Week 1: SOCIAL IMPACT OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES

INTERVIEW REPORT:
DISCUSSING THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE
NEW INERNET TECHNOLOGIES

September 2, 2005
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During August 2005 at Quinnipiac University School of Communications, graduate students in a course entitled, “Introduction to Interactive Communications,� participated in an online forum on the sociological effects of new media and society. Three questions were discussed in an online interview:
1. “To what extent do you rely on digital technology for our personal and professional needs?
2. Are you a digital enthusiast or digital skeptic?
3. Do you believe that new information technologies will empower or alienate you from the “real� world?�
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In 1945, Vannevar Bush saw the failure of linear media to reflect structures of complex human thought, and thus was excited about his vision of a global age that could relieve humans from the limitations of linear media. In “Garden of Forking Paths,� Jorges Luis Borges anticipated the possibilities that germination of multiple choices would bring. Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari also reflected on the progress that interconnected nodes would bring. Metadata would connect information around the globe.
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Decades later, Joseph Wizenbaum wrote about the shortcomings of new media after his successful experiment, ELIZA, was seen as the first example of a new form of automated therapy. Wizenbaum was even ignored by other scientists after stating that it did not demonstrate a solution to understanding natural language. He did not want to see humanity coded like autonomous clockwork. Wizenbaum disagreed with other scientists at MIT who completely trusted modern science and supported the ideas of students who felt that not even the best of machines could give significant meaning to their lives.
During Francis Bacon’s time in the Age of Reason, the goal of thought was rationalism. In the twentieth century, common sense and wisdom had been made less legitimate through the dogma attributed to scientific knowledge. In 1992, Hannah Arendt wrote about intelligent Pentagon policymakers who were overly proud of being “rational.� When making decisions, they calculated instead of using basic human intelligence to make judgments. Science had become and addictive drug.
In the 1970’s, Theodor H. Nelson defied the computer elite with his book, “Down with Cybercrud.� In his visionary project, Xanadu, Nelson extolled the future of media and culture. His critics did not believe in a future for a hypertext network until it became widely popular in the 1990’s. Nelson supported the benefits of Computer-Assisted Instruction but also warned that it can be used in an imitative and thoughtless way to continue the mistakes of public education.
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Digital technologies and “fantics� provide society with amazing potential in communication, research, knowledge warehousing, education and many other areas. As with other media and technology, new media can be used in beneficial ways but also in the most harmful and detrimental ways to society with surveillance, phishing, theft of identification, and Internet abusers. I feel enthusiastic yet cautious regarding the use if new media. With human free will, new technology can be used for both empowerment and alienation. A balance in use of digital technologies is healthy for society.
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