Distraction or Interaction?

The Internet presents the most powerful tool humanity has ever known - how we wield it will have a dramatic impact on the future. Like never before, the individual has a voice, can make that voice heard and rally support – all from their desktop. While governments and corporations the world over learn how to streamline their Internet use for profitability and propaganda, the average user must find a way to keep up. Because the Internet is flooded with information: art, literature, images, videos, charts, the entire range of creative and informative media is centralized on the web. The Internet provides the first truly open medium; a place where anyone can meet anyone and any task can be discussed. It becomes a question of how we utilize the web – if we succumb to distraction or mobilize to action. If the risk of becoming lost in the Internet's vast catalog of information can be avoided, 21^st century individuals and corporations with focus and drive can wield this powerful tool to reshape the political landscape of the world.

For the individual, distraction is a perilous trap we are all destined to give in to at some point in time. As Nicholas Carr points out, the very nature of the Internet is to “seize our attention only to scatter it” (Carr, 121). Distraction is unavoidable – and for the average user (a term that encompasses nearly half the population) the Internet (and distraction) is a way of life. Carr takes an especially dystopian outlook on this new way of living: “The great danger we face as we become more intimately involved with computers...is that we'll begin to lose our humanness, to sacrifice the very qualities that separate us from machines” (Carr, 201). Thinking about it more constructively, the greatest danger the connected public faces from distraction is in wasting the connectivity. The Internet is more than a source of entertainment: it is a tool for finding and conversing with like-minded individuals. This single invention could easily change the way we approach democratic government, just as it’s changed the way we see music, video, TV, shopping, talking, work, games, dating, and the list goes on.

While distraction is fine, and even fun in doses, a perpetually distracted society will not notice they are being exploited. When a small number of individuals control the media that is doing the distracting, the people who are distracted are in no small way at the hands of that minority. Considered the Egyptian revolution, as detailed in Wael Ghonim’s work Revolution 2.0: “the media's suppression of the physical world made the virtual world a critical alternative for promoting the cause” Ghonim, ch3). The government and the media are working together in Egypt to keep the people distracted. A terrible situation that Ghonim and other Internet users realized could be capitalized on. Because these individuals were less distracted by conventional media and spent their online time in the realm of social media – media produced by the community at large – they could see the potential. By creating a web of connections, they were able to spread their message and subvert the government’s main stream media campaign.

What this highlights is the power of social media and the Internet as a tool. While there have been numerous programs in the past that have varied and incredible uses, never before has one existed that presents this opportunity for connection. Through media like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and the various other platforms out there, individuals are able to share their thoughts, fears, art and lives with a broad range of people across enormous geographic area. The entire world is connected through this technology. As Clay Shirkey notes in his book, Cognitive Surplus, “a democracy is working when its citizens are content enough not to turn out in the streets; when they do, it’s a sign something isn’t right” (Shirkey, 29). The Internet and social media act as a virtual “street” onto which unsatisfied citizens can exercise their democratic rights.

OWS on the real Streets

There is a change underway in the course of the industrialized human’s life. Machines have become increasing important to societies across the world – and none more so than the personal computer, now sized down so small they fit into our pockets. These “universal machines” as Alan Turing called them (qtd. Carr, 87) have profoundly reshaped the way we approached social life, friendship and interaction. The shift is unavoidable for a commercial culture like America’s. Shirkey describes it quite simply: “The change is a matter of simple fact – digital networks make sharing cheap and potential participation nearly universal” (Shirkey, 83). A cheap product with universal appeal and access is a time honored combination in the capitalist world. This is a product that essentially sells itself – but it’s also so much more than that. The Internet, via social media programs, is the tool by which humanity will define itself in the near and possibly distant future.

For most users, it’s hard to appreciate the vast power and potential of the Internet. It’s easy to be distracted, to let our imaginations run wild in the great playground of the Internet. This distraction can be dangerous, as mentioned previously, because when we are distracted we are not as engaged and connected. This danger is exemplified in Google, the uber-company that is slowly creeping into every aspect of the Internet. As Carr says, “Google doesn’t believe that the affairs of citizens are best guided by experts. It believes that those affairs are best guided by software algorithms” (Carr, 151). If people give up their decision making to machines, they also give up some of their ability to think, to decide for themselves what they want. While company’s like Google are always going to be present in this world, an individual awareness of them is the best way to avoid being controlled.

The Internet has become a mainstay of our world. It is the way we connect, the way we shop and the way we play. The potential of the net that is not being fully tapped at this point is the political aspect. The Internet presents the most powerful and simplest method of democratically connecting in history. Ghonim reflects on this at the end of his book, “the Egyptian revolution showed us that the great mass of people who are normally risk-averse, aren’t normally activists, can become extraordinarily brave and active when they unite together as one” (Ghonim, 293). The Internet is the tool for connecting these people, who might otherwise never know of each other’s existence. The potential exists for even greater forms of direct democracy with the Internet as the method of connecting.

The Internet is not going anywhere. It’s a part of our lives now, “such technologies [the map, clock and web] become part of 'the very stuff out of which man builds his world'” says Carr (Carr, qtd Weizenbaum, 200). As we begin building the future the Internet will have a prominent place in that future that everyone, from the CEO to the President to the lowly janitor, can have a part in shaping. Because we are such social creatures, the draw of connectivity and socializing will only increase as we gain more opportunity to connect. It is a question of how we connect: do we come together as the Egyptians did to assert the will of the people on the government, or do we connect to play Wordswith Friends and share silly pictures? There may be no right answer, but the answer that serves the greater population and has the potential to improve our world should be obvious.