Cyberspace as American Culture THE FALL OF CYBERSPACE

Enough practical experience has accumulated by now that this cultural imagination can be seen for what it is. It can be dated, roughly from 1994 through 1998 -- the era of the cyberspace pundits who wrote for Wired magazine [2]. During that five-year period it was common sense, certainly in the United States but also in much of the rest of the world, that the Internet levels hierarchies, decentralizes society, creates an idealized neoclassical market, and eliminates the role of intermediary institutions.