The Role of the Internet

Ever since the invention of the internet, how have our lives change? What is the internet’s role on our life? Well yeah, information exchange has become extremely easy. I know that. But the internet is such a vast entity; there must be countless number of effects on our world. Some are obvious, some... not so much.

Mozorov, the author of the “Google Doctrine,” pointed out a not-so-obvious role of the internet. He wrote that the internet has been overly exaggerated in the Western world that sees the internet as democracy’s best friend. Westerners believed in the Google Doctrine, which is the “enthusiastic belief in the liberating power of technology...in the global fight for freedom.” The Google Doctrine is, in Putnam’ view, false.  Putnam wrote that the internet is a double-edged sword. It can be used by both suppressors and liberators. The role of the internet on democracy will not be easily defined. Putnam further explained that the internet is a tool with missing handle. We can’t control it, nor do we know its effects.

Rosenberg, on the other hand, pointed out a more specific effect of the internet. Rosenberg used the example of Justin Hall to illustrate the consequences of over-sharing. Justin Hall lost friends, jobs, and even intimate partners as a result of posting inappropriate thoughts on his website. The consequences for “putting everything out there” is dire and the internet can potential ruin our lives.

I, however, have a different view on the impacts of the internet. In keeping with the theme of the blog, I believe one of the internet’s roles is to fill our lives with strange words and phrases that are born out of the internet as a result of users trying to abbreviate short words.  Whatever emerges from the virtual world known as the internet is carried over to the real world. As a result, abbreviations like LOL and OMG were added to the oxford dictionary.Someday, our academic papers will be full of ROFL, AFK, BRB, THX, and every other internet slangs.