Ich werde ein Berliner, Screenshot: Phone Guide Germany

Germany and the internet? Any associations? Suspicion. Anxiety. Prohibition. Frank Schirrmacher, a journalist with some most-hated-man-potential. And a red-haired guy named Sascha Lobo (By the way, who is that again? Why did he happen to be famous?).

Payback, Image: Blessing

The title of Frank Schirrmacher’s recent book is impossible to pronounce without gasping: „Payback. Warum wir im Informationszeitalter gezwungen sind zu tun, was wir nicht tun wollen, und wie wir die Kontrolle über unser Denken zurückgewinnen.“ In English it means something like: “Why in the information age we are forced to do what we don’t want to and how to gain back control over our minds.” Catchy, right? Let alone the title, Schirrmacher obviously tries to reject web-2.0 shortened phrases. Of course, in his book the (old and) wise intellectual identifies dangers of the evil evil internet, which will someday – as “Wash Echte” on his quite famous blog “Ich werde ein Berliner” (“I am becoming a Berliner”) puts it – turn our brains “into elephant poo”. Villains like Google will hunt (especially!) you down by knowing everything about your filthy interests. And last but not least, all the new communication techniques will make you unable to concentrate, which will accelerate the whole process of getting mentally incompetent. A completely ruined next generation. A global army of Google-guided robots. Digital apocalypse now!

Clearly, Schirrmacher was slaughtered by many feuilletons. But maybe it is not absolutely fair to present a couple of phrases as the complete essence of his text. On the other hand… why not? An author writing about the internet but not knowing the correct spelling of “tweets” (in his book: “tweeds”), doesn’t deserve much better.

Interestingly, the first comment on Wash Echte’s article on “Payback” was written by Sascha Lobo, the court jester of Germany’s web-2.0 culture. Nobody really knows why he is that well-known. He was just sort of “there” at some point. Even though lots of bloggers criticized him for it, his ad campaign for Vodafone last year probably made him even more popular. His most convincing accomplishment is undoubtedly his ability to sell himself. But maybe with characters like him, a “German” need for orientation becomes visible. A desperate desire to fight one’s fear facing the internet and all changes it is causing. Even a blog like “Ich werde ein Berliner” reacts to this – as a manual on how to fit in (and the target group of “Ich werde ein Berliner” surely isn’t limited to English speaking foreigners in Berlin).

One question remains: Why does Wash Echte’s personality test always – I have taken this test at least five times – mark me as Hitler? Why can’t I be Charlotte Roche?

You’re Adolf Hitler
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Created with Rum and Monkey’s Personality Test Generator.