[Technology could turn many computer users into] electronic shut-ins [detached from real-world problems and experiences – and from society’s disadvantaged] … Digitized encounters with reality can erode the human capacity for significance. Putting faith in reams of data can foster a god-like omniscience, a false sense of being in control and a detachment from the world of physical cause and effect.
Paradoxically, the superhighway may connect us more to other people of similar interests and beliefs. But we’ll have less communication with those who are different. Socially we may find ourselves returning to a form of tribalism, as we separate ourselves along group lines – racial, ethnic, ideological – choosing access to only the information that speaks to our identities and beliefs. There may be more avenues for individual speech but fewer for robust, wide-open debate.
Culturally, we may lose touch with the mainstream. There may be no more mainstream. Politically, we may find ourselves detached from the dialogue. Right now, the president can talk over all three networks to us at the same time. With 500 video channels, that won’t be so easy.
If children’s needs are to be met, the information revolution cannot be seen as just another way to make money; a major priority must be to give all schools the new information technology.
New technology has the potential to divide the haves and have-nots, making its availability to children from all backgrounds crucial.
As a Net user, you start to view yourself as an individual cell in this growing global brain. Online users form connections to learn and grow, as brain cells do. Eventually we’ll develop a global memory, a global ethic.
The common vision is we want to be able to get anything, anytime, anywhere – total ‘net capability … My gut certainty is that there is something important happening here … Instead of mindless chatter, people started having real conversations, developing bonds. It’s not the end-all, but nontheless, it won’t go away.
Modern culture is a classic example of “more is less.” The more detail you’re exposed to, the less room there is in your head, or your soul, to reflect, understand or make sense of anything. You’d be hard-pressed to argue that any of this information has made people feel particularly wise … The moral fabric of the world may have gone several inventions ago.
It’s a constant in American culture, this belief that new technology will either save us or spoil us. It says we like solving our problems with technological fantasies and we fear our moral fiber can’t withstand it … If we’re prisoners, we’re prisoners by our own design. Technology is such a part of our culture, you could argue that it is our culture. Where it goes is where we go, good or bad.
One of the grimmest visions of the information frontier painted by cyberpunk writers, is a world controlled by megalomaniac hackers or even multinational companies who sedate the masses with endless doses of entertainment programs and home-shopping pitches.