Webs of Information
I have recently come to the conclusion that I can only think when I write, and quite frankly (as you can see from the blog archive to your right) I haven't been writing much. However, as I was working on an essay several days ago I stumbled upon something that didn't seem quite right. Not to me at least.
A few days ago, in case you did not know, was the World Wide Web's 20th "birthday." In case you didn't know, the World Wide Web is not the same as the internet (click link for further detail). It was on a certain last day of April before I came into existence that the inventors of the World Wide Web decided that it was probably for the best to put their lovely creation out in the public domain. Let me say simply that it was on the 30th of April of the year 1993. The other option these men had in mind was to start a company with their creation. Another was to leave it as the intellectual property of CERN, the birthplace of this wonderful World Wide Web. Before their fateful decision, the World Wide Web was mainly only accessible through universities. Now, imagine for a moment how your life would be if they'd gone for either of those two options. For one, you wouldn't be reading this right now.
Twenty years to me, feels like an incredibly short amount of time. Infinitesimally short really, considering the amount of data that is readily (or not so readily) available on this network of webpages that supposedly span the world (I'm not quite sure antarctica and the pacific ocean have internet). In any case, you'd expect the world to have drastically changed since. And it has, of course. You'd also expect people to change in reaction to it. At least the youth of today would have, you'd expect. The youth of today grew up with the world wide web. This is what confuses me.
I shall not look up statistics or find scholarly articles on this topic today. Or any day. If you feel compelled to do so if my argument is seemingly weak to you, do share your findings though. For now, I think it is sufficient to build an argument on what I've observed (disclaimer: I am not suggesting you write academic papers this way). Here goes.
Because we've grown up with the internet around us, we were exposed to much more information than all previous generations were. The first thing to not do here is compare ourselves with generations before us that did not have such a resource to rely on. Even then when we do, we seem to be failing in comparison. This is my first question. Why is this? Those before us had books. We do too. We also have the world wide web. Instant access, instant communication, from anywhere to anywhere. Instead of excelling at whatever we do, we are just not utilizing this resource the way we should. We all wonder how the older generations managed to graduate *any level of education* without the web. With the aid of the web, why aren't we able to do things at a much higher level? Why is it that people complain that education standards are decreasing? Should it not be the opposite?
Now, onto my next point...
Cultural awareness. You'd think that, having readily accessible information about virtually everyone and everywhere, people would be a little more culturally aware than people were before. Long ago, people had no other choice but to make assumptions about the world because 1) That's unfortunately how people function. 2) The world wasn't so very accessible. This is not saying that every person today has the ability to jump on a plane at any given moment and travel wherever he may wish, but that he does have the ability to search the World Wide Web for all he wishes to know (assuming said person has access to the internet). Unfortunately, I don't think people are doing better at making assumptions today than people did 20 years ago.
The stereotypes people have of different groups are largely the result of misinformation. The human brain likes to categorize things by nature, and so it is forced to create some stereotype for each group. This matter is out of one's control. The degree of inaccuracy in these stereotypes are the subject of scrutiny here. With the surplus of information one finds on the World Wide Web, it should be unthinkable to be still living among people who think Arabs ride camels as their main mode of transport, for just one example. You would assume that people who have the ability to google something, actually do go ahead and google instead of assuming. And yes, I used assume here twice on purpose. So why is this? Why do such stereotypes persist? Stereotyping is a requirement of the human brain. But I believe stereotypes that are a little more politically correct are in order.
Also, how much good has the World Wide Web really done us? There are wonderful things, such as the marvelous wikipedia which surprisingly still runs on donations and is still prohibited from appearing on our bibliography pages. The amazing search engine that made people stick their noses to their screens on a fateful April Fool's day only weeks ago. And well, there are many other lovely websites we all benefit from. How much more time do we spend "not benefiting" on the web though? Too much time is being spent on websites like youtube (I'm not saying youtube is not useful but most of what's on it is not), 9gag, tumblr, facebook, etc. Again, I don't know where I'm trying to go with this but I hope you get my point because I'm not sure I get my own point. I think I should refrain from saying more.
What I'm basically trying to say, is that even though the World Wide Web has really given us so many resources we find indispensable today, we're just not using it correctly. Or so I believe. Something is just not working out correctly. You might say that things take more than a generation to change, but I don't think that's the answer. I'm trying to call for discussion. Someone at least tell me why there appears to be no increase in cultural awareness among the general public. Tell me why education standards are in downfall when we live the era of the free encyclopedia that has pages on almost everything (no really, everything). At least, think with me.
Something is going wrong, and it might very well be that as the means of "time-wasting" and having fun increase, everything else that entices the mind to think takes the back seat. And so as entertainment industries continue to evolve.. humanity is very much headed towards self-destruction. (I have a feeling this short paragraph is very out of place. My apologies)
This is what I think. It is not about the resources one has, but how one utilizes them. It's not about what you can do, but what you actually venture out to do. It's about how you think, and what you choose to think about. Ultimately, it is how curious you are about the truth of all that surrounds you.
