This article focuses on the idea that our social environment shapes our consciousness more significantly than the other way around, or that our circumstances dictate much of our behavior. The author goes on to say that in turn, people's actions and ideas on the internet will be certainly different or at least more extreme than they would be in real life, due to our tendency to dehumanize people when they are represented in a cyber context as opposed to in real life. The anonymity of the Internet is something that causes people to express "uncharitable nastiness". She also goes on to discuss how people tend to be selective in seeking information that confirms their ideals, and the Internet provides enough material to validate any number of platforms, no matter how crazy. In this way, the Internet, while providing access to a wealth of diverse information, is not necessarily promoting tolerance if people are only seeking out confirmation of and consistency with their own existing views.
In our class discussion, we talked about how access to and representation on the Internet was an important, even essential quality in order for the Internet to fulfill the "global community" attribute that so many have ascribed to it. The knowledge must be accessable to everyone, and the everyone must have a voice...not just those in power. However, this article takes it a step further, in asking if the environment afforded by the Internet will foster peace and understanding above all, or will the presence of distortion and contention be an equally weighted implication?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11484673
While I like this article and some of the ideas it discusses, the idea that the internet should get a Nobel Peace Prize is laughable. While the internet has been used for many peaceful and helpful ends, it has also been used to spread hate and cause turmoil. Not only that, but the people who use the internet for good are the ones who deserve peace prizes. The internet did not make them do good things, they made the internet do good things. The internet's character is determined by that of its users. It has no character of its own.
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