What's Andy Cooking?

State of the Internet Address

It seems that personal sites are now not impervious to spam. Last night I discovered that five adds for viagra had been placed in the comments on five different post from the last month. This morning I found another one that leads visitors to different online casinos.

The internet is a funny thing. Many people praise it because (like the library) it is the source of free information. It can also serve as a discussion forum for different things - connecting people with similar interests. And the there's seemingly little order to all of this. New sites spring up at random and people can link their own site to any number of sites that they want, creating a tangled web of interconnections. Through peoples' own sites, they can contribute to the fabric of the internet - their own square on the quilt if you will.

But therein lies the beauty and the problem. Anyone can contribute anything they please. They can set up any links they want and create forums to discuss any topic that they want. They can also destructively affect the net, spreading spam and viruses alike.

Now, it is my opinion that, in the real world everyone should get the opportunity at least once to contribute their own work. Write a speech and present it. Sing a song. Mold clay into a cereal bowl. Through creative/practical contribution, everyone can get a feel for what it's like to 'make' something. This, in turn, makes for better critics: they know what goes into creation and can be more critical and at the same time more sympathetic toward others' work.

But the internet does away with all that. Now we have worms that shut down entire networks of people on a whim. We have spam emails that bombard an account till use is futile. We have pop-up adds that interfere with the transfer of true information.

These elements of anti-productivity have invaded the internet. They do not add to the sharing of information, they are simply a nuisance.

The internet, unlike the real world, does not have a uniform system of critique or control, and because of this these nuicances are allowed to run rampant. In the same way that a gigantic 'condom' once advertised for the Castle Superstore in town, but was protested so greatly that it was torn down, so does the internet need these critics and control. Because, although it is a great place for constructive input, there is also the uncontrolled destruction and obstruction of the true passage of knowledge.