Abundance of "worthless" content on the web...

After our New Telecom Technologies class last week when we virtually experienced Brian Reich talk about the abundance of “worthless” content (an excellent virtual experience, by the way), I have thought a lot about this is true statement and just how we as a population should handle the problem (if we need to “handle” it at all). In class last night, we watched a video by Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law, which addressed similar issues (again, this too was interesting).

My opinion is much like Reich’s in that yes, there is a lot of junk out there now, but I believe it will eventually take care of itself. It is a typical routine we go through with many things that are new to us, especially technology, as history has shown us in the past. Since the technology is fairly new to us, we don’t know how to use it to our full advantage yet, and therefore it is chaotic now. Eventually, however, we, as a population, culture, whatever you want to call it, will weed through the mess and only watch or see only what we want to see eliminating the rest of the junk out there just as we did with many technological gadgets that were all the craze. Television was similar when it first came out and even now. There is a lot of garbage on TV, but we only watch what we want eventually eliminating the bad. We buy into the hype of new things at first, and then eventually it dies down.

I also feel like right now with so much stuff on the Internet, it is an opportunity to allow people to gain their voice, if you will. Allowing people to do whatever they want creatively (which some of it is extremely creative and good in my opinion) now when we are experimenting is an opportunity for those who have some creativity to let it out and share it with us. It is art that right now everyone wants to express in his or her own way.

Should this be allowed? Should people be allowed to create music on their own without record companies and the like regardless of the quality? Sure. Why not? What will happen? We won’t listen to it or we will because it is so terrible. If it doesn’t hurt anyone, why should we care? This is a great way to see if audiences are interested in your music before you leave your day job, right?

What about porn and other things that our kids can look at when we aren’t watching, some even becoming addicted to it? Sure, this is not good and I certainly don’t condone it. However, I feel it is the parent’s responsibility to know what your kids are doing, not the government’s, FCC’s, or anybody else’s for that matter. Parents are responsible for their children. If they can’t watch them every second of the day, then talk to them about the problems and issues out there on the web. Being aware of what they can do and then talking about it openly is half the battle. Kids are going to do what they want when they want it no matter what. It’s like sex. The best one can do is talk to them about their responsibility. After that, it’s up to them.

To sum up my beliefs, I believe we should leave what we have now alone. It will take care of itself without the help from government officials or anyone else. Too often we ask the government to help us out on issues that they really have no business in because we are scared of what could happen. In this case, I agree with Reich and Lessig that things are crazy right now, but we as a culture will clean it up on our own. Once restrictions are in place, we will loose so much creativity and art. Free speech is what we as a country are all about. Let our voices be heard. Leave this alone for once. Eventually things will take care of themselves.