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The Arguments Against

I am sure you have heard your friends and co-workers tell you that the Internet is addictive, causes illiteracy, and prevents people from truly communicating with one another.  I am sure you have heard that the Internet violates not just your privacy but that of British spies as well.  And the price of stamps keeps going up because even older Americans prefer sending e-mails to sending old-fashioned letters.  Nonetheless, I would argue that there is a good case to be made the Internet as well.  One could start by observing that the Internet has transformed a nation previously addicted to television into a nation of writers and readers.

Internet and Literacy

You don’t have to go as far as Forbes and claim that the Internet saved literacy in order to see the many beneficial outcomes of this (relatively) new communications medium.  Not only do we write more than we used to but we write to more people, are exposed to more cultures and more books than we could ever have been exposed to before Internet’s advent.  One could argue that the Internet makes it more likely that we will correspond with people of a similar ideological persuasion.  However, I wonder if that is really the case.

Internet and Political Opinion

I have been a liberal all my life.  As a result, I have, over the years, subscribed to the New York Times, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and Dissent.  I have been reading these publications long before I had access to the Internet on a 24/7 basis and I think it’s fair to say that they have shaped my political thinking.

What changed once I acquired virtually unrestricted access to the Internet is not the ideological quality of my reading (I still frequent and subscribe to left-of-center sites and print publications) but the breadth of my reading.  These days, I read not only the established liberal publications I have named, but also left-of-center blogs such as Harry’s Place and Saudi Jeans.  I have even gotten (really good) book recommendations on such blogs.  And, of course, I have started corresponding with many of the people I have “met” online.

Internet and Diversity

People in different countries, speaking from different cultures and time zones.  Perhaps for some, it is this awareness and acceptance of people who are “not like us” that makes a book club like this possible.  And as for the Internet causing people to become anti-social – has anyone making this argument checked out Meetup?  We have—which is how we found our Dungeons & Dragons groups.

A Debate about a Fait Accompli?

In a sense of course this debate about the pros and cons of the Internet is pointless.  With three out of four Americans having access to the Internet in 2004 and with 49 percent of Americans surfing the Internet using a high-speed connection, I think it’s pretty safe to say that whether you are for it or against it, the Internet is here to stay.