A few days ago, in case you did not know, was the World Wide Web's 20th "birthday." In case you didn't know, the World Wide Web is not the same as the internet (click link for further detail). It was on a certain last day of April before I came into existence that the inventors of the World Wide Web decided that it was probably for the best to put their lovely creation out in the public domain. Let me say simply that it was on the 30th of April of the year 1993. The other option these men had in mind was to start a company with their creation. Another was to leave it as the intellectual property of CERN, the birthplace of this wonderful World Wide Web. Before their fateful decision, the World Wide Web was mainly only accessible through universities. Now, imagine for a moment how your life would be if they'd gone for either of those two options. For one, you wouldn't be reading this right now.
Twenty years to me, feels like an incredibly short amount of time. Infinitesimally short really, considering the amount of data that is readily (or not so readily) available on this network of webpages that supposedly span the world (I'm not quite sure antarctica and the pacific ocean have internet). In any case, you'd expect the world to have drastically changed since. And it has, of course. You'd also expect people to change in reaction to it. At least the youth of today would have, you'd expect. The youth of today grew up with the world wide web. This is what confuses me.
I shall not look up statistics or find scholarly articles on this topic today. Or any day. If you feel compelled to do so if my argument is seemingly weak to you, do share your findings though. For now, I think it is sufficient to build an argument on what I've observed (disclaimer: I am not suggesting you write academic papers this way). Here goes.
Because we've grown up with the internet around us, we were exposed to much more information than all previous generations were. The first thing to not do here is compare ourselves with generations before us that did not have such a resource to rely on. Even then when we do, we seem to be failing in comparison. This is my first question. Why is this? Those before us had books. We do too. We also have the world wide web. Instant access, instant communication, from anywhere to anywhere. Instead of excelling at whatever we do, we are just not utilizing this resource the way we should. We all wonder how the older generations managed to graduate *any level of education* without the web. With the aid of the web, why aren't we able to do things at a much higher level? Why is it that people complain that education standards are decreasing? Should it not be the opposite?
Now, onto my next point...
Cultural awareness. You'd think that, having readily accessible information about virtually everyone and everywhere, people would be a little more culturally aware than people were before. Long ago, people had no other choice but to make assumptions about the world because 1) That's unfortunately how people function. 2) The world wasn't so very accessible. This is not saying that every person today has the ability to jump on a plane at any given moment and travel wherever he may wish, but that he does have the ability to search the World Wide Web for all he wishes to know (assuming said person has access to the internet). Unfortunately, I don't think people are doing better at making assumptions today than people did 20 years ago.
The stereotypes people have of different groups are largely the result of misinformation. The human brain likes to categorize things by nature, and so it is forced to create some stereotype for each group. This matter is out of one's control. The degree of inaccuracy in these stereotypes are the subject of scrutiny here. With the surplus of information one finds on the World Wide Web, it should be unthinkable to be still living among people who think Arabs ride camels as their main mode of transport, for just one example. You would assume that people who have the ability to google something, actually do go ahead and google instead of assuming. And yes, I used assume here twice on purpose. So why is this? Why do such stereotypes persist? Stereotyping is a requirement of the human brain. But I believe stereotypes that are a little more politically correct are in order.
Also, how much good has the World Wide Web really done us? There are wonderful things, such as the marvelous wikipedia which surprisingly still runs on donations and is still prohibited from appearing on our bibliography pages. The amazing search engine that made people stick their noses to their screens on a fateful April Fool's day only weeks ago. And well, there are many other lovely websites we all benefit from. How much more time do we spend "not benefiting" on the web though? Too much time is being spent on websites like youtube (I'm not saying youtube is not useful but most of what's on it is not), 9gag, tumblr, facebook, etc. Again, I don't know where I'm trying to go with this but I hope you get my point because I'm not sure I get my own point. I think I should refrain from saying more.
What I'm basically trying to say, is that even though the World Wide Web has really given us so many resources we find indispensable today, we're just not using it correctly. Or so I believe. Something is just not working out correctly. You might say that things take more than a generation to change, but I don't think that's the answer. I'm trying to call for discussion. Someone at least tell me why there appears to be no increase in cultural awareness among the general public. Tell me why education standards are in downfall when we live the era of the free encyclopedia that has pages on almost everything (no really, everything). At least, think with me.
Something is going wrong, and it might very well be that as the means of "time-wasting" and having fun increase, everything else that entices the mind to think takes the back seat. And so as entertainment industries continue to evolve.. humanity is very much headed towards self-destruction. (I have a feeling this short paragraph is very out of place. My apologies)
This is what I think. It is not about the resources one has, but how one utilizes them. It's not about what you can do, but what you actually venture out to do. It's about how you think, and what you choose to think about. Ultimately, it is how curious you are about the truth of all that surrounds you.
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