These days, people seem to have this erroneous notion that their personal computer and the Internet will make them a better person. They think that they can point and click their way to a greater sense of wisdom and a more rock-solid foundation of virtues and character. They are all quite sadly mistaken. Internet-enabled computers cannot, in and of themselves, stimulate personal growth. Only people can do that. The only thing an Internet-enabled computer can do is enable its human users to do more of what they were already doing. If a person was already a virtuous leader, then the computer will only make that person a virtuous leader who can do more. And if a person was already a violent rapist, then the computer will only make that person a violent rapist who can do more. With the computer, Pastors can govern churches more effectively, thieves can steal more than mere money, doctors can heal more patients, pedophiles can molest more children, law-enforcement agents can uphold the law with greater efficiency, criminals can break the law with greater efficiency, emergency response teams can save more lives, and serial killers can murder more victims. The Internet-enabled computer can only amplify what a person already has. It cannot change a person from evil to good unless those seeds of change have already been planted into that person's soul. And those seeds of change can only come from another human being, not from a computer.
As such, Internet-enabled computers cannot improve the overall quality of life in modern society. Only honest, genuine, decent, respectful people can do that. If anything, the rise of the Internet has brought with it the birth of cyber-crime, hacking, cyber-bullying, identity theft, and cyberporn, elements that have worsened the overall quality of life in modern society. And in the field of education, children, who are still going through the formative years of their social lives, are being robbed of the much-needed social environments provided by traditional brick-and-mortar schools, their original method of education being replaced by an insular online home-based school. If adult people need to physically interact with other people in order to maintain their psychological equilibrium, then children need even more physical interaction in order to learn how to socialize with their peers, and how to respect the authority of their elders. A child simply cannot learn such valuable social skills while being isolated in a room with a computer. And it is those very social skills that a child will need in order to function properly as an adult in modern society. Taking away the physical school experience and replacing it with an online school at home will truly deprive that child of the social growth he or she desperately needs.
The reason the Internet-enabled computer fails to serve as a stable medium for social interaction can be summed up in just one word: anonymity. It is absolutely impossible to completely validate a person's true identity, beyond all reasonable doubt, using only an Internet-enabled computer. If a person can get away with lying about himself or herself for a certain amount of time in the real physical world, then imagine how much havoc he or she can wreak in cyberspace. It is absolutely foolish to have a purely online friendship or relationship with a person whose identity has never been validated in the real physical world. And you absolutely cannot trust an individual you have only met in cyberspace, especially since that individual could be a complete lie. How can you tell that your teen-aged daughter's online friend really is another teen-aged girl, and not some big, sleazy, middle-aged pedophile who enjoys kidnapping, brutally raping, sodomizing, and then savagely murdering teen-aged girls like your daughter? And how can you tell whether or not such a pedophile has stolen the online identity of one of your daughter's real teen-aged friends in order to lure your daughter into a real physical trap? Is the Internet really worth a human life? Is it worth your life? Is it worth your child's life? As long as people choose to blindly ignore the perils of Internet anonymity, modern society will continue to be destroyed by unprecedented cyber-crime. And humanity is truly doomed if people at large trust an Internet-enabled computer more than they trust each other.
Modern society needs to remember how to survive without the Internet-enabled computer if modern society really wants to survive at all. Our most basic social skills, our financial endeavors, our abilities to successfully research and collaborate, our abilities to investigate and invent, and even our abilities to teach and heal, were once all accomplished without the Internet-enabled computer. The greater part of American history saw the nation rise to the level of a global superpower without the Internet-enabled computer. Americans harnessed electricity, utilized atomic power, and even landed astronauts on the Moon without the Internet-enabled computer. The Internet-enabled computer was never responsible for American greatness. Americans are responsible for American greatness. To build all of America's future hopes, dreams, visions, and aspirations upon a foundation consisting of soulless machines is to doom the entire nation to a perpetual oblivion.
As such, Internet-enabled computers cannot improve the overall quality of life in modern society. Only honest, genuine, decent, respectful people can do that. If anything, the rise of the Internet has brought with it the birth of cyber-crime, hacking, cyber-bullying, identity theft, and cyberporn, elements that have worsened the overall quality of life in modern society. And in the field of education, children, who are still going through the formative years of their social lives, are being robbed of the much-needed social environments provided by traditional brick-and-mortar schools, their original method of education being replaced by an insular online home-based school. If adult people need to physically interact with other people in order to maintain their psychological equilibrium, then children need even more physical interaction in order to learn how to socialize with their peers, and how to respect the authority of their elders. A child simply cannot learn such valuable social skills while being isolated in a room with a computer. And it is those very social skills that a child will need in order to function properly as an adult in modern society. Taking away the physical school experience and replacing it with an online school at home will truly deprive that child of the social growth he or she desperately needs.
The reason the Internet-enabled computer fails to serve as a stable medium for social interaction can be summed up in just one word: anonymity. It is absolutely impossible to completely validate a person's true identity, beyond all reasonable doubt, using only an Internet-enabled computer. If a person can get away with lying about himself or herself for a certain amount of time in the real physical world, then imagine how much havoc he or she can wreak in cyberspace. It is absolutely foolish to have a purely online friendship or relationship with a person whose identity has never been validated in the real physical world. And you absolutely cannot trust an individual you have only met in cyberspace, especially since that individual could be a complete lie. How can you tell that your teen-aged daughter's online friend really is another teen-aged girl, and not some big, sleazy, middle-aged pedophile who enjoys kidnapping, brutally raping, sodomizing, and then savagely murdering teen-aged girls like your daughter? And how can you tell whether or not such a pedophile has stolen the online identity of one of your daughter's real teen-aged friends in order to lure your daughter into a real physical trap? Is the Internet really worth a human life? Is it worth your life? Is it worth your child's life? As long as people choose to blindly ignore the perils of Internet anonymity, modern society will continue to be destroyed by unprecedented cyber-crime. And humanity is truly doomed if people at large trust an Internet-enabled computer more than they trust each other.
Modern society needs to remember how to survive without the Internet-enabled computer if modern society really wants to survive at all. Our most basic social skills, our financial endeavors, our abilities to successfully research and collaborate, our abilities to investigate and invent, and even our abilities to teach and heal, were once all accomplished without the Internet-enabled computer. The greater part of American history saw the nation rise to the level of a global superpower without the Internet-enabled computer. Americans harnessed electricity, utilized atomic power, and even landed astronauts on the Moon without the Internet-enabled computer. The Internet-enabled computer was never responsible for American greatness. Americans are responsible for American greatness. To build all of America's future hopes, dreams, visions, and aspirations upon a foundation consisting of soulless machines is to doom the entire nation to a perpetual oblivion.
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