Maxwell’s Café #5 What Does the Internet Know Anyway?
Consider this, the internet, in something close to it’s current existence, isn’t even 30 years old. AND it’s the reason people under 30 think 30 is old.🤣
Here’s something to consider, the internet has only been around since 1995, and that’s 3 years before Facebook, which is now on its way out. To be clear, I refer to the internet as it is now, or at least something similar to when it was first implemented. I’m talking about anyone and everyone having access to it, that’s all mid to late 90’s, not terribly long ago in the big picture.
There are people, adult people, in the world right now who have never had a world without internet. It’s their source, it supports them no matter what they think. Changes made over time have abandoned accuracy when it comes to the “old” ways things were done, but internet is shaped by everyone, or is it? In a sense it is, but at the end of the day, it’s money that shapes it.
The internet makes experts of everyone who isn’t. Some folks have enough money to create programs or platforms or apps and such, that tell people what to think, what is “right,” the “correct” way, that’s what they’re selling you, the idea that theirs is the one true way, the only right way. Do they even know it?
Another point of clarity here is that I support the evolution of language and understand its inevitably. I do NOT support the devolution of language. That’s the most blaring thing I see as a writer, people trying to corner the market on programs that tell folks the “right” way to write. How it’s just dumbing down the entire process and making everyone’s voice sound exactly the same.
The concept of “correct” makes sense, to be clear, I’m not generalizing here and this is the opposite of promoting idiocy. Rather, it’s expecting more out of people than their current actions warrant for the most part. At any rate, you’ll either understand what I’m saying or be offended by it, even though you won’t understand exactly why. Come back when you do.
In the meantime, ask yourself, the “correct” they’re selling, is it really correct? Or, is it just some tool that’ll homogenize choices so as to not upset the marketable world? Does it matter? People will buy it, not just financially, they’ll let it live rent free in their heads and hearts, that’s the security they paying for after all, that and a link to prove they’re correct.
It must be true, it’s on the internet.
Here’s the thing about the internet, it doesn’t know everything and access to it does not make you an expert on anything. Shoot, it hasn’t even been around that long.
The information you get on the internet, it’s more like guidelines really. There are still things the actual world can teach anyone who hasn’t developed an acute fear of it because the internet told them to.
One thing the internet will never show you is the big picture, that you have to see with your own eyes. Unfiltered. The real. Can you handle that?
