Digital Pulse - Ch 2 - Sec 2 - The Internet: Towards a Deeper Critique

Summary

In this article, the author criticizes the Internet and its proponents for promoting and foisting a technology upon the world that is in many ways reinforcing the divide between the rich and the poor. Central to his argument is the notion that technology is not value neutral, and that the Internet comes with its own embedded ideology that will prevent it from being the tool for democratization and improved quality of life that many believe it will. He bases his critique on 9 issues that are often overlooked in debates about the benefits of this technology.

Key Points

Verzola's critique of the Internet is based on the following nine issues:

1. Market expansion for established information economies – Internet technology is very expensive and the countries most suited to benefit from further expansion of the user base and infrastructure are the already developed countries. This feature is reinforced by the ever-changing nature of the technology and the need for constant investment. Cost vs. time expenditure graphs would reveal a huge series of expenditures superimposed on steadily decreasing marginal costs resulting from the efficiencies and competitiveness derived from the newest technology. Nevertheless the firm must then face a constant downhill investment trap in order to keep up.
2. A hierarchy of access – This investment trap is characteristic of elitist technologies that exclude poor firms and countries that cannot afford the high entry costs and who are then faced with high marginal costs and are left behind. Those who can afford to enter live in a very different world than those who can't. Internet users are faced with a similar hierarchy, between those with no access at one end and those with the very fastest and always on connections who can seek out constant opportunities for arbitrage, to maximize their margins, and to secure vital information. Because of these high entry barriers, developing countries will not be able to leapfrog ahead as technology proponents often claim.
3. Replacing workers with machines – The automation mindset is an inseparable feature of ICT technologies and the intention of automation is job elimination. And while it is not entirely clear whether ICTs will be a net creator or destroyer of jobs, it is clear that the jobs created will be in selective areas. ICTs also create two trends in employment: Working at a Distance, which reduces labour cohesiveness, weakens unions and often excludes workers from traditional social security structures; and Managing at a Distance, which involves simultaneous selective decentralization and centralization and increases contracting out. ICT use will be based on management criteria not labour criteria.
4. Unexplored impacts on physical and mental health – The effect of staring at a computer screen all day and being exposed to so many more sources of radiation are largely unknown. Even more disturbing though is the increasing reliance on software applications to support thought and productive work, many people can no longer write without a word processor, the computer is an integral part of the thinking process. Furthermore, with the promise of virtual reality around the corner, what will become of imaginative thinking and highly symbolic thought? The push to place computers is every school has also led to the sacrifice of many other important elements of the educational system.
5. An interactive idiot box – Early proponents of the TV claimed that it would revolutionize education and learning, but yet it has become known universally as the idiot box and is a source of societal disdain. The controllers of TV turned it into a marketing medium, much the same is happening for the Internet. This, combined with the merging of reality and fantasy (war movies interspersed with news reports of real wars), has contributed to escapism and ignorance. The interactivity of the Internet is also suspect, often amounting to little more than a “click/no click” response.
6. Drawing resources away from real problems – The seductive powers of the Internet have been drawing the best minds away from the most pressing challenges of our time: persistent poverty, disintegration of societies from globalisation, and ecological degradation. While these critical issues go unaddressed, some of the brightest youth occupy their time with programming languages, hacking, and online gaming. The Internet is a very expensive diversion from the most pressing problems.
7. Private space controlled by rentiers – The Internet draws people in away from the public spaces and into privately controlled domains and arenas. While many argued that the Internet had the potential to become a new, much larger public space, the exertion of private control over much of it has eliminated this potential. In cyberspace, individual rights are often circumscribed by far more powerful property rights.
8. Deeply centralist elements – Despite the many claims that paint the Internet as a truly decentralized network free of censorship or control, it is fraught with various centralist elements that negate its democratic claims. These elements include:
   
   • The corporate ownership of hardware and service infrastructures that allow them to force the full costs of expansion on the shoulders of newcomers. This feature is enhanced by increasing market consolidation.
   • The assignment of IP network addresses, a system generally involving large block transfers from large ISPs to smaller ISPs in a top-down fashion.
   • The domain name system (DNS), which is characterized by increasing levels of dispute and “squatting” and administration by publicly unaccountable bodies.
9. Embedded globalist bias – The non-distance dependant nature of price levels in the Internet is effectively a subsidy for globalisation wherein local traffic pays for international traffic. This feature reduces the natural competitive advantage of nearness and makes local communities less relevant and accessible than international ones.

In concluding the author proposes that all of the features combined amount to a deeply ingrained ideology of ICTs and the Internet that is not easily separable from the technology and its daily usage.

Source: Roberto Verzola "The Internet: Towards a Deeper Critique" at Bytesforall.org.