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Comment by babyrainbow | Hacker News Reader

Sadly, this is a naive view, and perpetuated by people who wants to push more ad channels in the name of "empowering" communities...

Access to information does not mean consumption. If you give access to internet to 100 people, 99 of them will use it for Facebook or Porn.

1. If you have enough motivation, learning about anything was already possible even before Internet (local libraries and resources)

2. If you don't have enough motivation, then providing access to Internet, is not going to make a difference.

So the key to a smarter planet does not lie in providing internet. But in installing enough motivation, imagination and a quest for knowledge and free thought in younger generations.

But sadly, the Internet of today seem to work against this by providing perpetual distraction and addictive/useless chitchat across the world......

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I agree with your key points, but I'm a bit skeptical about this:

> If you don't have enough motivation, then providing access to Internet, is not going to make a difference.

I'd argue that because the barrier to entry is smaller, you need less motivation to learn about things. Going to libraries, scanning huge books for the few pieces of information you want is much more effort than looking it up online.

I'm not doubting that the internet might only make a small percentage change in the people willing to do it though.

More effort needed is less free time for nonsense and procrastination.

"If you give access to internet to 100 people, 99 of them will use it for Facebook or Porn."

This isn't a zero sum game, last night I used my internet access for porn, today I'm using my internet access to learn about a new 4,000 satellite constellation being built by SpaceX, later on today I'll use it to create a pull request on Bitbucket.

Totally agree. I think the disappointment is that in its earlier days there was hope that the internet would end up changing the world for the better but it ended up just magnifying whatever good and bad already existed in world before it came to the scene.

Still, I wouldn't want to go back to pre-internet era. With all the crap, it seems the bottom line is still a gain to humanity and hopefully that gain will increase with time.

> but it ended up just magnifying whatever good and bad already existed in world before it came to the scene.

And that's how technology works. While they are a lot of naive people around, it has been that way ever since, and humans would use what they got at their disposal to do what humans do.

Sadly, this is a naive view,

Views like this created the internet and wikipedia and we need more of them. Wikipedia is still going strong thanks to them:

[1] Assuming good faith (AGF) is a fundamental principle on Wikipedia. It is the assumption that editors' edits and comments are made in good faith. Most people try to help the project, not hurt it. If this were untrue, a project like Wikipedia would be doomed from the beginning.

As an example, the story with the teens from FYROM creating false news sites for the americans[2] could be avoided with better education from both sides, not by "stopping the internet" or putting them to prison.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Assume_good_faith

2. https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became...

One day people will grok that this "addictive/useless chitchat" is not good for them for any number of reasons. But in no way should anyone decide for anyone else how they should spend their time. You could empower thousands in the way you suggest and still end up with hundreds that simply just want to just go do a goods day of work and come home to family, beer and video games.

Providing access to the Internet will make a difference, because right now its gated and walled by every country on this planet...give me and the rest of the world direct satellite uplink sooner than later.

> "addictive/useless chitchat"

That's been part of our culture for a huge amount of time, widespread gossip and idle speculation didn't start in the era of modern technology.

>99 of them will use it for Facebook or Porn

You misspelled 100.

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