Trading Cities for Computers: A New Breed of Flaneur in the Digital Age

A wide-eyed kid steps out of a yellow taxi onto the bustling streets of New York. He/She bumps past the hotdog venders and newspaper stands as they look up at the alluring skyscrapers. This tourist is one of two people: the kid with big dreams to make an impact in the city, or the flaneur who wishes to soak up the sites and vaporize into the streets. Now, replace the taxi and sidewalks with a mouse and keyboard. Switch the hotdog carts and newspaper stands with popup ads, and exchange the skyscrapers with today’s top websites and social networks. Finally replace the city that never sleeps with the never-ending labyrinth of 1’s and 0’s we call the Internet. While the World Wide Web is a Mecca for those who wish to create or recreate their identity, it has also become a destination for the modern day flaneur. However, like the new breed of idle Las Vegas strollers analyzed by Kurt Borchard in his paper, “From Flanerie to Psuedo-Flanerie: The Postmodern Tourist in Las Vegas," Internet surfers have broken with traditional flaneur values and should too be classified as “pseudo-flaneurs.”
We have discussed how the Internet allows one to stay constantly connected, saturating oneself in social worlds and information. However, another side to the Internet exists: the hidden and faceless surfers that use the Web for observation rather than interaction. The term “flaneur” arose in industrialized post-revolution France in the mid 1800’s. A flaneur is a blasé, idle observer; one who is in the crowd but not of it. He/she is unseen but observers his/her environment, experiencing without acting as a consumer. Sites such as StumbleUpon.com and Facebook allow users to experience their world while remaining an unobserved observer. Drawn to the anonymity afforded by the Internet, many have swapped strolling city streets for idly surfing the Internet.
The original flaneur walked the streets or sat in a café, soaking up their world and watching the passers by. Today, he/she sits behind a desk and does the same thing. The difference is that instead of disappearing into the city, he/she fades into chatrooms and social networks; “mov[ing] through [cyber]space and among the people with a viscosity that both enables and privileges vision” (Chris Jenks-Watching Your Step: The History and Practice of the Flaneur p.152). This new observer experiences the world in a blasé and passive manor, watching videos on YouTube and admiring nature through Google Images or NationalGeographic.com. The term “flaneur” does not simply refer to physical acts, but to a mindset and way of life. The cyberflaneur breaks this mindset by consuming actions associated with true flaneurs; he/she is an active participant on the Internet and buys into the system.
While the Internet flaneur (or iFlaneur) shares many similarities with the traditional flaneur, he/she does not truly earn the label. In his paper, Borchard describes how tourists in Las Vegas are not true flaneurs for a number of reasons. These same reasons reveal that the iFlaneur is a pseudo-flaneur as well. First, like the Vegas tourist, they are not truly experiencing their surroundings but simply admiring “simulacra,” copies of the real things such as online pictures and videos. The Vegas tourist “wander[s] from one impersonation of a city/culture/era to another” (Borchard). Second, Borchard points out that the true flaneur is never a consumer; he/she is simply an observer. However, one must buy into the Las Vegas experience which makes one a consumer of “practices traditionally associated with flaneurs” (Borchard). In much the same way, the iFlaneur strolls the cyber world, which is structured by “surveillance, social control, and the organizing principles of capitalism” (Borchard), all of which undermine the core of flanerie. Finally, one cannot remain an unobserved observer in Vegas or online as their structures ensure that one's actions are always being watched and monitored.
A new breed of pseudo-flaneur flocks to its computers to “stalk” others on Facebook, follow people on Twitter, and visit foreign cities or events through pictures and websites. The Internet, while seeming to be a paradise for the unobserved observer, undermines the principles of the true flaneur. While it may be impossible to be a non-consuming, unseen wanderer while surfing online, the iFlaneur does not seem concerned. With unlimited options and places to experience, the Internet may have rendered the true flaneur obsolete, ushering in the era of the iFlaneur.