"Why the Internet will destroy the planet"

That's the title of another essay by my favorite Australian satirist, Richard Glover (whom we've met before on this blog). Here's an excerpt.

Idiots used to be corralled in places called pubs, in which they could bore each other with their crazy opinions while drinking themselves into alcoholic dementia but now - suddenly - they are everywhere. You can read a perfectly decent paper like The Guardian and looming at the bottom of every article is a septic tank teeming with snapping trolls.

The article in question might be anything from a think piece about the universe by Stephen Hawking to a sly piece of wit by David Mitchell, yet the trolls always have the same view: "OMG, this is such crap." That pretty much sums up the view from each witless avatar, whether it be Rastamouse16 or BigBoy8 or CrapForBrains22.

Throw in the Twitter feed, which now runs across the bottom of every TV program from Video Hits to Q&A, and you have the perfect horror - a giant party in which the most boring people in existence have you cornered.

. . .

It's increasingly apparent that the internet may bring about the death of human civilisation, beating out previous contenders such as nuclear holocaust and the election of George W. Bush.

. . .

First thing tomorrow the whole internet will collapse, unable to cope with the quantity of bile pumping through the pipes. There will be a final Nigerian email pinging into your mailbox and then silence for ever.

We can but hope.

There's more at the link. Funny, entertaining and recommended reading.





Peter