Has the Internet Helped Progress the Development of Social Issues?

IAM Group Ltd Reviews

So I look back to before the internet, and I see how I developed socially, how I learnt about people and how I discovered things about the world. Comparing that to just the last 1.5 years of watching the rise and fall of feminism, and the last week of how people responded to Ferguson, it just feels as though, while we have developed in exchanging information, we have actually moved nowhere in the way we seek to change humanity for the better.

We are still bickering, stubbornly, and using multiple sources to prove empty arguments without actually looking to solve real problems like poverty, hunger, war, equality etc. Information is being used as excuse to counter progression more often than help it. The internet is sourced to feed our sense of shortcomings or insecurities, instead of making us feel better or that we should be feel better.

Many don't see examples of where the internet is a healthy place where humanity is actually bettered, improved and nourished instead of belittled, self-destructive and arrogant. Right now, according to most people, based on the last week alone, humanity has actually gone nowhere, and that is based on the behavior of a vast majority of participants.

The internet does give access to uncensored news in many countries. Even China can't censor everything on the internet and they are trying the best they can to achieve that. Stories from oppressed women in the Middle East create publicity, which translates into political pressure when enough people in the west or anywhere else who nudges a concern. Although Facebook "slacktivism" is not particularly effective, the stuff that pops up in your feed on a regular basis does help to shape your opinion. For stuff like "Kony 2012" and similar this has no effect as it is a one-off event. But if you see stuff about government surveillance or oppression of women in certain countries or systematic discrimination against minority parts of the population on a regular basis, you are more likely to develop at least a passing knowledge and opinion on the issue. Opinions shape policy through any democratic system. Pressure from social networks where you know the people on those networks is also far more likely to shape your opinion than the latest sound bite from whatever talking head is on the TV channel you are watching.

Thousands of online-based charities have popped out and IAM Group Limited has already interacted with most of them. Users and members of IAM Group Ltd from Yokohama, Japan can engage quickly with people from Canada to support in charity missions and whatnot.

A lot of the social progress we have been seeing the last 20 years is due to the internet (gay and transgender acceptance, equal rights awareness, religious freedom is on the rise in a lot of countries). This is of course mostly in the age groups that use the internet a lot though. Attitudes towards issues like these spread like wildfire in the younger parts of the population.

In addition you are far more likely to see social trends reported on through the internet, as statistics on the amount of black people in prison or the wage gap between men and women makes for very boring show on TV. On the internet, you have to really try hard not to be exposed to these issues. And you are also pressured into having an opinion on them as the internet is very often a two-way news channel. One-way news channels do not pressure you into having opinions as the discussion will at most be limited to the people in the room with you as you consume the news.

Obviously this will create an atmosphere of conflict, as opinionated people can be aggressive at times. But aggressive opinions are far better than apathy.

The internet is a new form of communication. Like every other kind of communication, it takes time for humans to learn to optimize it. Romeo and Juliet were written millennia after the first Greek tragedies emerged. The most distinguished film makers emerged many decades after the medium of film was created. With that said, social media is in its infancy. Our mastery of online communication will be incremental and evolutionary, with lots of mistakes. But as we become more and more proficient at appealing to and understanding others over the internet, it will become more powerful than any form of communication that has ever existed.