Back
in 2005 (geez, I've been writing this for that long?), I offered my
opinion of so-called internet
“communities”. Well, nothing that has happened in the
intervening years has changed my opinion. In fact, the internet has
lived down to my expectations spectacularly.
Part
of the problem, of course, is the fallacy of anonymity. If you want
to bring out the worst in people, allow them to feel that there is no
way to trace evil comments or actions to them. You will then find
out that people who normally would never express an evil thought
publicly can spit out huge amounts of vituperation in a heartbeat. I
discussed this to some extent in my last
post.
But
that just involved speech. The internet has also become a cesspool
for activities that range from the appalling to the totally illegal.
The irony is that, thanks to hackers, most of whom are doing it for
potential monetary rewards, people engaging in unwholesome
activities are getting caught, their information getting leaked to
the world.
The
most recent example involves some site called Ashley Madison. As I
understand it, the site is a place where people in existing
relationships (including being married) can cheat on their partners.
What,
dating sites aren't good enough anymore?
At
any rate, there is much hue and cry about this, as much about what
kind of person uses this site as about the fact that it was hacked.
One
article, though, had a subheadline that put it into a nutshell:
"The internet isn’t what we thought it was. Our ignorance will lead to more than heartbreak."
I
don't know what the author thought the internet is, but I can tell
you what it wasn't supposed to be. It wasn't intended to be a place
to do bad things. The founders of the Usenet and World Wide Web
intended for the system to be a source for information, for exchange
of ideas, for assistance with technical issues, for open debate in a
civil fashion.
All
that got lost fairly quickly.
The
Usenet was a large collection of newsgroups on every topic under the
sun. Unfortunately, it devolved over time into a source to download
copyrighted material, lampoon inexperienced users (an aol.com e-mail
address was death), and engage in flame wars because someone had the
temerity not to agree with the groups prevailing opinion. For
example, I am reasonably certain that one of the reasons Linux didn't
get more mainstream was that if you went to Linux forums to try to
learn something and asked an innocent “newbie” question, you
didn't get an answer. You got slammed by the experts who should have
been offering assistance.
When
the Usenet died, there were plenty of places to offer opinions and
comments. If the site wasn't moderated, it didn't take long for the
trolls to take over. Trolls used to just be annoying; now they go in
for death threats.
The
internet has not been a really safe place for a long time. Hackers
have been breaking into web sites and their associated databases
almost since online commerce began. Chances are pretty good that one
or more of your accounts has fallen into the hands of hackers and
been sold to sites that specialize in selling that information.
Of
course, there are occasionally splashing articles of some hacker
being convicted and sent up the river for a while, but they are just
the tip of the iceberg. Worse, the same governments trying to catch
the hackers are using their tools to find out what we're up to.
There
is so much we can do online. We can buy all kinds of legal stuff.
We can download tons of free non-copyright protected material. We
can watch movies (although watching a movie on a little bitty phone
screen while ignoring the 72” tv on the wall is beyond me). The
stuff we can do that is good is almost limitless.
It's
also a very dangerous place with all sorts of the worst of humanity
doing bad things. So anything one does online has to be done with
caution. The internet is not a walk in the park; it's a trip though
a minefield. Avoid the mines and you're okay. Do something foolish
(like signing up for a cheat-on-your-partner website) and bad things
(TM) can happen.
There's
no going back to the good old days, but we can at least do our best
not to make these days worse.