Is it possible to get lost on the internet?

February 8, 2009 7:32 AM

Under what conditions, if any, might one get "lost" on the internet?

Why would one ask such a question? I'm working on an art-thought experiment, thinking through if there is any way to recreate the experience of being lost on the internet.

Impossible/possible? What do you think?

posted by spacelaredo to grab bag (29 comments total)

Javascript popups that spawn faster than you can close them is probably the closest you can get to feeling lost on the internet. You can't close the browser window.
posted by fire&wings at 7:35 AM on February 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

I think searching on social networks could give you a place to start. For instance, when I search for an old friend on Facebook, I am often met by a sea of people who share the same name. One fish in a very big ocean, in other words.

It's both a good and bad thing, alike.

Cool idea.
posted by metalheart at 7:38 AM on February 8

Visiting pages in a different language knowing that you're looking for a particular section, like a gallery, but you need to hunt through the links to actually find it. You know it's there and it would be obvious to someone who could read that language.
posted by odinsdream at 7:38 AM on February 8 [3 favorites has favorites]

Auto full-screening an IE browser window can be pretty disorienting to some, if you don't know how to get out of it.
posted by nitsuj at 7:39 AM on February 8

The only way to feel lost is to have a destination in mind, first.
posted by Mizu at 7:40 AM on February 8

Well, people often seem to be traversing a very respectable part of the internet, and suddenly without warning find themselves in the red light district. That's getting lost, isn't it?
posted by jayder at 7:41 AM on February 8

Yeah, the fact that they can close the browser gives them a lot more control than one typically has when lost.

I guess they need to have a goal to achieve (equivalent to: child wants to find Mommy) that's more important than walking away, that seems overwhelmingly difficult at first.
posted by winston at 7:42 AM on February 8

I think it was slightly more possible in the mid-90s, when you could end up browsing deep into some of the burgeoning web-art (esp. fluxus) exhibits and not find a way out. There were some links that didn't head backwards like one would expect, passwords, and early script hacks. (Also iirc browsers didn't 'back' forever, so if you clicked through a lot you wouldn't be able to go all the way to the beginning.)

Now, I think metaphorically, you add that to atmospheric music, like some of the abandoned buildings photos websites have, you could get a lost feeling.
posted by Weighted Companion Cube at 7:43 AM on February 8

Also: getting rid of the 'home' button. If a person can get back to where they started -- a familiar place -- at the click of a button, how lost can you really feel?
posted by nitsuj at 7:46 AM on February 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

If you can control the PC or the network, redirect every request to somewhere else.
posted by miniape at 7:55 AM on February 8

Visiting pages in a different language knowing that you're looking for a particular section, like a gallery, but you need to hunt through the links to actually find it. You know it's there and it would be obvious to someone who could read that language.

Particularly if it's a localized version of an otherwise familiar website (amazon.co.jp springs to mind).
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 8:13 AM on February 8

Once, several years ago, I was trying to find a particular download on Microsoft's site. Every time I thought I was getting closer I ended up somewhere else. I knew that what I wanted had to be in there, somewhere, but it was like I was going in circles. The feeling of helpless frustration is what stands out.

So yeah, like some have said, having a destination or goal is probably important.
posted by Monster_Zero at 8:15 AM on February 8

yak shaving
posted by rhizome at 8:38 AM on February 8

Following on the destination/goal lines, I think you're lost if you end up in deliberate misinformation, where someone's hung the place name all over but you're not actually there. I experienced this while researching something and being given a heads-up by someone I'd contacted that one authorative-seeming site was set up by someone with a distinct agenda.

Similarly, Wikipedia as an atlas where you need to know background to tell the authorised maps from the amateur fantasy submissions.

Or, Usenet as wandering into uncharted territory (if you're talking about more than just the web). You're never far off the path and you can find your way home, but good christ, you won't know what you'll meet in the bushes.

Plain old counterintuitive design is like having the signposts rotated - the logo doesn't take you home, etc. Or rickrolling/misleading links/fake emails purporting to be from Paypal or your bank, ditto.

So, I think it's totally possible if you define what lost/on track are. And it sounds like a really interesting experiment.
posted by carbide at 8:41 AM on February 8

I open everything in tabs, then quite often come across a tab and I have no idea why I would have opened it. I think of that as being (temporarily) lost.
posted by alby at 9:37 AM on February 8

Oh, link farms are also a disaster if the user isn't able to distinguish them from actual information.
posted by odinsdream at 9:47 AM on February 8

Using an "unknown" part of the net. Lots of people think of the net as www.
I have brought some friends into undernet, irc, etc before and they have felt quite vulnerable, out of their depth etc. Normal users who get to sites like astalavista or other "security" sites get a bit of a scare too. I think keying into the sense of fear/vulnerability that comes with getting lost rather than the geographic aspect is the key to this. Things like getting popups saying you have a virus now, or that you have bought porn on your company card now, or turning a corner and ending up on rotten or what have you.
posted by Iteki at 9:57 AM on February 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

A student once described her series of inadvertent internet wanderings as "taking a fieldtrip on Wikipedia"
posted by zachxman at 10:26 AM on February 8

When I lose track of my mental "back" stack, which is especially easy in these tabbed-browsing days, I feel lost.
posted by bonaldi at 10:44 AM on February 8

Once, several years ago, I was trying to find a particular download on Microsoft's site. Every time I thought I was getting closer I ended up somewhere else. I knew that what I wanted had to be in there, somewhere, but it was like I was going in circles. The feeling of helpless frustration is what stands out.

