It has been said that ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’. Certainly the written word, with its ability to tell our stories and transmit ideas, is a powerful thing indeed. But it is more than just writing that allows thousands to read these words; it is the internet that makes them accessible.
“For much of history, most people didn’t have the time, money or leisure to be able to learn how to read or write, so that was left to the monks and scholars. But by 1439, Johannes Gutenberg came up with an improvement to that technology: the moveable type printing press. Now people didn’t have to copy out manuscripts by hand; they could reproduce them mechanically,” recounted James Corbett in his TedxGroningen talk in the Netherlands. “Suddenly reading and writing wasn’t the special purview of the educated elite class. It was for the masses. The printing press changed the way we saw the world.”
Gutenberg’s printing press was inarguably revolutionary, and it is nearly impossible to chart the course of human ingenuity from that point without seeing the influence it has had on our history. It widened the door of communication, but perhaps it could be argued that accessibility of information was still limited to those with money to buy books and with the education to read them.
Until the advent of radio and film. Suddenly humans had a whole new medium with which to tell their stories and communicate important ideas. People began relying on television and film rapidly, not just for entertainment, but as a source of information and knowledge of current events. Those with the right means suddenly had a way of reaching a wider audience than ever before.
“These mass communication technologies, too, had their limitations. After all, these newspaper printing presses and radio stations and television broadcast networks are enormously expensive to own and operate,” continued Corbett. “By 1983, just 50 companies controlled 90 percent of the media that Americans read, saw or heard on a daily basis. By 2014, that number had shrunk to just five corporations. This is the information bottleneck.”
The obvious problem with this system is that a mere handful of wealthy, powerful people decide what information is worthy of disseminating among the masses. Further complicating the matter is the conflict of interest created by wealthy, powerful advertisers who might want certain information to never reach the masses, or at the very least, want it to be cast in a particular light.
And then came the internet…
For those who have an internet connection, a wealth of information lies at their fingertips. One can exchange recipes with someone across the world, research obscure bits of human history, learn a foreign language or watch a video on almost any topic imaginable.
But more than this, they can contribute. Someone can write a blog, post a video of an authority figure doing something untoward, teach someone a foreign language or new dance move, organize a march or fundraiser or check the accuracy of what they are being told. It does nothing short of empowering everyone who has access to it.
“We use the internet to supplant the media. The internet is the most revolutionary technology since the Gutenberg printing press. Just as Gutenberg made it possible for millions of people to receive a message, now the internet is making it possible for us, for everyone, to send their messages,” Corbett expounded. “This means that for the first time in human history, the average person has just as much of a voice as the wealthiest members of our society… the information bottleneck has been broken. There’s no corporate suit in an office somewhere that’s going to tell us anymore what we do or don’t need to know.”
Well…almost.
In the United States, there is a powerful lobbying group belonging to the largest cable networks and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) pushing the Federal Communications Commission to allow so-called “fast lanes” on the Internet. In other words, certain companies could pay to deliver their content to the end user – that’s you – at a faster, higher quality than everybody else. So while currently you have the ability to look up some Albanian grandmother’s recipe Bakllava and have that page load at the same rate as, say, an advertisement for a popular brand of beer, this “fast lane” system would load the ad no problem, but please hold for that recipe. Enjoy watching the spinning mini icon universally symbolic of frustration.
And if you happen to be perusing more controversial content, well, good luck.
“If we had the technology, if we had the internet during the movement, we could have done more, much more, to bring people together from all around the country, to organize and work together to build the beloved community,” said Civil Rights leader and U.S. Representative, John Lewis. “That is why it is so important for us to protect the Internet.”
The internet is far mightier than any sword, and will continue to be, as long as we choose to keep it that way.
Sources:
http://pontiactribune.com/net-mightier-sword-video/
https://www.aclu.org/net-neutrality
Is their any indication of how this will effect non-Americans or those who don’t use ISP’s from the US? Such as us in the UK, Europe or elsewhere for instance.