Just Walk Away: Internet And Reality
Viktoria Michaelis
December 19, 2010
It was a wonderful idea: write a small piece of code which allows people across the world to communicate with one another in real time, exchange information, make contacts, learn. Tim Berners-Lee effectively created what we fondly call the Internet, along with Robert Cailliau and an unnamed student from CERN, on 25 December 1990 with the first successful communication between two systems. On this day the first browser was born and a fledgling Internet began its rise to unbridled success, to what we have today, a mass medium covering every imaginable facet of our world with access for anyone and everyone even in the most remote corners of the globe. What he probably could never have anticipated is the effect it would have upon our society as a whole: on the way companies conduct their business; governments control their citizens; individuals interact one with another. It is this last area, individual communication, which is the theme for my article today.
The Internet allows us, as individuals, to communicate with others regardless of where they are at any time of the day or night. It gives us access to a wealth of information, opinions and news right through the entire spectrum of all imaginable possibilities, from dissertations on Quantum physics to the simplest of games, from classic literature and film to niche interests such as thimble-collecting or Vegan cooking. It also brings us the darker side of our various societies, an underworld which, in our normal day-to-day existences, we are able to avoid effortlessly. The almost unbridled freedom of the Internet, its greatest advantage, is also our biggest danger.
As an eighteen year old avid Blogger, member of several online communities and surfer of all that is good and interesting, I am constantly being caught short by the manner in which some otherwise civilized people frame their communications; their e-mails, messages, general contact. For younger people this plunging into the darkest depths of an almost real world they have never experienced can be something of a culture shock: having a sixty year old man make obscene suggestions through a community message system; being hounded by anonymous followers, stalked and verbally abused; confronted with stressful, frightening situations no one can properly prepare them for. For many, fortunately still a small minority, the Internet has become a place to let themselves go, to forget who they are and with whom they are corresponding, to allow their basest instincts free rein and ignore the common, basic rules of civility and morality. It has become a place where the feelings, emotions and lives of others can be attacked, turned on its head, destroyed.
There is talk of censorship, of preventative measures against such people but, sadly, much of the more practicable proposals will never be attainable; the exploitation of loopholes in well-intentioned laws, insurmountable legislative and jurisdiction problems right down to Internet providers who allow complete anonymity for their clients render the finest words and intentions into hollow, ineffective ideas before they can be agreed upon, let alone implemented.
Any changes need to come from a different direction. Proper hands-on education for the up-and-coming generations of internet users, the instilling of a real sense of what is right and what is wrong, an ethical outlook are all aspects which deserve more than just simple consideration. There is hardly a school in the developed world that does not have a computer room with access to the Internet, hardly a household without some form of Internet access. Parents and teachers should be at the forefront of an education program based exclusively on the interaction with others, on the limitations of Freedom of Speech, on the acceptance of the right of others to hold their own opinions, whether they be the same as ours or widely divergent.
Above all, the new generations need to be shown that the Internet is not a real world in the accepted sense. It is peopled by creatures of flesh and blood, but is impersonal and unfeeling. In this virtual world it is possible to delete messages and mails, to ignore unwanted communication, to pick and choose in a manner almost impossible in normal face-to-face situations, to laugh at someone without them knowing. It is possible to get up from the computer and simply walk away. Perhaps this is the greatest advantage of the Internet, that one can simply leave it alone for a while and come back later or move on to a different area, to another site. The real world, the world which we physically inhabit, doesn't allow this possibility. Children should be educated not only to realize that the person they are contacting is a real person with feelings just the same as their own, but also that the virtual world need have no effect on their daily life. Walking away from the computer, from Internet confrontations and stressful situations, is an option confined to the virtual world. A computer can be rebooted, a life taken is gone forever.
The Internet allows us, as individuals, to communicate with others regardless of where they are at any time of the day or night. It gives us access to a wealth of information, opinions and news right through the entire spectrum of all imaginable possibilities, from dissertations on Quantum physics to the simplest of games, from classic literature and film to niche interests such as thimble-collecting or Vegan cooking. It also brings us the darker side of our various societies, an underworld which, in our normal day-to-day existences, we are able to avoid effortlessly. The almost unbridled freedom of the Internet, its greatest advantage, is also our biggest danger.
As an eighteen year old avid Blogger, member of several online communities and surfer of all that is good and interesting, I am constantly being caught short by the manner in which some otherwise civilized people frame their communications; their e-mails, messages, general contact. For younger people this plunging into the darkest depths of an almost real world they have never experienced can be something of a culture shock: having a sixty year old man make obscene suggestions through a community message system; being hounded by anonymous followers, stalked and verbally abused; confronted with stressful, frightening situations no one can properly prepare them for. For many, fortunately still a small minority, the Internet has become a place to let themselves go, to forget who they are and with whom they are corresponding, to allow their basest instincts free rein and ignore the common, basic rules of civility and morality. It has become a place where the feelings, emotions and lives of others can be attacked, turned on its head, destroyed.
There is talk of censorship, of preventative measures against such people but, sadly, much of the more practicable proposals will never be attainable; the exploitation of loopholes in well-intentioned laws, insurmountable legislative and jurisdiction problems right down to Internet providers who allow complete anonymity for their clients render the finest words and intentions into hollow, ineffective ideas before they can be agreed upon, let alone implemented.
Any changes need to come from a different direction. Proper hands-on education for the up-and-coming generations of internet users, the instilling of a real sense of what is right and what is wrong, an ethical outlook are all aspects which deserve more than just simple consideration. There is hardly a school in the developed world that does not have a computer room with access to the Internet, hardly a household without some form of Internet access. Parents and teachers should be at the forefront of an education program based exclusively on the interaction with others, on the limitations of Freedom of Speech, on the acceptance of the right of others to hold their own opinions, whether they be the same as ours or widely divergent.
Above all, the new generations need to be shown that the Internet is not a real world in the accepted sense. It is peopled by creatures of flesh and blood, but is impersonal and unfeeling. In this virtual world it is possible to delete messages and mails, to ignore unwanted communication, to pick and choose in a manner almost impossible in normal face-to-face situations, to laugh at someone without them knowing. It is possible to get up from the computer and simply walk away. Perhaps this is the greatest advantage of the Internet, that one can simply leave it alone for a while and come back later or move on to a different area, to another site. The real world, the world which we physically inhabit, doesn't allow this possibility. Children should be educated not only to realize that the person they are contacting is a real person with feelings just the same as their own, but also that the virtual world need have no effect on their daily life. Walking away from the computer, from Internet confrontations and stressful situations, is an option confined to the virtual world. A computer can be rebooted, a life taken is gone forever.
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