FRE-NAVIGATEUR OBSOLETE

Realising to what extent he has become dependent upon the Internet, and no longer able to take his eyes off the screen — this hypnotic window —, the author observes and analyses his reactions in front of the machine. While concealing no part of his weakness and distraction, he attempts to grasp exactly what this "addiction" consists of, this fascination which affects most Internet users. He strives to find the psychological key to this new form of slavery; and most of the time, this quest leads him to the edges of a mysterious domain in which unexpected symbolic patterns take shape. The Net spreads out like a substitute cosmos and like a powerful simulator of life able to offer every person his share of instinctual or spiritual satisfactions. Thus the cybernaut becomes the voluntary prisoner of his hyperworld, in which everything is possible and infinitely accessible. He tries in vain to free himself, loosen his bonds. Everything is now done online, including political action, and the digitisation of all plans of existence is raising enthusiastic cheers. Yet at the same time the obscure side of the Internet is expanding; the trap is closing. Extraordinary violence and oppression are the daily reality of those "connected"; the System is crushing freedom and individual privacy, standardising and dulling people's minds on an unprecedented scale. The Internet is only one stage in the terminal dehumanisation process.As a librarian for twenty years now, Virgile Stark (pseudonym) has spent over ten years in the National Library of France.