In Memory of Walter Benjamin

From flâneur to web surfer

The tendency towards images dominating narrative, style taking over at the expense of substance, the rise of irony, and the celebration of all that is irrelevant, which is generally regarded as characteristic of the present day could also be read in Benjamin’s terms. The web surfer who is given the opportunity to take a look at what 353,111 individuals – unknown to him – around the globe had for lunch, is perhaps driven by an intoxicated curiosity similar to that of the flâneur. They both represent a social type that is in constant search of ever new sensations: An ‘intoxication’ comes over him; he feels ‘the magnetism of the next streetcorner’ and he wants to satisfy ‘the deep human need for daydreaming.’