Blog 4 ​

One thing that stood out to me in this lecture was when we all talked about how we are the “winners” of the internet. In other words, we get the positive benefits of the internet, and because of the bubble that we are in as technologists and students at MIT, we often don’t experience the negative effects of the internet. Rather, often less fortunate and less educated people are hit with the negative effects. In class, we saw data about how many people in the tech world see the same perspective-- that they benefit from the internet, while society as a whole is hurt. I was interested to look more into studies that asked emerging countries, and people less fortunate about what their thoughts on the effects of the internet were.

In a study done by Pew Research center, a median of 64% across 32 emerging and developing nations say the internet is a good influence on education, with at least half also seeing it as a good influence on personal relationships (53%) and the economy (52%). However, a median of 42% say it is a bad influence on morality, while only 29% see the internet as a good influence. And in no country surveyed does a majority say that the internet’s influence on morality is a positive. Finally, highly educated respondents are also more likely to say the internet is a positive influence to them. This validates our class discussion in the way that we can see how academics more often experience the positive benefits of the internet, while people using the internet for different reasons may experience it differently.