When the Internet was first sprawled out before us, it was a nerd’s playground. I was one of them, surfing the ultra-slow net with a 14.4 modem. The cost of a 28.8, at the time, was staggering. Having played about with Bulletin Boards, this was a sudden expanse of information. I want to write about the effect of it on everyone. There is a sense of plague that has hit us, but there might be hope.
I remember an interview with Will-I-Am, on television. He spoke about his work, but also retorted with an interesting sentence after he was asked about internet safety. He stated that, ‘The Internet is still young.’ This resonated with me, as I had been there from the early days when the average person wouldn’t go near it. Once the 2000s came around, more people were enjoying it with Social Media being the game changer by the middle of the decade.
So what is the issue. The plague is not the beauty of such information at hand, it is the nature of how some poeple are. A news article that has recently been played on the radio, talks about the way that children can never be safe from bad imagery and undesirable people. I wonder if this will ever be solved. An early realisation of the Net was that it can not be policed. Modern technology does a great job, but still misses short of the target.
Will our young ever be safe? Can we find places to trust, online? There is good in the world, if you look around, you will see it. Younglings will always battle against one another, it’s almost a right of passage. EE’s advert says, ‘It is hard to be young and on a mobile phone.’ This is sadly true. I am always scared of issues that my own daughters have to face. Misogyny has reared its ugly head again, at least in the news, anyway. It’s always there, and we need to teach the ideal of equality and love for all. Flower Power may have long gone, but the concept is still the same. As a parent that has already had to face two counts of grooming, online, I would love to see the Internet mature to a better state. One where we can all be without the need for anxiety and hate. Even a smidgen would surfice. Let’s all come together to make a better and fairer world!
