What is no
t there to appreciate and love about the World Wide Web, right? After all, which other medium gives us unprecedented access to information? The internet has certainly created new avenues for exchanging opinions and ideas.
Many perceive the Web as a medium for renewed civic engagement. Then, there are those who see it as a breeding ground for wannabe activists, to project a socially concerned and politically aware aura. “Slacktivism” or this shallow, peripheral, and pretentious political campaigning that seems to thrive on the internet, often undermines its potential to bring about true political and social change – and it is often carried out at the expense of more effective real-world campaigning.
Back in the early days, the internet was lauded as the ultimate tool to foster tolerance and transform the planet into one great wired global village. Many of us believed (and I am sure some still have faith) in the power of the Web, expecting it to bring about a positive change in the world. Personally, when I see e-mails slandering religious ideologies, personal beliefs and opinions that advocate hatred being circulated, and webpages being set up to appreciate and promote assassins and hate-mongers, I find it hard not to be cynical about the Web’s potential as a unifying force to promote tolerance and rationality.
The fault does not lie with the internet, but rather with the people, who use it to project their real-world conflicts, hate and delusions in cyberspace. Depending on how you look at it, the virtual world is a reflection of the real world. Unfortunately, it appears to have amplified many existing forces at work in the world, making politics and real-world interaction more combustible and unpredictable. Evgeny Morozov’s observation – as he puts across in his article, “Think Again: Internet” at ForeignPolicy.com – that “the internet looks like a hyper-charged version of the real world, with all of its promise and perils, while the cyber utopia that the early Web enthusiasts predicted seems ever more illusory,” could not be more true for Pakistan’s cyberspace. — R.S
Eds Note published in Spider Magazine, February 2011
Reba Shahid 