Our new home in Cyburbia was a stranger place than those early cybernetic believers could have imagined. New arrivals had been promised a world of equality, but as soon as they got there they discovered that some were a good deal more equal than others and that the pecking order had been decided long ago. Then there was the claustrophobia induced by living in constant communication with our neighbours. As more and more people piled in to Cyburbia to make their fortune, the sign-posts there became wilfully confusing. Despite the huge amount of traffic coursing through Cyburbia, much of it seemed to be going around in circles; despite the abundance of its population there was a marked tendency for people to hang out with people just like them and conform to opinion of their peers. Conversation in Cyburbia quickly degenerated into tittle-tattle. The popularity contests regularly held there were strangely combustible affairs, and had all the feel of being rigged.
James Harkin
Cyburbia (124-125)