Of these internet/social media
thinkers, there seem to be two types; those that seem to focus on what could go
wrong and those that seem to focus more on the incredible things we have done
with the internet and how we can continue and expand those good aspects. When
you strip these issues they focus on down to their base structure, however, it
seems less about the internet and more about human behavior. For example, Evgeny
Morozov talks about how the internet is used by people, how this new cyberspace of social media affects us, how smart objects will influence our behavior, and I’m starting
to see a pattern with others as well. There seems to be so much talk about what
social media and the internet are doing to us – especially from Pariser who, in Filter Bubble, seems to paint social
media as an ominous doom device – that few stop to think about why we choose to
do what we do with our online lives. In the proposed scenario, social media
seems to be the scapegoat for ignorant behavior and early internet plays the
part of the savior, which Morozov seems to assert is a “communal space” that
doesn’t exist anymore. We need to own up to this and realize that these are our
actions and no computer is forcing us to do anything. There needs to be more
focus on why some people choose their filter bubbles, which is an issue that
well predates the internet. Social media is simply one of many tools that makes
homophily easier, but it doesn’t force us to do anything. Humanity is
responsible for its own actions, no matter how evil social media is painted to
be.
