAB (Internet Activities Board) are formed.
1984: The word RcyberspaceS is introduced as a new term when William Gibson writes Neuromancer. Also, the Domain Name Server is introduced, providing an internet connection to over 1,000 hosts. Host names appear after the R@S symbol in an e-mail address. Hence, a personUs address, is s/he resides on a college or university campus (and therefore an educational institution), then edu, which stands for education, becomes his/her domain. Other domains include com, for computer, gov, for government, and org, for organization. (ex. mailbox@host.subdomain.domain)
1986: The NSFnet (National Science Foundation Network) is created by
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the National Science Foundation, allowing consumers to "lease" high-computing power should they be in need of it. The NSFnet backbone is then upgraded in 1989 to 1.544 M bits per second (bps), with over 100,000 hosts in existence.
1990: ARPAnet ceases to exist. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is formed and headed by Mitch Kapor.
1991: The WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) database is established. Gopher, a document delivery system, is released. In addition, the NREN (National Research and Education Network) is established.
1992: The World-Wide Web (WWW), a hyperlinking/multimedia client is released and allows for graphics and hypertext. The NSFnet backbone is again upgraded to 44.5736 M bps, with more than 1,000,000 hosts in existence.
1993: Both the White House and the United Nations come on-line. Mosaic is released in response to the need of graphical browsers, and the Internet begins to receive media attention.
1994: The ARPANET/Internet celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. 1995: The NSFnet reverts back to research and no longer allows direct access. As a result, connections to the internet can be bought by groups and organizations, but cannot be used for advertising, which causes trouble for automatic rerouting. The WWW becomes the most used Internet service and Netscape is released. Moreover, the internet is not owned or operated by any single authority; instead, the Internet Society, a non-profit organization, provides some standardization and organization, and is headed by Vincent
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Cerf.
1996: The United States senate attempts to pass the Communications Decency Act, also known as the Internet Censorship Legislation. Controversy surrounds the act because it ignores constitutional rights. The Communications Decency Act prohibits the showing of genitalia and the use of curse words. The Act, if implemented, would also scrutinize electronic mail, so that fines would be assessed if improper language is employed. However, due to a large number of protests, the Act is withdrawn and/or postponed.
It is estimated that there are over 37 million American users of the internet. In addition, 64% of all internet users are college graduates, many with graduate and post graduate degrees. With such a vast number of users and frequenters, the internet of today can hardly be called a subculture. It is true that the original internet was a subculture. The military created it for a select number of people, and it was never intended for commercial use. However, the fact that the internetUs use increased over the 1970s and early 1980s decimated the military subculture.
The internetUs spread into more mainstream culture eliminated its uniqueness, its scarcity. The phenomenon of the subculture cycle, how the subculture is created, then dismantled, and recreated is fascinating. Hebdige explains:
It is through this continual process of recuperation that the fractured order is repaired and the subculture incorporated as a diverting spectacle within the dominant mythology from which it emanates: as Tfolk devilU, as Other, as Enemy. (94)
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The military subculture was created when only soldiers had access to the technology. It then dissipated when such technology was disseminated and more widely used. The internet remained more public until the 1990s, when another subculture surfaced.
This more recent subculture has broken away from the parent internet culture and even utilizes a distinct sublanguage. For example, feelings or sentiments can be conveyed via E-mail with simple Rsmiley-faceS symbols. Someone can put a R:)S at the end of a sentence to indicate s/he is happy or smiling. A R:(R indicates dissatisfaction or sadness, and there is even a more playful R;)S that indicates a pleasant mood. In fact, there are over 50 such symbols that indicate a different mood or feeling. In addition, there exists a certain internet etiquette, which users like to call Rnetiquette.S Users may place a word in between asterisks for R*emphasis*,S or in certain Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), which are public places on the internet where people can RsocializeS by posting messages that any user can read, it is considered improper to type in capital letters because it is considered to be like shouting. Also, postings that use curse language or that are attacking and/or offensive to either the receiver or the rest of the community which can read them, are known as RflamesS and are seen as a netiquette faux-pas.
There are also different styles of communication employed in different electronic areas. For instance, writing an Email, though less formal than writing a business letter or a research paper, is still more formal than conversations held in such areas as MUDs, and games such as Bolo, which are
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held over the internet between various people. The level of communication in these areas are similar to oral conversation. There is little worry about grammar or punctuation. The only thing of importance is the ability to convey meaning and intent over a modem, without the aid of audio clues that help to distinguish if someone is joking or being sarcastic, for instance.
