The Internet? Bah!

 
 
 

Email To A Friend

Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.

Separate multiple addresses with commas

 

Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping--just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet--which there isn't--the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

What's missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. A network chat line is a limp substitute for meeting friends over coffee. No interactive multimedia display comes close to the excitement of a live concert. And who'd prefer cybersex to the real thing? While the Internet beckons brightly, seductively flashing an icon of knowledge-as-power, this nonplace lures us to surrender our time on earth. A poor substitute it is, this virtual reality where frustration is legion and where--in the holy names of Education and Progress--important aspects of human interactions are relentlessly devalued.

STOLL is the author of "Silicon Snake Oil--Second Thoughts on the Information Highway," to be published by Doubleday in April.

© 1995

Discuss

Sponsored by

Member Comments

  • Posted By: Kingy_0 @ 02/26/2009 9:42:17 PM

    I cannot personally see any of the 'problems' cited by this article as being detrimental to such a severe degree, which Cheryl seemed to believe (except for the one about cyber-sex that's just gross!). Admittedly this article was written in 1995 and hasn't received an update since that publishing date, so maybe the author still agrees with what they have said to this day.
    Who knows?

    The internet offers a massive learning resource to everyone, and although we may not necessarily agree with all its content, we can all say that we certainly become more realistic with our opinions as a result of being submitted to such content.
    Cheryl whether you like it or not the internet is an art form, which means it is a release expression and information. And you are unfortunately the modern day Plato we can all morally disagree with the content available over the internet. But irrespective of that the internet cannot be held responsible for the damages that people create for themselves.
    Censorship leads to the removal of free speech and expression, which proves to make people more submissive.
    Look at the Soviet Union other any other fascist dictatorship for the evidence.
    This is probably why the past was so much more socially sound (or so you seem to infer with your comment), and more likely to be considered being so by the majority of people during that era, who were lacking the knowledge of the reality of affairs worldwide, or at least to the some extent with information that is provided for us now in the form of the internet.
    Censoring or controlling the content placed on the internet goes against the 'more' democratic world we are supposed to have been brought up into, so my question to you is can you blame the ills of society and the world on the 21st century youth who wishes to retain the knowledge of the real state of affairs of the world morally, socially and politically?
    And forever condemn them to the media based message of a more violent youth which are nearing adulthood and the array of problems they will bring to society with them. In reality what you should want to have monitored instead is the tabloid based news stories that condemns such a mentally challenging digital information and commerce system.

    But it has been a pleasant experience to read this article and view it from a perspective where this advancement of knowledge was new and brought along with it an array ethical and social problems. I like the thought that most people can look back upon the article and disagree with the majority of the points made within it.

  • Posted By: laurenh24 @ 04/14/2008 5:42:57 PM

    Cheryl: If you see what he is submersed in and don't approve, why not do something about it? You're the parent. And I'm sure kids didn't stab each other and everyone was super friendly all the time back in the 1950s. Yes, his generation has been brought up online, but he's been brought up by you. Take your own advice and take control of your own family before you blame your child's personality on the Internet.

  • Posted By: Cheryl Chapman @ 03/31/2008 5:41:06 AM

    The other worry is the lack of a human element in digital communication, is, I honestly believe, dehumanising our children. Sound paranoid? I have a digi-child who spends a lot of his time online and I see a lot of the stuff he is 'submersed' in. I also see how he and his generation act off line. They are cruel, regularly violent and angry with eachother. And they are friends! This generation ,bought up online, are losing the plot of real life. They have been sold life through a screen and that's my point - the repercussions of their actions are screened out. And this is being carried across to real life. The kids are stabbing eachother in the street and the politicians are scratching their heads. But then I can't stand inthe way of money making 'progress' can they.? The internet may be one of the biggest inventions since fire- and like my mother always said about fire, it's a good servant but a baqd master. We need to take control.

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse

 

Up and Coming Newsweek Stories on Digg

Discover more Newsweek content on Digg
 
 
From Bernard Madoff to AIG, Wall Street has reinvented excess. But the Masters of the Universe didn't invent greed. A look at the despots, robber barons and others who made our shortlist.


 
 
PHOTOS
Wall Street's problems have captured the attention of Congress, the White House and the media. But on the country's Main Streets ordinary folks are wondering if anyone is paying attention to them. A look at how Americans are coping with the economic crisis.