jelinski.org - the Internet Presence of Oliver Jelinski

web2.0 style

Somewhere Hegel wrote that you should go along with fashion because everything else is senseless effort. This proposition certainly hits the mark in a way. Furthermore it is obvious that you do not have to come across as old-fashioned or regressive. Therefore I am in favour for using new technologies nearly in all cases where they represent a progression in the force of production or increase the range of possibilities of expression. For example you can take Chat-speech. Many intellectuals turn against abbreviations such as "lol" for "laugh out loud", "afk" for "away from keyboard" and especially against the representation of emotional subtext via emoticons, that is smilies and the like. In the majority of cases it is criticized, that the essence of the emotional expression of a text cannot be hit by mechanical categorizing into groups of smileys and instead of that, the expression must appear from out of the constellation. They are dogmatic (Kant would have said: dogmatistic) in this point although sometimes you do not want any more than make a short comment with tongue-in-cheek, that you do not want to produce by a context that is worked out elaborately, but that should show up immediately. Such commentaries certainly do not replace texts that are woven with care, where the emotional content can be developed through the aesthetic structure. But they are simply *different* means of expression. Where people have the noble claim to produce emotional expression only through carefully woven aesthetic structures, it appears, that they do not write in a very elaborated form due to a lack of time and space, but nevertheless do not use emoticons. Concerning those texts it is not astonishing, that irony does not become clear because the structure does not suggest it. So again: Means should be used. That is also true for many technologies, that are labelled web2.0, but primarily for the technologies, not for everything that is branded web2.0.

With the style that is hip today, it happens to be different. This style and the content that is presented do not fit together very often. Where the web is not a platform for salary and commercials, but shall present content that has something to do with concerns of the real world, you usually have to deal with nasty stuff. The world is structured by the laws of the capitalist mode of producing, which take effect even in the most simple trivia of everyday life. To use a trite formula: "Es gibt kein richtiges Leben im Falschen" [There is no right way of living in the wrong world.] (Adorno). To think about the world has nothing to do with friendly contemplation. The topics you have to deal with are brutal, and as brutal must be the analysis. This and a style that suggests relaxation are contradictory. The web2.0 style does function this way. Certainly white is a very nice colour and there is no reason of not using it as a background, but together with smooth gradients and pastel colours white is in no way cold and abstract like it could be if it was well used. It looks like a soft-focus effect. The font alone that is mostly grey on white softens the contrast. That combined with rounded edges is to much. But together with the typical web2.0 logos that shall look like they would fly above a smooth surface of water reflecting the logo without any distortion this is overkill. Here at the latest the style becomes esoteric. It pretends contemplativeness and peace that do not correspond to the content. On this site at least, where I want to present my life in the current society and why this always has much to do with politics, why it is, stays, and has to stay struggle, dreamy ambience would be the most infelicitous surrounding at all.

And to prevent misunderstanding. I do not want to say that reading shall or should be made difficult on purpose. Websites that drape neon-green letters on orange background are not the desired solution. But readability does not mean a treatment at a health resort. Bad enough, that so many people are as destructed in their private lives, that they have to wish for comfort by all means and have to use the web only as a place for contemplative surf riding. What I want to say does not suit contemplation and should not comfort anyone. May be it should be found funny in some way sometimes, but only in the sense of wicked jokes. If it inspires any joy about the world, the project is stranded. In order to never letting that happen you will not find any such kind of web2.0 style on this site.