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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy the Internet Hasn’t Transformed Politics (Yet)
http://www.alternet.org/books/why-internet-hasnt-transformed-politics-yetIve just paid for my ticket on New Jersey Transit using the app MyTix, saving me from the tense rush at the ticket machines outside the station. I join the throng of people waiting on the platform and--by sheer luck--the train stops in front of me. I manage to find a seat, grateful to be so fortunate, because little else has changed. Commuters still fight for parking spaces and seats just as we did when I first started working in the city seven years ago, and were still wondering if things could be a little bit better. Couldnt there be more trains? Couldnt the train open its doors in the same spot every time? How about a queuing system like they have in Taipei to make things more orderly, and more fair? Dont get me wrong, I love the app, but it didnt change the basic misery of riding a train during rush hour on an overcrowded commuter line.
Has the internet made our lives better? Your inclination might be to say yesyou may have recently reconnected with a long lost friend on Facebook, paid a bill online, or, like me, avoided some inconvenience through a new app. But what about the fundamental structures that affect your well being, such as improving your work-life balance, bettering your childs school, or choosing a more effective elected representative? Would you still say yes?
In Micah Sifrys new book, The Big Disconnect: Why the Internet Hasnt Transformed Politics (Yet), the answer is a resounding no. The internet has not empowered you to make decisions about own your life, and it may have made it worse by filling our minds with gobbledygook:
The Internet has made it easier to find the others, but it is also making it harder to bind with each other with common focus. We collectively send out far more noise than signal, and we listen far less than we talk. We may not like to admit it, but our digital tools are shaping us far more than we are using them to reshape the world.
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Why the Internet Hasn’t Transformed Politics (Yet) (Original Post)
xchrom
Jun 2014
OP
bradla
(89 posts)1. The internet has destroyed millions of jobs.
This is my opinion. It has also allowed people to be mean spirited and hateful towards others while hiding their identity.
unrepentant progress
(611 posts)2. We knew the internet would destroy millions of jobs.
We knew it all the way back in the 1970s, and suspected increasing automation (the pre-digital computer term) would do so all the way back to the 1930s. And we welcomed it. We desired it.
The problem was we also thought that automation, computerization, and ecommerce would lead to a golden age where everybody shared in the profits of skyrocketing productivity, and a post-scarcity society. Boy, were we ever wrong.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)3. this
The problem was we also thought that automation, computerization, and ecommerce would lead to a golden age where everybody shared in the profits of skyrocketing productivity, and a post-scarcity society. Boy, were we ever wrong.
The fruits of human labor have not been distributed evenly enough. Very few reap huge benifits, while many are cast out into the streets with nothing.