3 Questions You Should Ask about Internet Health

I recently had the honor of attending a presentation on Internet Health by Dr. Robert Friedman, Portfolio Strategist for the Mozilla Foundation.

I’m sure you’re sitting there raising your eyebrows skeptically at the screen right now, just like I was. I had no idea what “internet health” really was and (more importantly) why I should even care. But as Dr. Friedman started talking…my eyes were suddenly WIDE OPEN. Holy smokes, there is so much that I was unaware of — I even started questioning how deep this rabbit hole goes. I wanted to share with you folks the 3 questions that came to mind and why it matters to me in hopes that this might resonate with you, but I encourage all of you to check out the slide deck at the link above.

1. Why is Facebook Considered the Internet in Other Countries?

Facebook’s reach is enormous, with more than 1.7 billion active users. This is why, sadly, when most of the world thinks of the internet, they immediately think of Facebook. Considering that Facebook is probably going to continue to grow exponentially with even more users over my lifetime, this statistic starts to scare me.

When I was traveling in China, over half of the sites that I wanted to access were restricted. I didn’t even recognize or was unaware of the websites that most of the people in China were using. Scary, right? The perception of what the internet “is” depending on what sites are used most commonly is a powerful responsibility, but it also pushes sites to structure their content and your own data in ways that provide them with significant leverage. How many times have people told you that Google is basically the internet because it’s the common default browser and most people only go on the internet to access information?

Do we want to continue to this frightening trend where large populations of the world are given access to the internet, but only through monopolized applications like Google and Facebook? Many of us know that the internet is so much more than just that, but imagine what it could be if everyone understood that.

2. I’m Web Literate, Right?

In my experience, web literacy sits on a pretty side spectrum based on initial exposure and experience with the internet. I began my relationship with the internet at 10, as part of a Computer Club for Girls. By conducting research and learning how to use certain encyclopedia programs, we began to understand some of the incredible resources available to us online. Soon after that, the internet blew up and the reliability of information was called into question. Anybody could basically say or post anything they wanted online, and someone else could misunderstand it as truth without bothering to figure out if it actually was true.

I saw this statistic on the Mozilla Foundation website: “82% of American middle-schoolers assessed couldn’t tell the difference between an ad labeled ‘sponsored content’ and a real news story on a website,” per a Stanford University study. How crazy is that? Are students even learning web literacy anymore? I know I’m having conversations on the daily with my own personal network discussing all the curated material that we are bombarded with on our own social media homepages, but imagine trying to navigate through that information without a background in critical analysis or web research — I’m sure it can be intimidating.

3. Who Owns My Data?

I openly admit that I never really considered how every email address I put in a form on a website is actually a piece of my own personal data. Obviously my email address is personal information, but it never occurred to me that by tracking that information business could stand to profit and possibly affect my user experience. We all hear about how airline websites track customers’ recent searches and how shopping websites know exactly what kinds of other products you’ve purchased online, like the dozens of times I’ve gotten black leggings online. (From where I stand, leggings are legit pants…comfort is key.)

Now imagine every interaction that you’ve had since you started going online and where all that data is potentially stored. Over time, that information has probably been bought and sold by countless companies, but there are almost no restrictions to ensure that companies are responsible with your information. It’s up to us to ensure that companies keep our data safe.

Think again about my first question on how people view the internet and Facebook’s apparent global monopoly. How are we holding them accountable? Are we even doing that? Do we even know how to start? Sure, in a crazy storm of internet health rage you could delete your Facebook, but would that even make a difference?

Yes, if we all took that action at the same time and Facebook’s total users dropped from 1.7 billion to 0.7 billion, it would definitely have some implications, but that’s not the point. The point is to fully understand what constitutes your data, who has access to it, and how they are using it. Transparency is key.

If you’re not sure where to start, you can check out this awesome toolkit.

Obviously this issue can feel overwhelming. It’s a lot to take in, and as an individual it’s easy to feel powerless in the face of huge companies like Google and Facebook, but that’s exactly the kind of thing events like civic hackathons are meant to address — giving people agency for change and the tools to start change in their lives.

I think it’s important for all of us to understand more about what internet health means and how to cultivate it. This knowledge gives you (the user) the chance to be an advocate and to help protect this crucial data from corruption and manipulation.

I’m still in the learning stages of all this and figuring out how I can best be part of the movement to shape internet health for the benefit of everyone. I encourage you to join me on this journey, treat yourself to an espresso, and dive deep into understanding your data. I’d love to hear from you about your journey as well — you can send me an email here or reach out here and we can compare notes!

Photo Credit: Mozilla Foundation

I’ll also be writing another post soon after I do some more processing on how to start assessing your data and to keep you updated on my transition of data woke-ness.