Oh dear
The internet is shit.
Unfortunately, every single sentence on page 10 hit home.
But I'm not *ready* to move on... I *like* Google...
[wanders off, whining quietly]
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
But...
but..
I couldn't live without Google. Google is the blood pumping through the arteries and veins of my online existence! Google is LIFE!
The internet is not shit. Sure, a lot of what's on the internet is shit. No argument with that at all. There's also a heck of a lot that's still pretty damn wonderful. Ignoring that entirely, the internet itself - the network of cabling and computers and servers and the software running it all and allowing this free and rapid dissemination of information and ideas - is FUCKING INCREDIBLE! It was when it was first proposed. It still was when it first became widely adopted. It still is as it becomes indispensable to the contemporary Western way of life. Like roads and radio, telephone and television, one should never get confused between the conduit and what it delivers. The first should be rated independant of the second. That's why I think it's a load of drek.
Yup. I was actually just set to post a medium-long afterthought on this issue yesterday morning, when events overtook me and I wasn't so concerned any more. But actually that was in itself a great illustration of why the internet is NOT shit: like everyone else, I was constantly surfing for news, comparing coverage from different sites, checking travel info, looking at what bloggers were saying. It may not have been absolutely necessary - especially that last part - but it was pretty damn efficient.
And Google is a tool, like any other; I don't think there's any reason to pooh-pooh online research. No journalist or serious researcher would rely on random sites, but we've all become pretty adept at assessing the reliability of online sources. "I read it on the internet" may be suspect; "I read it on the BBC/the official whatever page" is not. The internet is a tool. There is crap content, there is excellent content. The medium is not the message.
Post a Comment