Positive Tech: What Can Be Learned From the Good Side of the Internet
Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the 15th century set the base for modern distribution of media and how modern media is consumed. In the early days of the printing press, Gutenberg was widely scrutinized, critics claiming his product and its ability to ‘mass’ produce written media was going to make people dumber; it was thought that people would no longer have to know information, being able to simply look it up in a book. Similarly today, modern technology is criticized for making this generation stupid, spending all of their time on social media. What critics of modern technology do not understand is that the content of the Net goes far beyond this. It allows for global collaboration by connecting people across the world who have similar ideas, it acts as an open space for creativity and choice, and it is helping to bring education to a wider realm of people. Technology has a large, positive impact on the world, yet it is often masked by all of the scrutiny it endures.
As technology has developed, one’s ability to access it has become easier. Personal computers, home internet access, and smartphones have heightened the ability of the individual to get onto the internet. More people have the ability to share their ideas, and to collaborate with others on them. This open collaboration and sharing led to the peer review platform: “Digital media [links] over a billion people into the same network. This linking together in turn lets us tap our cognitive surplus, the trillion hours a year of free time the educated population of the planet has to spend doing things they care about” (Shirky). Peer review is exemplified in the medical resource website PatientsLikeMe, which was created for the purpose of collective collaboration. It is an open platform where patients and doctors can share and build information on illnesses, treatment, and medications. It provides a place for people to read the experiences of others with their illness, what they did to help treat it, and how they lived their lives while sick (Shirky). Without the internet, doctors and physicians with the ability to easily help a broad community seeking their knowledge would not be able to deliver it to them. The net connects people and helps them reach solutions to issues with one another.
School has always caused stress for young people. More recently, kids have been using internet as a method of relieving this stress. It is free space for them to use their creativity, just as Mimi Ito found through her daughter: “Kids feel pressure to not only do well on tests and in school, but in their out-of-school activities as well… Families with the means to do so are investing more and more in enrichment activities to give their kids a leg up… No wonder my daughter wants to mess around with the guitar and the Internet and pursue some interests at a pace that doesn’t feel like the relentlessly scheduled pressure of school and structured activities” (Ito). Today, there is a dissipating job market and an increasing rate of globalization of the jobs that are available, moving them out of the country. Now it takes more to get a job than good grades or a college degree. It is a constant stressor for kids to not only do well in school, but participate in activities out of school that will help them get ahead (Ito). The internet provides time away from these stressful activities, with an open world of possibility and choice. Technology frees kids from the rigorous planning and stress of work and gives them time to enjoy themselves. Without this space for young people to use their creativity towards something of their choosing, their lives would become lost in schedules and agendas, repeating the same actions every day.
Access to quality education is a worldwide struggle. Yet, as with many difficulties the world faces, technology has a way to remedy it. Getting an education or a degree has been made easier with the use of “massive open online courses,” or MOOCs: “MOOCs make education borderless, gender-blind, race-blind, class-blind and bank account-blind. Up to now, quality education — and in some cases, any higher education at all — has been the privilege of the few… Anyone with an internet connection can have access. We hear from thousands of students, many in underserved, developing countries, about how grateful they are for this education” (Agarwal). Preceding MOOCs, only fairly affluent areas with sufficient funding to provide schools could give students a strong education. Many people worldwide do not have access to this because of factors like family income. But with these online courses, valuable schooling can be provided to anyone despite their parents salary, or lackthereof. These platforms are allowing for the breakdown of borders, and for the rising of new opportunities. The internet has given a chance of a prosperous future that past generations lacked because there were no services like these.
Technology influences the everyday lives of humans, from the simplest of tasks to the most complicated, technology assists every step. It is a highly beneficial tool that is used the world over without anyone ever stopping to notice its benefits. It connects people and ideas, lets young people express their creativity in a way they choose, and delivers education to populations without it. Technology’s benefits to humanity are immeasurable. Although critics may say that it is making this generation less adequate both socially and intellectually, technology has a profoundly positive impact on its users.
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