With total information freedom and openness on the internet, especially in the early days how could you know who to trust? Freedom and openness sound like great ideals, but there’s a dark side to such naïveté. Before the internet, if you looked at any aspect of life during that period can you say there was absolute freedom and openness? No.
No matter how much we fight for wonderful bright ideas of the future, they more or less fall into the same sad path or pattern as past ideas that were once cutting edge and promising. I believe it’s a Postmodern thought process that says the future never arrived, I think that can apply to this “Internet Dream”.
The internet brought enormous connectivity and awareness, along with that came horrendous stupidity, blindness or ignorance. I personally think social media is one of the worst aspects of the net, but I admit it does have its positives (connectivity and motivation to get people talking about almost anything.) To me social media is like reality tv, it’s mostly junk and hysteria over nothing. (My opinion) despite that I too take part in the social media junk and hysteria from time to time, I’m no better than anyone else. I’m sure some feel social media is the pinnacle of the “Internet Dream” I don’t see it.
However I agree with the suspiciousness of the intellectuals or big brother types in control of our access to information on the Internet. If it’s not been made clear by the whole Wiki leaks situation that our government is holding out on us, then I don’t know how else to prove the need for our suspicion of authorities.
On the other hand, I’m also cautious of this kind of sudden outburst of hidden information of the governments actions, not matter how immoral, unethical and untruthful it proves our government to be. It still puts the security of a country at risk. In cases like this I think we still have much to workout and come to terms with. But touching on the dividedness the author speaks of, there is too much of a split among the public on these kind of issues of revealing top secret information about our government’s actions.
Despite the division of the general public on revealing sensitive information, there’s also the issue of defining `truth’ in our modern times, to put it vaguely and philosophically. But I feel at the heart of it that’s what the real underlying problem is, not forgetting who has ownership, control, access to this modern day Internet age of `truth’.
I feel we have yet to embark on this great uncharted journey that could change some of the early naïveté of the “Internet Dream” and turn it into more of a realism and actuality. Instead of a dying dream we could see a rebirth of the dream. But I’m not crossing my fingers.