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The Dartmouth
July 22, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Web Surfers Face Perilous Waters

Thispast weekend my parents were in town for Freshman Parent's Weekend.One of the things I showed them was the variety of interesting sites I had found on the Internet. While we at Dartmouth we all seem to take the wonders of the Internet and the World Wide Web for granted, for any person that has not had extended exposure to the wealth of information provided on the net, it is a pretty impressive sight.These days it seems that one can find just about any information, or discussion of any topic just by loading their copy of Netscape and surfing through the Web.

Yet there is an inherent problem in the Web.In his book "Technopoly," Neil Postman discusses how the American psyche is incredibly gullible. All one needs to do to convince another of a certain fact, he writes, is put the words "scientists say..." in front of the piece of data.

America's willingness to accept information is obviously very dangerous and can lead to a concentration of power in the hands of persons and groups that do not deserve it.Unfortunately, while the Internet is potentially a wonderful resource as we head into the next century, it merely exacerbates the problems that Postman elucidates.

The problem is worsened for a few major reasons.First, there is the awe that humans seem to have for computers.We often seem to believe that computers are infallible and that any information we receive from them is undoubtedly correct. While we can count on the mathematical answers a computer can give us, we cannot afford to put that faith in it when we are dealing with subjective questions.After all, who is it that is posting the opinions expressed on the net?Just normal human beings.The fact is, I could no doubt post a page on the Web declaring some sort of new discovery and probably convince at least a few people who happened to stumble onto my site simply because my page was designed nicely and looked official plus the fact that they saw it on a computer.

The second problem deals with the people who can post information on the net.Of course we are always wary that individuals are going to be overly influenced by what is printed in a newspaper or magazine, but these groups have more reason to be credible than the average World Wide Web home page designer.After all, newspapers have to make money and to do this (unless they are going the route of the National Enquirer) they must maintain credibility.However, the average home page designer does not necessarily have this incentive.There is no money to be made and nothing but personal integrity to force an individual to portray information correctly on the net.

These are obviously serious problems, and they are only going to become more pressing as the Internet becomes more prevalent in our lives.Thus it is necessary to develop some sort of solution.

One solution would be to limit the number, types and sources of ideas published on the net.However, as anyone who has read John Stuart Mill would believe, restriction of ideas and the opportunity for individuals to be exposed to them is perhaps the greatest violation of personal freedom.We of course hope that those who post information on the Web will be truthful and not misrepresent facts, but it is too much to expect this honesty to be universal.

So it seems that the responsibility falls to us, the users of this newfound technology.We are the ones who must make careful decisions when using the Internet.We need to be discriminating and able to recognize that simply because some figure comes from a computer does not mean that it is a fact.We must recognize that the people who post things on the Web are not necessarily experts, but rather they are often everyday people like us.

Certainly the Internet is a wonderful tool and one that seems only to be growing.The potential for it to revolutionize our lives is enormous. But as Postman so adamantly demands in his work, we need to be very careful to make sure that it is us that is using the Internet, and not the technology that is ruling us.