The Proverbial Balance Scale

The internet model of communication is simpler and more advantageous than that of the broadcast and of the telephone since the end-users are more in control and the system provides lesser limitations as to number of people who may communicate, and as to how they communicate. It is indeed a win-win situation. It is as if the only limits to communication are the personal circumstance (capacity to perceive and express, and the social influences to one’s being) and the choices of each person.

Benkler spoke of ‘control’ and the commercialization of information. In simpler words, he meant to say that the trend in the past 150 years was that information was only available to those who can afford it because communication is costly. However, a cheap form of communication, for example, broadcast (television and radio), is more susceptible to control. In one of my subjects in college, I came across the concept of “ideological state apparatuses”. Examples of these ISAs are the mass media, educational institutions, and religions. ISAs are the modes by which the powerful can influence and control people. The simpler and more accurate term for them would be “brainwashers”. As an example, take the GMA Network or ABS-CBN. Although we have different TV shows to choose from, we can only choose from those provided by the networks. Thus, there is already a limitation. Influence comes from watching what the networks present as, for example, the ‘real Filipino’ or the ‘real state of the Philippines’. It as if they tell us ‘this is how you should be’, ‘this is what you are’, ‘this is how they are’, and ‘this is how things are now’. Even the news, which are presented as impartial, unfeeling truths, had already been limited by the news writers, researchers, and cameramen.

In the video, Benkler discussed how the advent of the internet somehow changed the interplay between power and information. With the emergence of free software and peer-production, he said that the limit now is creativity and human wisdom. Everyone has the capacity to publish and have global reach. I beg to differ. Although influence and power of control has been extended to the middle class, there are still those who do not have access to the internet, and whose voices still have not been heard. Thus, commercialization of information is still present. Thus, when we talk of freedom and opportunities, it does not refer to all.

With all the freedom that we, the internet generation, have, what do we do with it? It makes me wonder sometimes: if communication has now been made easy because every person is just one text/instant/video message away, how come people are still lonely, misunderstood, and some even are sociopaths? The percentage of suicides and suicide attempts are higher in countries with the more advanced technology. Crimes, ranging from bullying to online store scams to pornography to terrorism, are easier to perpetrate thru the technology now available. Is this what we choose when we are free and almost limitless? Shouldn’t it be that the more civilized society is, the more understanding the minds of every person are?

Here is the video :)

Berkman Classics: Yochai Benkler's iLaw Course