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                   The joy of personal mass communication
                      by Lars Berg (berg@update.uu.se)

Communication made us what we are. Actually, there are good reasons for
going so far as to define the human race by its communicative abilities and
needs. And in the post-modern world, this peculiar character of ours has
become the single most important factor for our survival as a species. It
has changed from being an existentialist requirement to a prerequisite for
our future existence! But, as before, it still means a lot of fun too.

The web is the latest feature of our need to communicate. And as such, it
is unprecedented with regard to impact and potential. With its help it has
become possible to find people that we share interests with, no matter
which part of the world they live in (at least in theory). And while doing
so, we may stumble upon other people and ideas, that we would never have
heard of hadn't it been for this medium - some of them weird, others wise,
still others really unpleasant. In short, thanks to the web the human race
has taken a giant step towards that utopian world-wide society some of us
has dreamed of for so long. Intercontinental mass communication has reached
the personal level, and I think that this may entail a new twist of the
global development. It may help us to really understand each other's
feelings and motives, something that global mass media hardly have achieved
so far.

I've not been a netizen for long, but already I'm addicted to this messy
and fascinating society. I've spent hours and hours jumping around among
peoples dreams and ideas, heard good jokes, read fascinating poems and
articles. One reason why it's so addictive is probably that there's so much
crap out there, which means that you're never quite satisfied. You just
can't stop until you've seen what's behind the next peak; what does *this*
link lead to? It teases my curiosity to the level where, sometimes, the
only way to stop me is to remind me of the forthcoming phone bill, or to
cook me an excellent meal. Is this just because it's all so new to me, or
will it remain this way? I'm not sure what to hope for...

Lars Berg