Are you ready for the Internet to change your life?
Have you tossed out your books and stopped going to classes because the Internet is going to be the educational resource of tomorrow? Are you waiting to read books on the Internet instead of just browsing library catalogues? Then you might want to stop holding your breath, purchase new books and borrow notes for the classes you missed. The Internet is growing fast, but not in the direction you think it is. Look and you shall find the future of the Internet ... in your living room.
Ever think about why the President crusades for the V-chip instead of telling people to simply not watch six hours of television a day? I think that would be more likely to educate our children than censoring what they watch. Or how about telling parents that if they care about their children they shouldn't buy them the latest video gaming systems, but instead try to engage them in a somewhat more intellectual pursuit?
Unfortunately, neither the television industry or the couch potato public would like to hear that. The truth is that television is just the way we like it and we'd rather not have anybody stand in front of the set, block the picture, and tell us that we're morons for watching. After all, we are a ruthless consumer culture -- the television industry makes money by giving us what we crave.
What will this consumer culture do to the Internet? It will mold it and change it. It will shape it to it's liking. It will pick and choose between internet content providers: those that displease it will be eliminated, while those that appeal to it will be elevated to glory and profits. Television will be reborn in a slightly different body, but with fundamentally the same soul. Because the sad truth is that while the medium may change, people won't.
The hypertext Web that is at the core of the Internet as it now stands is an active form of entertainment, it takes initiative. You read, you click, you read, you click. But the latest technology on the World Wide Web is agents that deliver information to you in a passive manner. Often, the information you seek (such as news or stock quotes) is displayed on a screensaver while the rest of your computer is idle. Is this beginning to sound all too familiar?
Many sites on the web today offer short video or sound clips that take hours for most users to download. But they download them anyway because a 25 second video clip is "oh, so neat!" One day, clips will be available instantly on the internet, and they'll have the quality now found only on television ... but by then, we won't know which is which.
But don't just take my word for this trend. Look at Gateway 2000, the fifth largest personal computer maker in the country. They have unveiled a new PC home-theater system called "Destination." It combines a computer and a television in one body. You can watch television AND "surf the web" AND play video games all at the same time on the same monitor. What more could you ask for?
Many people think that the Web is going to reform the way we learn and serve as an incredible educational resource. Perhaps it will. But it surely will not become a tool for education and learning by itself. In fact, the private sector will push the web the other way because that is what consumer culture dictates. It will have to be the colleges, non-profit organizations and the government that will have to make the Internet into something valuable and worthwhile -- it's going to be an uphill battle.
