Notes from the Internet: How Dostoevsky’s Underground Man Lives Online

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground (1864) is often called the first existentialist novel. But after rereading it recently, I realized it’s also the first incisive portrait of the terminally online. The Underground Man—a bitter, self-loathing, hyper-self-aware narrator—isn’t just a 19th-century Russian antihero. He’s the prototype for millions of modern keyboard philosophers, Reddit debaters, and chronically isolated overthinkers. Here’s why.

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1. Isolation Breeds Imagined Superiority (and Misery)

The Underground Man spends years alone in his literal “underground,” stewing in resentment. He believes himself intellectually superior to others, yet he’s crippled by insecurity. Sound familiar?

Modern parallels:

• The Reddit Intellectual: Lurking in niche forums, armed with Wikipedia-level expertise, convinced they’ve outsmarted society.
• The Social Media Cynic: Posting multi-thread critiques of “normies” from the safety of anonymity.
• The Overthinker: Paralzyed by hypothetical scenarios (“What if I say the wrong thing?”), retreating further into isolation.

Key quote: “I am alone, and they are everyone.” Replace “they” with “normies” or “sheeple,” and it’s a modern manifesto.

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2. Overthinking Problems That Don’t Exist

The Underground Man invents grievances to feed his self-pity. He picks fights, then obsesses over his own reactions. Modern isolation fuels similar cycles:

• Debating for Sport: Arguing online about “problematic” media, hypothetical ethics, or niche politics—not to solve anything, but to feel superior.
• Doomscrolling as Identity: Curating a worldview where everything is broken, so inaction feels justified.
• Analysis Paralysis: Overthinking social interactions (IRL or digital) until genuine connection feels impossible.

Dostoevsky’s warning: Overthinking doesn’t make you deep—it traps you in a feedback loop of your own making.

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3. Complaining as a Substitute for Living

The Underground Man hates everything: society, himself, even the laws of mathematics. His rants are performative, not productive. Today, this manifests as:

• The Vent Post: Writing 10 paragraphs about a minor annoyance (e.g., “DAE hate when people chew loudly?!”) to farm validation from strangers.
• The Hot Take Economy: Prioritizing contrarian opinions over solutions (e.g., “Actually, all relationships are toxic”).
• The Self-Diagnosis Spiral: Using therapy jargon to justify stagnation (“I can’t date—I’m too self-aware”).

The irony: Complaining about the world while refusing to engage with it only deepens the loneliness.

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Why This Matters Today

Dostoevsky didn’t predict the internet, but he understood the human psyche’s capacity to weaponize isolation. The Underground Man’s tragedy isn’t his intelligence—it’s his refusal to use it meaningfully. He’d rather be right in his head than vulnerable in the real world.

Modern antidotes (that the Underground Man rejects):

• Touch grass: Literally. Get out of your head and into your body.
• Seek friction: Embrace imperfect conversations instead of rehearsing them.
• Create, don’t critique: Build something—even a bad doodle—to break the cycle of analysis.

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Final Thought

The Underground Man ends his rant with: “I have only carried to an extreme in my life what you have not dared to carry even halfway.” Today, millions dare to carry it all the way—into digital echo chambers. Dostoevsky’s genius lies in showing us the cost: the more we retreat into self-righteous isolation, the smaller our world becomes.

TL;DR: Log off. Read Dostoevsky. Then log off again.