Recently, I was watching a news report that detailed how the internet
was making people dumber with each passing day. And at first, I couldn’t quite
believe what I was hearing. The reporter claimed that the Trump campaign had a
large role to play in this ‘mess’. What with all its heated talk about
‘alternative facts’ and ‘the fake media’.
Although I understood that all
these concerns were valid, I disagreed with the production’s conclusion. Just
to be sure that I got all my facts right, I re-watched it several times through
my Spectrum
Internet plan. And then I started penning my response. This blog post is a concise summary of some of the major points that I
made.
In Defense of the Internet: Five Ways in which it makes You Smarter
The Internet does make you smarter.
But at its core, it is nothing more than a weapon to be wielded – for good, or for bad. This totally
depends on the motivations of its users.
It makes you smarter in one of five ways:
1.
It keeps
you fully updated on the latest news & information cycles,
2.
It imparts
skills that allow you to pursue better employment opportunities,
3.
It allows
you to interact with smart and accomplished specialists,
4.
It exposes
you to all kinds of emerging fields,
5.
It allows
you (as a business) to keep track of your competition
When used positively, the internet can play a decisive role in
promoting all kinds of social causes. The fight against global illiteracy,
political repression, press censorship, and all other varieties of oppression;
to name a few.
Explaining the Positives
The web has also turned out to be an unprecedented tool for providing
up-to-date information to people. With a simple click of a button, any person
with an internet-enabled device can conduct research on virtually every topic
under the sun. Nothing similar to this existed in the previous ages.
By learning new (marketable) skills, any person can go on to better
his or her lot in life. This is because most workplaces require their employees
to be proficient in a certain area of
their overall trade. Specialists, instead of ‘jacks of all...’ And the
internet, in this respect, has turned out to be a savior for many people all
across the globe.
By providing a wealth of educational resources to train people, along
with platforms to practice what they’ve learned, it empowers them. To seek new
employment, and then to raise their social status. Because money, if you didn’t
already know, does make the world go round. And it’s destined to stay that way.
The internet simply shows people how to exploit this set system.
I personally know of many people who have completely turned their
lives around because of this advantage. These individuals didn’t have a lot of
financial stability, to begin with. But through the free skills sessions they
took online, and their engagements with specialists, they learned to pull
through. And now they are in a position to give back to their societies.
Generously.
If anything, I would call their example to be a big indicator of how
the internet makes people smarter.
Not through one, but a variety of, ways.
Countering the Negatives
The internet is a democratic space like no other. This is because it
allows all viewpoints to be aired. It connects people with varying opinions to
each other. And to ensure that a free-flow of communication & expression is
maintained, it allows them to respond. In whatever manner that they choose.
No wonder many people use it for ranting!
In this way, it allows for a ‘multitude of narratives’ to permeate
through the sociocultural sphere. And with no censorship, so that all on-going
debates are open to public scrutiny and adoption.
Like in any majority, the viewpoint with the largest number of
proponents wins the day. And so it becomes the dominant voice of the web, which
in turn influences even more people.
This cycle continues until there emerges a new viewpoint. This can be
a ‘counter-narrative’, which completely seeks to refute the prevailing
discourse. Or it could be a new idea entirely, which the people may find more
attractive. And very slowly, this idea becomes entrenched.
In this way, as in the real world, the lifecycle of ideas continues to progress on the internet.
Playing a Part
This process, however, does in no way guarantee that an ethical idea
will always prevail. Only the one that has the most adherents. And so in times
when the ‘bad’ should be seen to overshadow the ‘good’, it becomes the
responsibility of the people to set matters right.
They can do this by raising their voices.This is best done by writing blogs and producing other types of content
that raise a challenge. That speak truth to power.To come back to the discussion about Trump, I have relied on the
written word to make my protests heard.
Using my Spectrum
Packages subscription, I continue to submit op-eds on a daily basis. In the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune. As well as other such
publications. And I don’t lose hope in the process. Because I know that in a
democracy like ours, every expression does count!
