Interesting Reading – The Internet: Brave New World?

I have shocked myself with how excited by this module I am. The digital world is something I have always known about but never really thought about!

Living in the era that I do, I really have no choice but to become digitized; phones, cameras, computers, TV and radio are a part of everyday life. But rather than going through the motions when interacting with technology, this module is forcing me to think and, most importantly, to question.

However, mine isn't the only opinion I am interested in, so along with the suggested reading I will be doing personal studies and further reading to help me really dive into the deep depth of digital.

For this reason I have started to create a new series within my blog called ‘Interesting Reading’ where I will discuss my personal reading that I think supplement my blog posts as well as my further learning in the world of digital cultures.

This week I have been reading and thinking a lot about the internet, the pros and, more closely, the cons. So along with my lecture notes and suggested reading I have been reading “The Internet: Brave New World?” by the Institute of Ideas. This book talks about how the internet has become a part of everyday life, it looks at both the benefits and the fears. It includes many contrasting opinions from a range of academics and professionals. 

There were a lot of issues in the book I had given a little bit of thought to, and a lot more that hadn't crossed my mind at all.

I saw the latter a lot when reading Essay Two by Chris Evans titled ‘Copyright and the net’, although I knew about things like piracy I never knew about issues between intellectual and material property copyright. I also didn't give much thought to just how easy it is to copy something within the internet and, on the other hand, how hard it is to chase down and catch those doing so.

Ruth Dixon’s essay titled ‘The internet: A menace to society?’ was a very interesting read, Dixon talks about how the evolution of the internet has simultaneously changed the evolution of society. Issues from freedom of speech and the ability to be ‘relatively anonymous’ are raised as are the development of how people can use the internet to enhance their knowledge as well as relationships in way ‘previously undreamed of’.

I would recommend this book, not just for someone who would like their eyes opened to corners of the internet they may have given little or no thought to, but also those who have given it a lot of thought but are interested in hearing different points of view. The essays are all fairly short but full of information and opinions, this book is definitely a handy little easy read for everyone.