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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 05:33 AM Jun 2014

Why the Internet Hasn’t Transformed Politics (Yet)

http://www.alternet.org/books/why-internet-hasnt-transformed-politics-yet



I’ve 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 we’re still wondering if things could be a little bit better. Couldn’t there be more trains? Couldn’t 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? Don’t get me wrong, I love the app, but it didn’t 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 yes—you 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 child’s school, or choosing a more effective elected representative? Would you still say yes?

In Micah Sifry’s new book, The Big Disconnect: Why the Internet Hasn’t 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
The internet has destroyed millions of jobs. bradla Jun 2014 #1
We knew the internet would destroy millions of jobs. unrepentant progress Jun 2014 #2
this PowerToThePeople Jun 2014 #3
 

bradla

(89 posts)
1. The internet has destroyed millions of jobs.
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 05:40 AM
Jun 2014

This is my opinion. It has also allowed people to be mean spirited and hateful towards others while hiding their identity.

2. We knew the internet would destroy millions of jobs.
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 08:34 AM
Jun 2014

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
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 08:44 AM
Jun 2014
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.
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