The Inernet Is A Place You Leave
During my graduate program, I came across a very interesting discussion of the internet in a legal review from the 90s. It indicated that the internet itself possessed a “placeness” and thus required new laws and legal structures. Consider this passage:
The New Boundary is Real.
Treating Cyberspace as a separate “space” to which distinct laws apply should come naturally. There is a “placeness” to Cyberspace because the messages accessed there are persistent and accessible to many people. Furthermore, because entry into this world of stored online communications occurs through a screen and (usually) a password boundary, you know when you are “there.” No one accidentally strays across the border into Cyberspace. To be sure, Cyberspace is not a homogenous place; groups and activities found at various online locations possess their own unique characteristics and distinctions, and each area will likely develop its own set of distinct rules. But the line that separates online transactions from our dealings in the real world is just as distinct as the physical boundaries between our territorial governments - perhaps more so.
Crossing into Cyberspace is a meaningful act that would make application of a distinct “law of Cyberspace” fair to hose who pass over the electronic boundary.
“Law And Borders: The Rise of Law in Cyberspace” by David R. Johnson and David G. Post
In my assessment, the boundary no longer exists; the ubiquity of the smartphone has ensured that. Crossing into cyberspace is effortless. You are there even when you think you aren’t. The internet seeps into everything we do and everything we think. Even if you gave it up entirely, your friends, neighbors, coffee shops, employers are all infused with it and moved by it. We’re all cyborgs now. Cyberspace is increasingly homogeneous; dominated by a few core sites with converging UX/UI. No longer is the internet a place you go, but a place you try to leave.