The Death of the Cyberflâneur

[Commentary] Commentators once believed that flânerie would flourish online, but the sad state of today’s Internet suggests that they couldn’t have been more wrong.

Cyberflâneurs are few and far between, while the very practice of cyberflânerie seems at odds with the world of social media. What went wrong? And should we worry? In a way, we have all become such sandwich board men, walking the cyber-streets of Facebook with invisible advertisements hanging off our online selves. The only difference is that the digital nature of information has allowed us to merrily consume songs, films and books even as we advertise them, obliviously.