When the tech visionaries began dreaming of an information superhighway decades ago, they didn't anticipate how quickly it would become littered with billboards. Check your e-mail or browse the Web for a few minutes and you're likely to encounter dozens of spam messages or pop-up advertisements offering solicitations unfit to be reproduced in a family-oriented magazine. Even legitimate Web pages are teeming with links to Amazon and eBay. The commercial clutter of the online world has grown so extreme that many online service providers have stopped selling the dream of connecting you to a world of information and are advertising tools for blocking spam.
Illustration by Leo Espinosa
The onslaught of unwanted commerce sometimes makes it almost refreshing to close the Web browser and open up normal applications—a word processor, say, or software for editing home movies. Returning to this world is like tuning in to PBS after hours on the Home Shopping Network. Suddenly the screen is free of blue-light specials and operators eagerly waiting to take your call. In a sense, our computer screens exist in two parallel universes right now: Our Internet connectivity applications are teeming with commerce, while our other programs are free of salesmanship.
