The Art of Web Wandering

By Tenneal White

Flaneur: Some one who is indirectly and unintentionally affected by a particular design they experience only in passing.” (Uknown, 2017) (Prouty, 2009) Essentially a person adrift in the city, a detached observer strolling through the streets at a leisurely pace. (Prouty, 2009) So how does this apply to Social Networks, in particular, Twitter?

A cyber-flaneur, by definition, strolls through the Internet. Little purpose guides their journey, and hours slip by as the individual explores the many different crevices of the ever-growing web, from Tumblr to Twitter, from obscure journals to social media. (Hendel, 2012)

Whilst flaneurs are growingly becoming extinct in this day and age, Cyber-flaneurs are booming. Due to the popularity and the sheer number of people who are connected on social media, the number of cyber-flaneurs are ever increasing.

Cyber-flaneurs are all over twitter, they are the silent assassins, quietly waiting to pop their heads out, make themselves known and then disappear again. “They wander anonymously within the boundaries of virtual space, developing a virtual identity while connected.” (Barnes, 1997)

It was evident on Twitter who exactly was a cyberflaneur. Members of the social network who sometimes you would forget even existed until unexpectedly they would comment some outrageous line on a thread and then disappear again.

As I continued to use Twitter to continue my study into the social network I realised that perhaps, I myself was starting to show some of the qualities possessed by the cyberflaneur. Whilst I claimed to be using the site to gain a further understanding of the concepts I was learning, I realised that I was no longer just in it for the research. As the hours slipped past, I realised I had been drawn in by the eccentric design, the way that twitter could literally take you anywhere your mind could imagine, just with a touch of your fingertips.  And whilst I was seemingly anonymous, every now and then I would comment on a thread or like a picture that specifically took my interest, usually something I was extremely passionate about.

Just like the Glass arcades in the city of Paris in the 19^th century (Kuttainen, 2017), Twitter draws you in by the cyber architecture. It is a modern-day glass arcade and with it, the cyber flaneur culture grows.

 

Glass Arcade
 (Double-decker_trams, 2012)

 References

Barnes, G. (1997). Passages of the Cyber-Flanuer. Passages of the Cyber-Flanuer. Otago.

Double-decker_trams. (2012, JUNE 25). REDDIT. Retrieved from REDDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/vkem6/covered_street_in_milan/

Hendel, J. (2012, Feb 8). The Life of the Cyberflâneur. Retrieved from The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/the-life-of-the-cyberfl-neur/252687/

Prouty, R. (2009, October 28). A Turtle on a leash. Retrieved from One Way Street: http://www.onewaystreet.typepad.com/one_way_street/2009/10/a-turtle-on-a-leash.html

Uknown. (2017, August 6). Flaneur. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A2neur

Kuttainen, V. (n.d.). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives, and the making of a place,         lecture 4: Maps. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from hhttp://learnjcu.edu.au.