Although the subculture of the 1990s effectively broke away and formed its own community, it is quickly getting reintegrated into popular culture. Such an assimilation is a harbinger for reconciliation with the parent culture. Hebdige writes that the process of incorporation of the subculture into the hegemonic culture is of two characteristics types:
(1) the conversion of the subcultural signs (dress, music, etc.) into mass-produced objects (i.e. the commodity form); (2) the TlabelingU and redefinition of deviant behavior by dominate groups - the police, the media, the judiciary (i.e. the ideological form). (94)
This consolidation back into the mainstream is evident by the sheer number of internet users. This fact is important with regard to the subculture, and as Hebdige expresses, Rthe distinction between originals and hangers-on is always a significant one in subcultureS (122). The Nielson company, who performed a study of the demographics of the internet, found that 78% of all users are between the ages of 16 and 45, and that 79% of users have a college undergraduate degree or better. In addition, the very latest craze with regard to the internet has been WEBTV. With this device, consumers are able to logon to the internet from their own television sets. Such a transition from a modem to a television set will have great effects on the 1990s subculture.
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Though it cannot be said that ReveryoneS owns a computer, the majority of the population does own at least one television set per household. The internet has transformed from the subculture of the computer to the dominant culture of the television. The internet has been made available to the entire public, thereby restitching the remaining subculture with the parent culture.
The effect of the subcultureUs reintegration into society is twofold. There are beneficial aspects as well as detrimental ones. The possibility of millions, even billions, of people around the world having internet access would tighten the global community. Millions of people could be in communication with millions of others via their computer terminals or television sets. The possibilities are limitless which such knowledge readily accessible. International business conferences, for example, could be held via the internet and teleconferencing, whereby members of the conferences would not even have to leave their home countries in order to attend. The necessary equipment would be a computer and some supplementary gear which would, as a result, save millions of dollars in, say, travel costs. Moreover, time constraints are loosened because various electronic messages can be sent within seconds from terminal to terminal. The information super-highway is obtainable at oneUs fingertips. Few areas will be able to stay isolated from the rest of the intricate web of links formed daily around the world. A person in South Africa can send an Email to someone in Jerusalem. Someone in England can send an attachment to her friend in China. A web-page created in Japan
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can be accessed in Bolivia. These photons of information all revolve in the blink of an eye around the internet nucleus, at only the cost of an on-line subscription. The destruction of the internet subculture recreates a more tightly-knit and interwoven dominant culture.
The recreation of the parent culture and the dismantling of the internet subculture have adverse affect for the entire international community. The fact that everything, ranging from sex, to food, to the latest video game, can be obtained from oneUs terminal obliterates the social aspect of humanity. The computer allows users to access various regions and maintain contact with acquaintances world-wide, even develop lasting friendships, but never allows for any physical contact. Moreover, the explosive growth of the internet has given fears to Mark Griffiths, a British psychologist. He claims that people and especially children, will become addicted to it. Some children spend 14 or more hours in front of their computer terminals, thereby ignoring their friends and other social relations. Griffiths fears this will create a generation of social inepts, causing problems for addicts in their later lives. Humans are social beings and although the internet allows for greater communication world-wide, such a global community is only connected via internet terminal, which results in these social interactions as incomplete and lacking. This point cannot be underestimated or overstated. As humans, our essence is made of both mind and body. Though many may argue otherwise, we cannot successfully divorce these two characteristics and still maintain our Rhumanness.S
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Another deleterious effect created as a result of the commercialization of the internet concerns peopleUs own security and peace of mind. The movie, The Net, starring Sandra Bullock, serves as the quintessential exemplar. The main characterUs life comes crashing down around her because her identification has been changed due to alteration of her credit, criminal, and personal history. All information concerning our purchases and personal identification are contained within computer data banks as a result of the internet. In other words, a personUs whole life is contained electronically. The majority without access to such information would become powerless and have to live with the fear of being Raltered.S As Marx once wrote, quoted by Hebdige, RThe ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual forceS (15). In addition, Hebdige concludes that RSubcultures are therefore expressive forms but what they express is, ...a fundamental tension between those in power and those condemned to subordinate positions and second-class livesS (132). If people, such as hackers, were able to toggle the security on such information and have free and voluntary access to it, chaos would ensue and a ruling elite with access to such information would emerge.
From the days when the internet was solely intended for military purposes, to the early 1990s, before the information-accessibility revolution, the internet has experienced at the very least two waves of subculture. Hebdige writes that RThe cycle leading from the opposition to defusion, from
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resistance to incorporation encloses each successive subculture, S to explain how subcultural styles are created, adapted, and eventually superseded (100, 129). The global diffusion of the internet subculture into mainstream society will have more negative repercussions than positive attributes. The initial idea that the internet will bring the world closer together will in fact have just the opposite effect. Computers (as well as televisions) will replace social interaction, which at first was thought to have been improved, and we as humans will become more isolated from each other and ourselves.
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