Week 9 summary.

This week’s topic was about the internet as a utopia. Utopia, by definition is a fictional place that is considered to be ideal and perfect. The guest speaker, Jason Nelson spoke about the realities of the idea about the internet as a world that is considered to be created by humans where everything is fine. A harsh reality is the consequences of the Dot-Com Crash. The Dot-Com Crash or “Bubble” happened around 1998-2001; it reached a head in 1999-2000. Western Societies and their economies went into turmoil after investments made into web site companies were not returned. It wiped out $5 trillion in market value: the stock market was left in disarray. Despite this glitch, Mr Nelson still seemed to convince me that the internet was still this other world where expression was encouraged; where people could talk and share common interests; where there was free speech. The internet today is a place where digital poetry can bloom and has real potential. Poetry romances and grounds us with meaning. It is the poets of the world who challenge the structure of society that is deadening to the soul and ignite revolutions. Poetry on the internet is influential yet people aren’t venturing out and seeing the possibilities. There are maybe 4 to 6 sites an individual goes to when on the internet and only little exploration is done. I admit, I am one of those offenders. Lock me up! In saying there is some kind of a poet’s utopia on the internet there is also a lot of trash. You have to wade through a lot of crap to find something interesting and it is time consuming. My Godmother always warned me that looking at a flat screen all day would give me ‘square eyes’. I’m going to take a risk and explore more from now on. ‘Square eyes’ is curable, isn’t it?