I can appreciate what people felt like when they heard about this thing called “television.” It would allow viewers to bring theatrical productions and concerts and political discussions and college classes into their own living rooms. What we got was Judge Judy and Fox News and televangelists and “Survivor.”
I was here for the beginning of the World Wide Web. I remember the hype and the hope when we were first learning how to send messages by computer. This was going to allow instant communication. This was going to allow us to do research from our offices. This had the potential to unite the globe.
And we got Facebook, an off-shoot of a program at Harvard to rate the hottest girls. We got Pornhub and dick pics and Nigerian princes and AI deep fakes and conspiracy theories. As a recent book title put it, we got “enshittification.”
I like it when I can still look at things I didn’t know; when I can find topics made clear that I didn’t understand. I’ve always had trouble grasping the rules on “pass interference” in the NFL. So tonight Linda and I watched a film on YouTube and saw a step-by-step explanation with various clips to illustrate types of pass interference, both offensive and defensive. This afternoon I listened to Ringo Starr sing “Fastest Growing Heartache in the West.” I saw a report about how CBS censored a news story on the imprisonment of deportees because it was embarrassing to the Trump administration.
There are still a few positive things left in the on-line world. You just have to find them.
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