The internet was supposed to homogenize everyone by connecting us all. Instead what it's allowed is silos of interest.
In today's world, access to the Internet is inarguably critical to function in informal and formal spaces - and the costs to digital segregation are rising.
There is an odd mix of permeability and impermeability in the Net. You won't be able to communicate with everyone, and not every application will be accessible to everyone.
I'm not really sure what I'd like to see people doing more of online, but what I'd like to see less of is the warning signs that not ratifying net neutrality is gonna cause two separate nets: one that the big dogs can afford to be on and the other a ghetto internet that no one goes on. Think FM vs AM radio, or cable vs broadcast TV.
The Internet was supposed to bring people together, but it's created big divisions.
My whole life I grew up thinking there is one Internet, but there are actually two, one in the rest of the world and one in China. The one in China is advanced and hi-tech, but it's a scary Internet.
The Internet has become a bunch of interlinked but linguistically distinct and culturally specific spaces. There's some interface between them, but there's a lot less than there was years back when we were sort of pretending that this was one great global space.
Everyone is on the internet but they're not all talking with each other. There are groups upon groups out there, but they don't talk to one another. So while the internet brings everyone into a shared space, it does not necessarily bring them together.
There's a reason that male golfers don't compete against female golfers. They're in a league of their own, and it would end in tears. It's time to apply this logic to the online world.
North Korea is probably the only country in the world deliberately kept out of the Internet.
In many ways, the Internet is about diversification, and yet, in the wrong hands, the digital world can use those very examples to reinforce the narrowest of perspectives.
