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from the not-what-we-expected-but-is-it-bad? dept.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/06/is-the-internet-a-failed-utopia/
LONDON—At Shoreditch Town Hall on Thursday, at an event hosted by Intelligence Squared and Vanity Fair, the longevous British broadcaster Jeremy Paxman of University Challenge fame asked the audience of few hundred: "Is the Internet a failed utopia?" He asked us to vote on the matter by raising our hands. About two-thirds of the audience disagreed with the statement, a fair few (including myself) were undecided, and only a smattering of people actually thought the Internet was a failed utopia.
It was then the turn of four panellists, in the style of an electoral hustings or stump speech, to change our minds. In the failed-utopia camp were Andrew Keen and Frank Pasquale; in the not-a-failed-utopia faction were Peter Barron and Beth Noveck. They took it in turns to deliver quite rousing speeches.
The naysayers obviously had the harder job from the outset—we were at an event that was specifically tailored for fans of the Internet, after all—but they did a good job of reminding us that the Internet, as it stands, is not the elysium that we were all promised at its inception. Keen warned us that, while we think the Internet is an idyllic plateau where everyone is on an even footing, where two guys in a garage can compete with the monolithic, infrastructure-owning giants, we're all deluding ourselves: just like the real world, the Internet is now ruled by big corporations.
The utopian speakers, Barron and Noveck, mostly focused on all of the cool things that wouldn't have been possible before the Internet and World Wide Web were created. Noveck, who was a driving force behind President Obama's Open Government Initiative, reminded us that, with a smartphone in your pocket, you have access to more information than the president of the United States did 25 years ago. Barron, who is a public affairs bod at Google, spoke about the equality of opportunity on the Internet—and of course, about all the free services that we get to enjoy.
What does SN think?
Original Submission
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2015, @01:30PM
It is a 'failed' utopia. On top of that it was never promised to be.
Why is it 'failed'? Because we do not live in a utopia. We live in a world with some constraints and the internet is a reflection of them. We disagree with each other of minor petty things. I could list at many different things people argue about on the internet. No one really changes their minds because of what they read on the internet. They are here to TELL you their opinion (much like I am doing here).
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/500616-internet-fight [knowyourmeme.com]
The internet is a fantastic communications and information lookup tool. It will dominate those fields for the foreseeable future. It is not a 'new place to live'.
It makes a murder in downtown LA look like it happened next door. We as humans then conclude that downtown LA is a murder haven.
It allows others with a slick presentation to disenfranchise other groups. Because they happen to be someone the other group does not like. But using the words of free speech to do it, ignoring the meaning. It is used by younger people to try to belittle older people. It is used by older people to belittle younger ones. It is used to enforce religious bigotries (and I include atheism in this) even more.
It allows people to be self selective in what they watch even more so, than in years past. It ends up creating enclaves of echo chambers. I am currently watching reddit tear itself in two.
It allows huge companies with lots of advertising dollars to sell 'soap' everywhere. With the excuse of 'servers cost money' to back it up.
Its current structure is being subverted by large countries for their own ends.
It allows some people to use the internet to hide and become a bully all from the safety of their keyboard. Then seem shocked when people figure out who they are using their own tools against them.
It allows people to share crackpot ideas. Which can be a good thing. But many times it ends up being an opinion shouting match.
and so on...
Utopia? Only if we lived in one in the first place. Everything people do in the real world will be attempted on the internet. There is nothing special about that. It is human nature.