Is the Internet Trying to Reprogram Our Minds and Our Society?

Video courtesy of shuji13

 

OK, so maybe the internet isn’t quite as hell-bent on world-domination as The Terminator.

 

But it would certainly have the power to be that evil – if it had its own free will. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, said:

“If you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off.” His partner, co-founder Larry Page, is reported to have said: “The ultimate search engine is something as smart as people – or smarter. For us, working on search is a way of working on artificial intelligence.”

 

Scott Karp writes that ‘the web is disruptive force in the history of media.’ He argues that it is destroying the assumption of the media moguls and monopolies that they would always have a market, because of the inherent value of the branded service that they offer. Over the internet, where the latest news can be got at the click of a mouse from a Google search – so why would you have brand loyalty for any one particular news source?

 

He says that news-providers will have to collaborate and relinquish their monopoly control of the media to survive in this new market. Readership, popularity, and the subsequent advertising revenues, come from collaboration with other news providers to link to and from each other’s sites and channel the readership traffic, helping each other to gain in the process. The monopoly power that came from big companies of old through ownership of expensive printing presses or broadcasting companies must be relinquished to succeed in the world of the internet for a more collaborative approach.

 

So perhaps it wouldn’t be unfair to say the internet is hell-bent on destroying the world – the old world, that is, to replace it with an entirely new one.

 

Cardiff Journalism School guest speaker Anthony Mayfield, who is Vice President and Head of Social Media at iCrossing UK, said last Thursday that we are currently undergoing a technological revolution comparable to the development of the printing press hundreds of years ago. While the printing press revolution brought to the masses the ability to read new and wide-ranging works of literature, this technological revolution brings them the power to publish works of their own.

 

Nicholas Carr suggests that this new method of reading and publishing may not be as good as it sounds. He writes that the internet may be ‘weakening our capacity for deep reading,’ shortening our attention span, and making it more difficult for us to absorb complex pieces of work:

 

The faster we surf across the Web – the more links we click and pages we view – the more opportunities Google and other companies gain… feed us advertisements… The last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction.

 

I’m afraid to say I think he may have a point. I’m not denying that technology allows humankind to do what they already do ten times better – I can drive a lot faster than I can run, I can shoot people in the head from a rooftop a lot more easily than I can strangle them, and I can get the necessary information for my essay a lot more quickly from a Google search than I can from reading the book.

 

However, I can’t help but think that a part of the emotion, the meaning, the grit, and the true umph of the action is being lost in the process. Although I can do things a lot better in life with the use of technology, to rely on it completely would be to lose the power of your body, your mind and your soul.

 

Like all things in life, you need to strike an even balance. So now I’m off to the pub.

Tags: Cardiff University, digital media, link journalism, The Terminator