Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Of course, the circumstances facing a typical suburban Internet addict are radically
different from those facing a typical inner-city drug addict. For this reason, it is tempting
to dismiss the notion that society could in any way be responsible for the Internet
addiction of some of its members. However, some people use the Internet as a way to
escape into their own world, because in the “real world” they suffer from social isolation
[104]. Perhaps we should reflect on whether any of our actions or inactions make certain
members of our community feel excluded.
The Internet and cellular networks are powerful and flexible tools that support a wide
variety of social interactions. In this chapter we have explored text messaging, email,
chat rooms, and the Web. All of these technologies have had both positive and negative
impacts on society.
Twenty years ago, relatively few people had email accounts. Back then, email ad-
vertising was virtually unheard of. Email users did not have to delete large numbers of
unwanted messages from their mailboxes. On the other hand, email was not too useful
outside work, because most people didn't have it.
Today, well over a billion people have an email account. Most anyone you'd like
to communicate with has an email address. However, the large number of email users
has attracted the attention of direct marketing firms. In the past few years the volume of
unsolicited bulk email (spam) has risen dramatically. Many believe the presence of spam
has harmed the email system, and a variety of steps have been taken to filter out spam
messages before they reach users.
The Web contains over one trillion pages. It contains images of sublime beauty
and shocking cruelty, uplifting poetry and expletive-ridden hate speech, well-organized
encyclopedias and figments of paranoid imaginations. In short, it is a reflection of the
best and the worst of humanity. Web-based social networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter have attracted hundreds of millions of users and created new communication
paradigms. Some point to the use of Facebook and Twitter by participants in the Arab
Spring uprising as evidence that these tools can be powerful agents for social change,
while others think the impact of these tools has been overblown.
Governments have responded to the idea-sharing potential of the Web and social
networking sites in a variety of ways. The most repressive governments have simply made
the Internet inaccessible to their people. Other governments have instituted controls that
prevent certain sites from being accessed. Most governments allow their citizens nearly
universal access to Web sites and Web-based applications.
In the United States, there have been numerous efforts to make pornography in-
accessible to children via the Web. The US Congress passed three laws attempting to
make pornography less accessible to children via the Web. All of these laws raised objec-
tions from civil libertarians, who called them an infringement on free speech rights. The
US Supreme Court ruled the first two laws unconstitutional; it upheld the third.
