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-----There are forces at work that are trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Web and turn it into another medium for TV. And why not? TV is both a multibillion dollar industry and a social addiction. The lives of most Americans are set by the TV schedule, the tastes shaped by advertisements, and opinions formed by talk-show hosts' pronouncements. It is the most successful experiment in social conformity, and the most successful drug there is. There are no clinics to cure oneself of the addiction to TV, and it is a habit that's hard to kick. I know -- I am a former TV junky.

While the Web could easily be turned into TV-like medium of information broadcasting, this in itself is a tribute to its flexibility as a medium for information distribution, Web browsing is an inherently anti-TV activity.

It is not that Web browsing is more of an intellectually engaging activity. It is.
It is not that it enables me to quickly find interesting information and pursue it across the oceans in hyperlink jumps. It does.
It is not that I can see a coffee pot in England or a street intersection in New York, or a beach in Maui, any time I want to. I can.
It is not that I can keep track of long-out-of-touch friends and old classmates through the Web. I can.

Don't get WebTV. Set up a home page instead.

The reason the Web is not like TV is that I can put a page up on the Web and say just about anything I want. Anyone can, and everyone should. Don't get a WebTV. Set up a home page instead. Get a computer with a keyboard and an account with an Internet Service Provider that gives you home page space. Let us have a collective conversation. Let us get to know one another, find out what makes us unique. Let us together explore things we never imagined, go places we never dreamed. And once that spark of wonder, extinguished after one too many a corporate site, or business model for striking it rich on the Web, is rekindled again, we will successfully repel any attack by the forces trying to exploit the Web for profit. At the very least we can call a truce and peacefully coexist.

kL