Internet’s vision ‘not realised’

“The internet has not become the great leveller that it was once thought it could be,” according to Harvard academic Ethan Zuckerman at the TED Global (Technology Entertainment and Design) conference in Oxford. The BBC reports.

He said that the web was now contrary to the original utopian vision and users focused on information from a handful of wealthy countries.

“It’s making us ‘imaginary cosmopolitans’,” he told delegates.

Social networks, he said, made the problem worse with the majority of people sharing information with folk who share their world-view.

“We think we’re getting a broad view of the world, because it’s possible that our television, newspapers and internet could be giving us a vastly wider picture than was available for our parents or grandparents,” he said.

“When we look at what’s actually happening, our world-view might actually be narrowing.”

– Read article
– Ethan Zuckerman’s speaking notes | slides