The Internet Was a Good Idea (In Case You Were Wondering)

Much like the humans who invented it, the Internet is both wonderful and terrible. It creates and destroys, empowers and represses, edifies and stultifies — often at the same time.

A new report from the World Bank finds a few more things to worry about: The Internet disproportionately benefits the well-to-do, may worsen inequality, hasn’t boosted productivity as much as hoped, tends to favor monopolies, and is “far from sufficient” for alleviating poverty.

You might say that’s a pretty high bar for a technology that’s only a few decades old. Even so, the report is a reminder that no technology is an unvarnished good, and that progress has consequences — often quite unexpected ones. Read More…

The Internet Was a Good Idea (In Case You Were Wondering)