I have to totally second this characterization of the Microsoft site, to extend the metaphor, when you click on a link that begins a huge download of a file you're not quite sure is the right one, it's a similar feeling to taking the wrong exit on the freeway.
posted by jeremias at 11:11 AM on February 8

I remember learning how to use search engines when I was little and feeling terribly lost. Not knowing which keywords were important, how to eliminate sites that didn't have what I needed, etc. I used to use Ask Jeeves because then you could type out a whole question and it would pull out the key words for you. Yahoo used to have a list of categories, too, that I relied on really heavily. If a site wasn't on that list I didn't know how to get to it. I still get the feeling occasionally when I start research on an area that's completely foreign to me and I have no idea where to start. The despair I feel staring at the Google homepage in these instances is only rivaled by the frustration of searching for something a bunch of different ways and still getting the exact same unhelpful websites.
posted by lilac girl at 11:33 AM on February 8

I get lost on line all the time. I'll start on some layered site (I made that term up, please nobody tell me I'm using it wrong) like Huffington, and I'll start moving around the tabs and following links in the same browser window. After a while, I either can't remember where I started, or else I can't navigate back to the original site; I have to open it anew. When that happens, I characterize it as "being lost." This happens with blogs like Davesgarden and with forums too. Following links is fatal for perpetual noobs like me.
posted by nax at 1:11 PM on February 8

Some malware will mess with your browser settings and redirect all your web browsing through their servers where they will mess with your browsing and send you to phishing sites and stuff.

Or you could get addicted to WoW and become a basement-dwelling stereotype - that is, the internet could cause you to lose touch with the real world, which is getting lost of a sort.

If you weren't very computer-literate, you might know a series of steps to get to a page you wanted to visit, but find things had changed along the way so you couldn't perform your usual steps. For example, maybe you normally google 'wikipedia', then click the first link, which is to 'www.wikipedia.org', then click the top-ten link to 'Nederlands'. One day the first link on Google might be 'en.wikipedia.org', or 'Nederlands' might no longer be in the top ten or whatever. The result might be you got lost within your getting-to-wikipedia procedure.
posted by Mike1024 at 1:33 PM on February 8

Ummm...sometimes when a friend of mine is on facebook and playing a particular game or something, there will be an option to upgrade your status or skills in the game by taking a few manufacturer quizzes that involve leaving your real name and address and stuff and then reviewing products, lots and lots of products. My friend will make up a name and pick a legitimate address nearby, and then create a throwaway email, and then wade knee deep into the product reviews and popups, which seem to never end, even though they always seem to be saying One Page Left! Or Click Below to Finish! and then my friend feels lost.
posted by redsparkler at 1:41 PM on February 8

When my DNS server goes down and the only way I can get around the 'net is by going to IP addresses. I can never seem to remember if Metafilter is 174.132.172.58 or 174.132.172.85.

Related, I know a pretty large number of people who are lost without the Internet.

The first time someone joins or visits an established online community it can be disorienting before you learn all of the unwritten ways of the local populace. I'm sure my mom would feel quite lost her first visit to 4chan or craigslist personals, much in the same way she'd feel lost on her first trip to Amsterdam.
posted by Ookseer at 3:02 PM on February 8

As featured on an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force:

http://www.yzzerdd.com/

Warning: Lots of popups.
posted by ignignokt at 3:07 PM on February 8

Circle Jerk TGPs.
posted by azarbayejani at 11:59 PM on February 8

The best way literally speaking would be to navigate to some obscure page, preferably a long-neglected one in some obsolete network of pages, one without a lot of outbound links to current websites, and then hide and lock the navigation bar. For someone who didn't know the keyboard shortcut to make the address bar, home button, etc., come back, it would be difficult to find your way back to the "normal" web.
posted by Rhaomi at 6:37 AM on February 9

Wow! Thanks to you all for so many incredible posts! I had been thinking about un-ending popups (see ignignokt's yzzerdd.com - quite a trip) and sites in unfamiliar languages where visual conventions are not the same... Although I also like the more metaphorical thoughts about getting lost. I so appreciate being able to hear what you all have to think! Will keep this thread updated once I have some kind of project to present...
posted by spacelaredo at 8:00 PM on February 9