On missing the point

Maclean's is a national news magazine in Canada.  They're not the most cutting edge or insightful publication, but they have a fairly broad mainstream readership.  And this week, they've become the latest instance of old media hugely, colossally, missing the point.  Here's their cover article:

Now I realize they're probably trying to be contrarian and raise some hackles to sell some magazines, but come on.  The internet sucks?  Really?

You know, I was originally just going to post the shot of the cover and let it speak for itself, but now I think it deserves a response.  Yes, the internet is filled with porn, and spam, and scammers, and misinformation, and bad people doing bad things, and mean people, and selfish people, and boring people, and crazy people, and the whole enterprise is messy and convoluted and confusing.  But you know what?  That's also what LIFE is like.  And that's why Maclean's is missing the point.

The internet is one of the most powerful forces ever created not because it elevates dialogue to a better place or represents us at our best, but because it allows us to see each other exactly as we are.  It reflects humanity in all its forms, from every corner of the world.  By connecting everyone to everything it allows us to see unfiltered windows onto other people's lives in ways we never have been able to before. And that teaches us important things about the human condition.

Ever since the printing press, media has been centralized and controlled and edited, so the world you're seeing is someone's version of the world.  With the internet you really can get an unfiltered view of the world (of course, you can still choose to rely on others to control and edit for you), and have to navigate your way through it, find communities, share ideas, and build your own view of the world.  That ability changes the power structures.  It changes how information is disseminated.  It changes how we see things.  And yes, that's messy and nasty sometimes, but that is what life is.  Saying the internet sucks is saying life sucks.

Watch this 9-minute video of a random selection of YouTube postings edited together. 

Yes some of the people are boring, or silly, or use bad language.  But I find it really beautiful and inspiring.  And what gives you a better sense of humanity and what regular people are up to... this, or the op/ed page in a news magazine?

The internet sucks?  Please.

Comments

[Rodney]

I've heard this argument before from media critics: "You can't trust anything on the Internet--it's not like regular people actually KNOW anything!" Well, sorry Ivory Tower Dwellers, but us blue collar, truck drivin', used car fixin', bill paying, net surfin', game playin', video rentin', YouTube watchin' slugs make the world go around. Using the Internet allowed me to guide my doctors to the TWO rare genetic disorders that none of them could figure out on their own. I've also downloaded vital information to help my company manufacture better products and create a safer work environment. If someone isn't getting much out of their experience on-line, I suspect they simply lack imagination ... or good judgement.

[Owen]

M-m-m, is our national news mag feeling a touch testy? Maybe a little threatened? About all this issue will do is convince the remaining Luddites that they were right all along. The rest of use will continue to embrace this wonderful new media.

::thrive!
O
P.S. I cam via the nice plug at Typepad's Feature, which I read daily.

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