The Internet is Good vs The Internet is Bad.
Posted: August 14, 2011 Filed under: Culture, Debate, News, Politics, Technology | Tags: bad, BBM, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, good, internet, London Riots, Riot, Twitter, youtube 3 Comments »
The internet is good. It connects people from all over the world. It builds community. It distributes knowledge.
The internet is bad. It gives a voice to angry people who have nothing better to do than comment on YouTube videos. It helps rioters cause havoc. It distributes indecent images of children.
These opposing opinions are communicated to us regularly. For example here’s a ‘good news‘ internet story, and a ‘bad’ one.
It’s staggering how quick we can be to blame objects, systems and even other people for the world’s evils.
The idea that we should shut down BBM or Twitter when people start rioting is crazy. It would have been like suggesting cutting off all land-line phones during the 1981 riots.
The point is simple. Technology is neither good nor evil. It is amoral.
Human beings, and our use of technology…well that’s another matter.
So let’s stop all of this nonsense about ‘shutting down social networking’ or ‘regulating the internet’. Even if governments could do either of those things, it wouldn’t solve the problems. If you take Twitter away from the rioters, they will still riot. The problem is not the technology, it’s the human heart that is flawed and needs transformation.
Internet is very,very,very good
Internet is bad
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Hi – reminds me of the article I wrote for this week’s Lymington Times on this topic. I describe how since retiring I’ve set up a blog and made lots of new friends. I’m also able to share my ideas and insights with a world-wide audience (I’m just amazed at some of the countries where people have looked at my blog.