MFT: Nothing on the Internet Browser Plugin

"Nothing on the Internet" is a browser plugin designed for Safari and Chrome browsers. It was developed by Joseph Ernst and Jan van Bruggen of Sideline Collective in late 2017. It is one of the conceptual browser plugins that is trying to make an existential statement.

The plugin is all about nothingness or if being exact lack of content. It presents this concept as "the most interesting thing on the internet" which is apparently all about content (insert Daniel Bryan "No! No! No!" chant), but it never goes beyond that. And that diminishes its initial impact to a null and void. There is no punchline in this plugin. It is a gimmick plugin, a mere publicity stunt. It turns an attempt of escape from information into a button mashing jest. But an idea is curious at the very least.

The plugin is very simple. All it does is an elaborate clean-up of a viewed page. It throws out the majority of visual elements seen on the page - the text, visuals (pictures, gifs, videos), ads and so on. and leaves barebones layouts of a page - vast spaces of nil. Just click the button and wipe it all out. With extreme prejudice, apparently.

If you try it on this blog - you will get a hard case of whiteout that will make Ed Brubacker proud. However, if you try it on Google image search or 9gag or Giphy or Tumblr Archive - you will get a fine collection of colourful blocks of various rectangular shapes.

In some way, it can be interpreted as a response to ever growing overconsumption of information without rhyme or reason and continuing overexposure to a warped and twisted reality of internet that seriously affects perception of reality and multiplies confusion and frustration. It is all too much (ta-dah, da), there must be some way out of it. "Nothing on the Internet" serves as a panic button, an AdBlock pushed to extreme, that makes it all go away for a moment. But not really.

Surfing on internet is extremely time-consuming and ultimately critically counterproductive thing. It renders users numb and unfocused, incapable of any substantially beneficial activity. Instead, users are treated like pawns in a grand game of manipulating opinions and perceptions for own good, generating web traffic and turning it into revenue. All while they are watched, dissected and segmented so that they could be presented with personalized packs of advertising content in order to manufacture impressions and clicks.

That wasn't what the Internet was about. As Wyatt said "We blew it".