Yesterday, Josh posted his thoughts on what life would be like if the Internet were suddenly taken away. Seeing as I make my living by working with websites and social media, I have...well, let's call it a DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.First off, I'll address the privacy concerns. Yes, once you put yourself online, you lose some degree of privacy. And yes, even by setting up who-can-see-what filters on Facebook, that's not a 100% guarantee that it won't be archived and findable in some distant future, or reposted by a friend in the near future. But you know what? Nobody is forcing you to put anything online that you're not comfortable doing so. If you go by the rule that you don't post anything you don't want the world to see, then you're generally OK. For example, we made a very conscious choice not to blog anonymously when we started this blog, because we didn't want to have to worry about "OMG, what if my boss/parents see this?" Having everything we post tied to our real names keeps us aware that it is findable by anyone. And if you're worried about people reposting your "private" stuff on Facebook, sure, that can happen, but people can share and gossip about things you say and do in real life, too. (You'd think a journalist would be well aware of that fact.)
As for context, you create your own context online. Sure, some ex-boyfriend may post a page of naked pictures of you, and that ends up being your first Google search result. But you know what? If you're concerned about what others think about you, your job is then to make sure you put so much great stuff about yourself online that this lame attempt to sully your name gets buried on page 12 of the Google search. You control your own story. Start a blog under your real name. Have a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and post great stuff others feel compelled to share.
And attention span? Let's face it, television killed that sucker long ago. For the Sesame Street generation, a lengthy attention span is a thing of the past, and I'm not sure that's an entirely a bad thing. Being able to multitask and juggle several items in your head at a time is an asset in today's workforce. The Internet is not to blame, but it is a crucial resource for learning about things quickly. Let's say you're asked to give a presentation on String Theory and its implications for your hardware store. No longer do you need to haul your butt over to the library, search through a physical card catalog, and pull tons of books off the shelf in hopes that you'll find one that speaks your language and makes the connections you need it to. Now, the information you need is just a few keystrokes away. And Wikipedia has taught us that crowdsourcing can actually improve the accuracy of that information.
As for friends, I feel like I know a lot more about my friends thanks to the Internet and social networking. Even when people post the mundane stuff ("I love pizza rolls!"), it's like a tiny window into their everyday life you don't normally get to see, and the next time you see that person, you have one more thing you can talk about. But where the Internet really shines is in keeping up networking connections. If I meet someone at BlogWorld, it's unlikely I'm going to call them every few months just to keep my name in their heads and see how they're doing. I don't have the time, and goodness knows they're probably too busy to talk to me anyway. But through Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, not only can I get to know them better, but they can see what I'm up to and keep me top-of-mind for future opportunities.
Not only that, the ability to spread information virally through those networking connections is vital. We're now aware of and care about things happening on the other side of the globe in a way we didn't used to be, because mainstream media filtered what they thought we ought to care about. When protests were happening in Iran over the election results, for example, those people posted what was happening on Twitter, giving regular citizens a view into what they were going through. And people responded all over the globe, working to raise awareness in a way that no non-profit or word-of-mouth campaign ever could. When the earthquake occurred in Haiti, people knew about it right away and responded in record numbers to help. And a colleague of mine successfully leveraged the tongue-in-cheek banter surrounding the iPad's launch to raise over $2,000 for girls in Uganda to be able to continue to go to school (the connection? They tend to drop out when they hit puberty because they don't have access to sanitary supplies).
Sure, there are bad things about the Internet. There are bad things about the telephone, too (especially my stupid Blackberry, but that's another post entirely). Like any tool, it's about how you use it that makes the difference. And the Internet has the power to improve and expand your social connections, teach you more than you ever dreamed about almost any subject matter, and connect you to a global community. You can't put a price tag on that...and our world would definitely be worse off without it.
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