A Soul-Affirming Vision of the Internet

— Discerning online wheat from online chaff —

While reading the September 2009 issue of Wired magazine, I was reminded of a chat with a young acquaintance some years ago.

At the time he was working for one of the world’s highest-flying “Internet” firms, but for a number of reasons was considering a career change. He said, though, that he wanted to remain in the “Internet industry.”

That statement gave me pause, and I started to consider whether there was even such a thing as an “Internet industry.” I decided that there is — but only in the same sense that there is also a “telephone industry.”

If you wanted to work in the “telephone industry,” you would need to be specific about whether you aspire to work for a carrier, a telemarketing services company, a call center, a switch or PBX manufacturer, and so forth. All of these occupations could fall under the “telephone industry” moniker. But there is no “telephone industry” in the same sense that there is a pharmaceutical industry, for example.

It’s the same with the Internet. You could work for a professional services integrator, a data center, a Web design shop, a carrier, a voice-over-IP service provider, an e-tailer, or an Internet-centric startup. But where is the “center,” so to speak, of any so-called “Internet industry?”

There is none, it seems to me.

In my view, the Internet is not an industry. Neither is it a media channel or a business platform. It’s simply a global communication tool that 1) enables the delivery of digital files, and 2) largely eliminates the variable costs associated with communications. That’s all.

Granted, that’s a lot. The Internet is, of course, extraordinary — and very, very important. Nevertheless, it’s hardly the be-all and end-all of human civilization.

Such thoughts came to mind as I peruse Wired, a magazine I find both useful and annoying: useful, because I learn things needed for work, and annoying, because I don’t buy its digital triumphalism, its “the Internet is everything” attitude.

The latest issue’s cover story, entitled “The Tragedy of Craigslist,” while informative and well-written, is particularly rankling. In it, Wired takes Craigslist to task for “refusing to evolve.”

Wired claims that craigslist is “old-fashioned” and that its Web site is “a wreck.” Worse, according to Wired, craigslist is guilty of “corporate isolation” and “refusal of excessive profit.”

Well. Few things are worse than being old-fashioned, of course. Even I, a card carrying member of the AARP, agree with that.

But unlike Wired, I find it exceptionally easily to quickly find exactly what I want on craigslist, precisely because there are nothing but text-only links, neatly and logically organized. And I don’t see how craigslist’s refusal to disclose earnings is any different from Facebook’s refusal to disclose earnings. Finally, “refusing excessive profit” would seem to deserve admiration, not disdain.

Yet by Wired’s own definition of success — massive popularity – craigslist blows away every other service on the planet.

Craigslist enjoys more traffic than eBay or Amazon.com, yet operates profitably with only 30 employees (as opposed to eBay’s 16,000 and Amazon.com’s 20,000 +). According to informed observers, craigslist may generate revenues of $100 million this year. On a per-employee basis, that would undoubtedly make craigslist a thousand times more profitable than either eBay or Amazon.com.

But here’s my real beef with Wired’s hipper-than-thou putdown of craigslist: craigslist is the world’s most useful and helpful Internet-based service (I think about 30 million users would agree with that statement). Every day it helps millions of people accomplish real offline tasks in their local communities: find jobs, places to live, hire, buy/sell/barter, connect with each other in a thousand different ways.

Facebook — the sugar water of the Internet — is great for wasting time. And Google is terrific for document searches, word definitions, checking the weather, and printing driving directions.

But only craigslist helps me find good tutors for my kids, hire people for jobs, give young people a great place to live, solicit bandmates, and find compatible work partners (like Mark, Director of Fulfillment here at Soul Shelter).

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has created the world’s most popular, successful, and profitable “Internet business” (so to speak). Yet, apparently because his values center around offline community-building, disregard for wealth, and concern for participatory democracy, he has earned the disdain of Wired, the self-appointed arbiter of how the Internet should properly evolve.

Fortunately, tens of millions of devoted craigslist users seem to share a far more humane, soul-affirming vision of the Internet’s place in a world that, after all, remains decidedly offline.

You may also enjoy:

“Is the Internet Dangerous?”

“To Recharge, Unplug”

“A Song for the Unsung”

“Presenting … the Intravidual”

“When Connectivity Breeds Loneliness”

“On Slowness”