Surfing on the Internet

by J.C. Herz

In secret, underground, an amazing new world has taken shape, an alternate universe where technical communications sit alongside bulletin boards devoted to TV sitcoms, popular music, and every imaginable sexual proclivity. The Internet has its own language, its own rituals, its own code of ethics, and even its own ways of punishing outsiders. Let the newbie beware! Surfing on the Internet is a fearless excursion through this remarkable new world, in the company of one of the most inventive young nonfiction writers at work today. Fueled by Fruity Pebbles and caffeine, J. C. Herz, a digital Dian Fossey loose in the jungle of Net life, embarks on an on-line odyssey. Beginning with worldwide message boards that feature tips for phreaking (phone tapping) and plots to assassinate Barney the purple dinosaur, she brings to life the anarchic sprawl of the Net, exploring the flames (personal tirades), the aliases (one guy she meets has 158), the Net cities and virtual saloons where the digerati congregate.No corner of the Net is beyond the reach of her curiosity, and some of those corners turn out to be pretty dark. Sex on-line has its limitations, for instance (although the cross-gender possibilities are intriguing). There are the out-and-out nuts who stretch even the most liberal free-speech ethos. And there's the chilling case of Kieran, the Internet ghost whose only off-line visitors for months are the people who deliver takeout food to his apartment. When last seen, J. C. Herz is checking into an Internet addicts support group - meeting on-line, of course. Surfing on the Internet is a romp through the frontier of the twenty-first century, and J. C. Herz is a brilliant and daredevil guide.Don't log on without it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Internet, Computers

321 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Drei Cafe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine reading this book before you ever go on the internet! I did, I read this at like 10 years old, it was like finding out magic is real and having your coolest edgiest friend explain it to you. I wrote a love letter to it (and to another book, book about modems) here: https://dreicafe.com/issues/issue-013...

[Moem · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a big taste of the internet before I ever experienced it. I read it before I spent any time online. Then I knew what was waiting for me out there and I just had to go there and see!

It's not that this is a great book... it's that it arrived at just the right time.
Now it is a time travel device that transports me back to 1996 instantly. If you've never read this, and want to see what the Net was like when it was young, give this a try. It was, in many ways, a more innocent time and the Net belonged not to the big corporations, but to all of us.

[EmBe]

Aus heutige Sicht ein Zeitdokument, das einen subjektiven Einblick in die Anfänge des Internets gewährt. Von daher unter Umständen interessant. Damals 1996 hat es sicher zur Meinungsbildung und Einschätzug des neuen Mediums beigetragen.