The Internet: Could you be without it?

At a time now difficult to contemplate a world without the Internet, we begin to fear and question our dependence on it. The world defines itself through the Internet, a global interconnected computer network bent on providing a wide array of information resources. Whether it’s from the Britannica on your home shelve, written in today’s paper, or perhaps from your local neighborhood billboard, or a poster voicing some random stranger’s opinion, the Internet would have found no purpose without the more traditional forms of communication and information relay. I firmly believe we could do without it.

The more important question is should we be without it?

The progression of society demands improvement in the ease of accessibility and continued practice of information exchange, no matter the distance or social barrier one might find interacting with another. Such was resolved through social media, rendering every other interaction-based tool redundant. Social networking redefines the more traditional practice of information exchange into a more casual, convenient, yet indirect form of communication; that is to say the Internet still fails to reflect the emotional contentment behind face-to-face interaction.

As it was traditionally, the Internet is to this day no stranger to restriction, restriction commonly imposed on social networking sites or any other domain name which may be perceived as potential instigators of  “destructive behavior”. Most recently these same restrictions were employed in Egypt, which fueled the Egyptian uprising. What spurred from a military conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States during the 1960s quickly turned from a strategic national defense tool into an everyday necessity, and to this day is a significant factor in worldwide conflicts.

The concealment of factual information makes for a misguided and withdrawn society.

The Internet has become, through constant reliance, a symbol of free speech. One political science graduate puts it accordingly when elaborating on the media’s appraisal of Facebook and Twitter during the upheaval in Egypt by saying that, “yes, the Internet does serve as a good organizational tool, which they used to coordinate themselves appropriately, but it also forced the people to react to the issue on a deeper, more personal level”, subsequently it called for one massive gathering in Tahrir Square, finally bringing light to a repressive and authoritarian leadership.

Concluding, the Internet’s progressive influence far outweighs its’ undesirable outcomes; and from this standpoint we do in fact benefit from its’ continued, unlimited use.

Mamadi Diop

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