When I think about the Internet, I view it in the same regard as the right to own a telephone, a radio or television set. These mechanisms serve as tools for disseminating and receiving information. Denying one’s right to access this medium would certainly limit one’s ability to acquire information, especially since the internet is now the gateway to so many faucets that have become part of our techno-fabric, i.e. banking, shopping, social connections, libraries, entertainment, etc., creating a populated “global village.”(McLauhan)

Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee is credited for inventing the Internet in 1989. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee) This weaving madness of billions of links and interconnectivity seems to go on forever and would probably take a life time to read through every single page and posting. And, what would the Internet be, if you didn’t have the right to read my blog?

So, because the Internet exists, does this mean you have the right to access it? From the business professional to the prisoner in jail, everyone believes they are entitled. After all, living in this world gives us the right to just about everything that’s out there. If the purpose of the Internet is a commodity tool and serves as an information gateway, then by all means give us access. Colin Crawford argues, “A right of access, because it promotes the values of transparency and equal opportunity of use, would reinforce the Internet’s more socially useful aspects…What is required is to initiate a public conversation about the extent of the popular right of access to cyber-content, defining clearly the degree of openness required when a party offers its content to the public. In addition, it is essential to provide legislative guarantees that no individual can be denied access to cyber-content on the basis of membership in a protected class.” (Crawford, 2003, p. 259)

The Internet is a community, and rightly so a village. “In a matter of very few years, the Internet has consolidated itself as a very powerful platform that has changed the way we do business, and the way we communicate. The Internet, as no other communication medium, has given an International or, if you prefer, a ‘Globalized’ dimension to the world. Internet has become the Universal source of information for millions of people, at home, at school, and at work.” (http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm) The web construction is credited to linking people together from every corner of the global. It is a powerful medium that has generated enormous interest, so much so that many people put their faith in this medium. They do online banking, submit credit card information, upload pictures of themselves and really become transparent. For me, I have reservations regarding this transparency, because with every technology there seems to be worms and we certainly have had our fair share of corruption on the web. Individuals have used this tool to manipulate and cause harm to others, secured systems have been broken into; private information such as credit cards and social security numbers have been stolen, and countless amounts of corruption have taken place.

There are many sub villages to the web, which I will refer to as “locations.” These various “locations” contribute information on an array of offerings, but each place that you visit, records your presence. There is actually limited privacy, if any on the web. Unfortunately, we are mesmerized by this limitless scope of possibilities and we take a lot for granted. I think we should adhere to the counsel of Neil Postman, “When we admit a new technology to the culture, we must do so with our eyes wide open.” (Postman, 1993, p. 7) Even though the medium was developed for positive renditions, there are not so nice people in our village that have found ways to corrupt it. So, beware!

While the Internet is a construction of a global village it is also the destruction of a community, mainly our kids. They spend hours on the Internet unsupervised, i.e. Facebook and other social networks, emailing, browsing sites, uploading pictures and absorbing unhealthy information. I have to agree with Bill O’Reily when he said, “The Internet is profoundly changing the behavior of American children and stunting their emotional growth…. It is a high-tech ‘Lord of the Flies,’ a free-for-all of destructive behavior driven by millions of innocuous-looking machines that sit openly in family rooms all across the country. Here’s an instant message every parent should understand: The situation is dire.” (http://www.billoreilly.com/newslettercolumn?pid=22471)

My grandmother used to call the television set the “idiot box” because to her, it was such a distraction and was not a tool for learning. She’s now deceased; passed away years before the Internet took off. I’m not sure what she would call this new medium if she were alive today, hopefully she would have seen the positive value in how the internet helped shape our world. “A new technology does not add or subtract something, it changes everything.” (Postman, 1993, p. 18)

In spite of the worms there are redeeming values. Many criminals have been caught thanks to the Internet; information is instant; this medium offers professionals, such as myself, the opportunity to further my education on-line without having to attend a “brick and mortar” classroom; and it has shrunk the world. Image, communicating with someone in “real time” who lives half way around the world and getting an immediate response. It is an amazing tool that if used correctly, greatly enhances our communication.

References:

Crawford, Colin. (2003) Cyberplace: Defining a Right to Internet Access Through Public Accommodation Law. Temple Law Review, Vol. 76, pp. 225-276, Summer 2003 Georgia State University - College of Law; Georgia State University College of Law. Retrieved May 30, 2009, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=518525

McLauhan, Marshall (1911-1980) reintroduced the term, “global village.” McLauhan’s web site states it came from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake or else from P. Wyndham Lewis’s America and Cosmic Man. Retrieved May 30, 2009, http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/faqs.html

Postman, Neil. (1993) Technology, The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Vintage Books. A Division f Random House, Inc., New York.