Internet solutions can have problematic outcomes
The hidden dangers of our online world became clearer in 2020.
Last year just about everything changed. The COVID-19 pandemic brought illness, economic collapse, and physical isolation to our community. In response, people turned to the internet to stay in touch, work, shop, and learn. Yet, despite the solutions that technology provided, the hidden dangers of our connected world became apparent. In the coming year individuals, institutions, and governments will have to come to terms with the consequences of our expanded dependence on the internet.
Technology made living in a pandemic much more bearable. We had Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram to share photos, videos, and personal news with friends and relatives. Zoom became an overnight sensation and clubs, friends, and employees held video chats, meetings, and conferences online.
As schools closed students were sent home to continue their education online. Teachers got crash courses in delivering lessons in a virtual classroom and parents had to cope with supervising their children’s education.
As stores were locked down, Canadians turned in huge numbers to online shopping as the solution. Local businesses tried to offset losses by offering click and collect or curbside pickup.
However, as summer dragged into fall ominous signs started to emerge about the negative impacts of our online solutions.
While local merchants were bludgeoned by lockdowns, Amazon continued to amass wealth and market share in proportions never seen in history. Amazon hired an average of 1,400 new employees a day, its global workforce swelled to
over 1.4 million, and its Christmas sales were 30 per cent higher than the previous year. The European Union began antitrust actions against Amazon but its distortion of the shopping landscape seems beyond the control of any one government.
Facebook and Google became money-making behemoths by selling ads based upon the personal data they collected on more than a billion people. With internet usage increasing during the pandemic Facebook and Google's ad revenues skyrocketed, and much of that income was diverted from traditional media, in particular Canadian newspapers. On top of that Google and Facebook used news highlights lifted from those same newspapers to attract users to their platforms.
Something will have to change if the viability of a free press in Canada is to be preserved. The Canadian govern
ment is promising that soon it will introduce measures to enforce new personal data protection laws and take action to save Canadian news publishers.
People love social media but Facebook and Twitter were accused of passively allowing malevolent forces, often sponsored by foreign governments, to influence elections, sow discontent, and promote misogyny, racism, and false information. Last year they were finally called to account and in a defining change Facebook and Twitter had to act as gatekeepers and moderate and delete hate speech and fake news placed on their platforms. However, that brought up more questions about censorship and who decided what was unacceptable.
As students opted for online education the results of studies (https://tinyurl.com/y9j3ur8o ) revealed that far from being a solution to school closures, the
shift was actually a detriment by lowering student outcomes and social development. That was especially evident in students with learning problems or from disadvantaged families without access to high speed internet or the necessary computer technology.
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board found the failure rate in courses was 16 per cent, about double what it was the year before (https://tinyurl.com/y9j3ur8o ).
Apparently learning amid the online distractions of social media and YouTube is too daunting for many students, and parents are often too busy to constantly supervise poorly motivated students. I designed and taught internet courses for several years in a high school and I spent an enormous amount of time trying to keep students on-task. I can imagine the temptations to check social media and ignore numerous distractions, while ostensibly studying, when students are using their own computers at home. For many students, online education in this pandemic may hinder them for years to come.
The past year was defined by our increasing reliance on the internet to deal with the pandemic. The coming year will see how we deal with the negative outcomes of that reliance.