Free Choice and the Internet Considered February 3, 1996 The Internet has often been thought of or discussed as a reflection or microcosm of society as a whole. I'm not willing to buy that, because society as a whole includes women, and there are a Hell of a lot of people in society who can't use a mouse. One area where the Internet "community" and society have a lot in common though, is in the current perception of personal responsibility.
Recently, people decided that they were no longer responsible for their
own actions. What's even more fearsome is that other people seem almost
anxious to let them get away with it. Rather than encouraging people to
take a good hard look at themselves, it seems that people not only
accept their poor excuses for their actions, they oftentimes make up an
excuse for them if they can't invent one for themselves. I'm not
exactly sure what drove people to this outlook, but it sure hasn't done
much for information providers or for child welfare programs. What
brought on this examination of the refusal of people to take
responsibility for their own actions was a report I saw on the local
news the other night.
The details of this report have slipped away into my brain's
The most disturbing thing about this report was that it wasn't an
isolated incident. Any time someone who has ever logged onto the
Internet manages to screw up, people are quick to point fingers. This
"the Devil made me do it" attitude pervades our society at every level
(feel free to substitute Internet, pornography, or television violence
for the word Devil at your leisure). Hardened inner city criminals
blame their environment for driving them to crime. Disturbed teen axe
murderers are quick to attribute their indiscretions to hard rock music.
People are even willing to accept pleas of ignorance from public
officials when they're caught with their hand in the till or their pants
down in the coat room.
What does this mean to us on the Internet? First and foremost, it means
that we're another of America's embattled minorities. One of the most
popular cop-outs today is the claim of parents that they don't have time
to raise their kids. Fortunately (so they think), someone invented
television, game machines, and the Internet to do their job for them.
Now, in the name of
"decency"
and
"protecting the children"
, we stare
down invasive legislation rammed through by
geriatric congressmen
who
through misguided principles or a burning desire to tackle "popular"
issues. Ironically, these congressmen have little or no clue about
anything on the Internet, relying on the leaky advice of aides and staff
members to make policy decisions.
The ironic thing about it is, most hardcore netheads actually do believe
in a certain measure of personal responsibility. The perception of
anonymity that pervades the Internet enables an otherwise silent segment
of the population to not speak but scream their views, mercilessly
flaming other users and violently standing behind their views on
everything from abortion to the best joystick for use with Doom. Few
hardcore net-surfers haven't heard the catchphrase, "You own your own
words." This phrase is designed to abdicate service providers from
responsibility for statements made by users, employees, or participants
in online forums. Given the fact that you will soon face imprisonment
for unintentionally providing a venue for users to utter naughty words,
this attitude seems more justified every day.
Between the outraged parents' groups, a sensationalistic journalism
establisment, the U.S. Congress, and hordes of professional and amateur
pornographers, in a very short time the Internet will be fenced with
ill wrought, cumbersome, unconstitutional legislation. The civil liberties activists
and concerned Internet citizens stare down this seemingly inevitable
future in much the same way that cowboys watched the wide-open
rangelands of the Western U.S. close up after the invention of barbed
wire. Ironically, but not surprisingly, smut will still be available,
people will still be able to get information on making bombs, and the
Internet will be closed off as the medium for cheap publishing and
anarchic information exchange that it is today.
Like no other time in history, people are able to hang out their shingle
and voice their views, pitch their business plan, or display their art,
all via the Internet. When Gutenberg invented movable type, he never
would have invisioned this. This all seems to be coming to an end. I
wish I could offer up some solution that would prevent this from
happening, but I can't. Between the ignorance of the American public,
the stupidity of American politicians, and the coming convergence of
information services ushered in by the passage of the telecom reform bill, which
will eventually create even more regulatory pressure from the government,
the structure of the Internet will most likely undergo rapid and
irreversible change by the end of this decade.
It is my hope that despite these changes, the Internet (or a worthy successor) will still be the vehicle that brings us closer to being a "global village", and that through this insanely great medium that not only brings us quality content but also tons of entertaining irrelevancy, creative but penniless authors and content creators like myself will still be able to present their offerings to the masses. I would like to take this time to apologize for the long delay between this and the previous 1m2f. Between work and lack of inspiration, I failed to publish for quite some time. I'm once again brimming with good ideas, and hopefully I'll be able to accomplish the intended once-per-week release schedule that I promised. Stay tuned. |
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