‘What would we do without it?’ said my brother-in-law recently. He was talking about the internet. Like many of us he finds it an invaluable resource for his work and leisure activities. Compared to some I am a late arrival on the cyber-scene. I can remember being suspicious of the Internet and very reluctant to start using email. Now as well as being a emailer I am a blogger, Facebooker, Amazonian and sometime surfer just for fun. It has all become a part of life. And that is what is worrying Andrew Keen in The Cult of the Amateur, a very challenging and at times disturbing book. He is described on the blurb as ‘an English digital media entrepreneur and Silicon Valley insider’ and he is convinced, in the words of his sub-title, that ‘blogs, MySpace, YouTube and the rest of today’s user-generated media are killing our culture and economy.’
As Keen sees it the Web 2.0 revolution has created two whipping boys: ‘truth and trust’. There is a welter of information and opinion online and much of it is not generated by accredited sources. Wikipedia is a case in point where the identity of ‘volunteer editors’ is not always known. Says Keen: ‘These citizen editors out-edit other citizen editors in defining, redefining, then redefining truth, sometimes hundreds of times a day.’
The ‘revolution’ has also had a negative impact on employment and the economy. Newspapers are dying with an inevitable impact on jobs and millions of dollars/pounds are lost through illegal downloading of music and movies. Paul Simon is quoted as saying: ‘I’m personally against Web 2.0 in the same way I’m personally against my own death.‘ But forget the big names for the moment. Keen raises concerns which affect the lives of ordinary citizens like you and me. The internet has increased access to pornography, gambling has increased, children and young people are more vulnerable to sexual predators. The most horrifying consequence for some people, however, has been identity theft. Skilled ‘hackers’ have been able to access credit card and bank accounts to the ruination of unsuspecting victims.
Keen is convinced that controls are necessary and with this in mind he has praise for Gordon Brown when he was Prime Minister of the UK. He commissioned Tanya Brown, a clinical psychologist, to produce a report on child Internet safety. The result was a 225 page report entitled Safer Children in a Digital World which was published in March 2008. As far as I can see, the report seeks to make parents and teachers more aware of the dangers of the Internet and to encourage search engines ‘to be more assertive in guiding parents and protecting children.’ Keen applauds the report as representing ‘an appropriately fine balance between the do-nothing libertarianism of Silicon Valley . . . and the equally unacceptable authoritarianism of unelected Internet policy makers in Iran, China and other undemocratic countries.‘ What effect this has had is unclear. A follow-up report has been commissioned to explore this.
Whether we agree with Keen or not, he raises issues which all Internet users need to be aware of. Without a doubt the Internet is an invaluable resource. I write this on a day when a downloaded ‘app’ (paid for, I may add) has given me access to hundreds of radio stations all over the world. But we need to be alert to the dangers and this book is a welcome wake-up call.
