Social Control

I've had my own blog and domain name for so long I can't actually remember how long. Perhaps since 2005 or thereabouts? The blog was original a wordpress.com site, but I bought my own domain name after a year or two. Domain names can be like tattoos - for some of us we start with one and then gradually grow our collection. I have a few more now.

I seem to go through periodic cycles when it comes to "social" websites. I've created and deleted LinkedIn accounts twice. I had a Facebook account for a few years, though I was never really into it. I was Extremely Online on Twitter for many years, until I weaned myself off. As I've gotten older, however, I've generally become more cautious about adding my online actions to someone else's database - at least directly. My first Mastodon account was the traditional mastodon.social account I never logged back into. When I couldn't even remember what email address I'd used for that, my next account was on my own instance.

Controlling your own domain - or your own domain name, in this case - is an immensely useful anchor to avoid being sucked in too far to sites that insist or imply that they are THE way to communicate with the world and establish a public identity. I could put by resume, my pet photos, my random thoughts or my book reviews on my own website if I wanted. I more or less have done. Your global ubiquitous web search engine will probably still surface my Twitter account up top, but my blog/website will always be on the first page.

I was reminded of all this reading an article from CrimethInc that was written nine and a half years ago, yet could have been written this week:

> Yet as more and more of our lives become digitized, it’s important not to take it for granted that this is always for the best. Capitalism thrives by absorbing aspects of the world that were once free and then offering access to them at a price, and this price is not always exacted in dollars. We should be especially attentive to the ways new media are convenient: convenience can be a sign that the infinite possibilities of human life are being forcibly narrowed down. Indeed, these innovations are barely even optional: nowadays it’s difficult to maintain friendships or get hired without a cell phone and an online profile.

The Internet as New Enclosure

This reminded me of why I'm sometimes somewhat listless lately. Three years of not going out much and just being in the world and "getting amongst it" will do that. I enjoy noodling about on computers, but there's plenty more to life. I don't have that kind of chutzpah or natural rapport with people, and I don't speak Japanese, but Craig Mod's walks around Japan fascinate and enthrall me for this reason: yes he's blogging and takes beautiful photos, but the POINT of his stories and his walks is that he meets fascinating people and then tells their stories, or sometimes what he imagines their stories might be (something I also enjoy doing - imagining stories about the strangers I observe in public).

Social and political revolutions and the "movements" that can sometimes be "mini revolutions" remind us that when it comes down to it, humans aren't nearly as controllable as capitalists and governments like to hope. Maybe people will just refuse to buy "New Coke". If enough people refuse to pay your poll tax, it becomes impossible to make them. And a social app is just buildings and some code if the people using it suddenly decide ...not to.

Renting server space under a commercial contract and hosting a website under internationally agreed rules for DNS is hardly starting a revolution or bringing down international capitalism. But it's nice to be excited and curious again about the web, and even more so - to see other people excited about it. Oddly enough, it's actually making me think more about getting away from the computer, to maybe do some walks around Melbourne; maybe make up some stickers to slap around the place; maybe meet some people; maybe write a zine. To become ungovernable in little ways and encourage others to do the same.