Internet Is Not A Threat To Community Pro On-Line: In The Marketplace Of Ideas, Truth Will Prevail

Could people talking to people be bad? If it’s on the Internet, some people would have you believe it is.

Electronic “communities,” where people from around the globe talk via e-mail, draw people away from their real communities, these people say. This new computerized world lets perverts talk to children, allows anarchists to spout off to a massive audience, and causes otherwise productive citizens to turn into wide-eyed zombies who stare at their computer screens until all hours of the morning. It’s a threat to the fiber of our real communities.

That, as Thomas Jefferson might say, is poppycock.

Electronic communications - made easy and available by the development of this international and publicly available computer network - allow millions of people who have never met to exchange ideas and thoughts. They make it easy to create a discussion on any topic with anybody in the world who cares to participate. The Internet allows the formation of virtual communities of special interest groups without the limitations of geography.

Unfortunately, that openness also allows sexual predators to go on the prowl on-line. But perverts have been on the prowl before computers existed. It’s not the computers causing the problem.

The nature of the on-line world also draws people in, almost like an addiction, for hours at a time. But that’s got to be a better use of time than spending hours mindlessly surfing channels on that other tube, television. At least the computerized tube encourages you to think while you’re surfing.

As for the argument that kooks and weirdos can take their message to the masses - so what? That’s what democracy is all about. The naysayers are quick to whine that the kooks and weirdos can post messages that aren’t credible.

Again, so what? If their message is so lacking in credibility, why worry that it will move the masses? Do we panic that the supermarket tabloids predict a space alien will be the next president? Should we panic if the same bizarre message is distributed on-line? Obviously not.

That, in fact, is the premise on which the First Amendment sits. Anybody can say anything; the truth will prevail.

It’s a frightening thought in this day and age, especially if you’ve been viewing the world from an Ivory Tower for 20 years.

, DataTimes MEMO: See also Chris Peck’s opinion under headline “Virtual reality is no substitute for reality”

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