First Annual Anniversary Indulgence: The Future

Map of the Internet. Black Space=Porn

Let's talk about the Big "F" Future. There will be personal jet packs, elevators to the moon, world hunger will be forever solved because science will have finally perfected self-replicating rice pudding technology and all people on Earth and her colonies among the stars will visit Net Insanity for all of their entertainment, news and recipes. But we've got a long way to go before we reach that glorious day. In the more immediate future, which is to say in the coming year, Net Insanity will be branching out into new territory and the world's rice pudding supply will sadly remain finite. Here's a sneak peek into what's on the docket for 2010.

First, I think it's high time that Net Insanity tackles the world of social networking. People strive to connect with one another but many of us are crippled by a series of social maladjustments, irrational anxieties and prejudices that keep us from doing obvious things, like walking outside and introducing ourselves to strangers. So, the Internet has obliged our dysfunctional social apparati by hosting social networking systems of every conceivable stripe. There are scads of dating sites where we can select potential mates based on a limitless set of criteria including race, religion, eating habits, musical preference and other things that make absolutely no difference in real romantic relationships. There are programs in place for unemployed slackers who have no scruples about sleeping on a stranger's couch, or if you're looking at it from another angle a place for life-gambling children of the sun to find drifters to invite into their homes at an equal level of mutual peril.

And then there's Twitter. Honestly, I haven't developed a feature about Twitter yet because I've been hoping that the whole thing would blow over, but since it seems like it's here to stay, I've decided to both jump on the bandwagon and do my best to ridicule the worst of my fellow passengers. Among Net Insanity's many dissections of social networking websites, we'll be putting together an occasional feature all about Twits and the lethally banal content they spew onto the Web in tiny, daily increments.

Another area of Internet culture I've largely avoided has been the strangely prolific world of the web comic. I find it rather odd that so many people aspire to produce the Internet equivalent of the funnies considering that the overwhelming majority of syndicated newspaper comics are awful, unfunny reinforcements of the segment of our society that aspires, at best, to be middle-brow. Still, the uncensored nature of the Internet has made for a few web comics that are actually amusing on occasion, so I'll nod to their example and take a crack at some reviews and features.

Oh, but it won't end there. Recently I've been partnering with an artist named Andy Ward who's been good enough to produce some original images for this and some of the other sites for which I write. We've been batting around the admittedly very bad idea of producing a Net Insanity original web comic to run on a weekly basis. I have no illusions about this venture and its potential to be just as insufferable as most of the other stuff out there, but I'm willing to give it the old college try. At worst I'll gain enough perspective on the art of the web comic to give my mockery of other comics some depth.

As always, this blog's regular features will continue to run. Look for more Stars of the Internet, Awful Flash Game Roundup, Craigslist Files, Youtube Nation and Degradation Station in the coming year. And of course, if you happen upon something in your journeys through cyberspace that you think would benefit from Net Insanity's attention, don't hesitate to contact us with the messy details.

Thanks for all your support in the past year and thanks in advance for your readership and participation in the year to come... you wretched scum of the Internet.