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Comment by marapuru | Hacker News Reader

What a wonderful article. Given that this column is about 25 years old, it aged really well. I feel that all the points she mentions are still valid today. Even though there is so much talk about trouble in cyberspace. Indeed the solution is easy, just turn it off.

I realize our society is more and more 'happening' in cyberspace. But still. Turning it all of requires nothing more than the press of a button. If only we could take a breath of fresh air once in a while.

I really wish more people realised this.

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Really, 1990s writings on the impact of the Internet I find tend to remain remarkably applicable in this way.

There's a particularly notable[0] article quite relevant to the topic of digital identity and harm, and to events earlier this year: "A Rape in Cyberspace; or, How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society" (1993) http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle_vv.html

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rape_in_Cyberspace

> she

FYI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Sussman

Thanks, hadn't properly checked.

  it aged really well

I have the opposite reaction: today, it reads like panglossian baloney.

In early days of the web, many people had blinders on, because we had dreams of the internet bringing the world together in love and harmony, etc. Fewer people are like that now, because social media has made the internet's flaws hard to ignore.

It's possible the author himself would have tempered his optimism if he wrote a follow-up article today, but it appears he passed away in 2004 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Sussman) so we'll never know.

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