Not long ago, I talked to a group of individuals who had been on the Internet since the very beginning. They had participated in forums, discussion groups, and all sorts of online communication. Back then, everything was quite civil, everyone was polite and sharing information. But just like the truckers in the old days using their CB radios were careful to watch their language, all that changes when a new breed of users comes forth. Today, you wouldn't want your kids to listen to CB radio because of all the bad language being used.
The Internet has become much the same, and if you participate online you'll notice that folks go out of their way to flame you, hurt your reputation, call you mean things, or generally trash anything you say, that they may or may not agree with. Because so many intellectuals were originally online and participated, they noticed the changes, and once those unfortunate changes came they left for higher ground and migrated to other forms of communication away from the malcontents which had taken it over.
In walks social networking and in the last five or six years it has grown by leaps and bounds with users numbering in the billions. That's an incredible number of humans, but humans suffice it to say, can be rather problematic in these types of situations. Often it seems like a free-for-all, and many of those who saw the degradation of this great communication device we call the Internet have chosen to shy away from social networks for this reason, can you really blame them?
An article titled; "Google Chief Betting Big on Social and Mobile - Internet giant focuses on new tools to improve the online experience and increase revenue without being evil" by Glenn Chapman, appeared in Industry Week on April 6, 2012.
Now then, obviously Google wants to remain viable for the vast number of individuals using the Internet, and therefore they have also entered the social networking game. Of course, it would be nice if they could uplift the image, bring the civility back, and return the Internet to what it was supposed to be; a place to exchange ideas, information, and bring people together. Some say social networks do this, however the level of conversation has dummied down the levels at which more intelligent and enlighten individuals would need to be coaxed back to participate.
Indeed, I would submit to you that therein lies the problem. Until we fix that, it's hard to say if more social networks are the answer. One would assume that increased competition would be good for the Internet, and might move things in the correct direction, although if a social networking site's job is to increase user base, chances are they will have to be pragmatic and allow at least some of that nonsense to propagate.
It would be nice if the less than intellectual conversations were corralled in such a way that those who might have been burned in the past would be willing to come back to play again. Otherwise, all we will have this incessant nonsense, big data, and an abundance sound and fury drowning out all the diamonds in the rough, and that would be a shame. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
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