The paper University Affairs has an interesting article on the ills of Web 2.0. The article gives examples of identity theft, harrassment, unethical behaviour, lies and racism (just to mention a few things). The article illustration is a huge evil spider standing ominously behind three users surfing innocently while caught in a web.
My first annoyance is that this has nothing to do with Web 2.0 and the term is simply used to modernize the old gripe about the evils of web technology. But let me just get over that.
The real problem is that all the examples in the article are part of what is to be expected as part and parcel of the “new” technology. The article begins with an example of a Facebook group falsely accusing a university of using puppies in medical research. Nobody listens to the university and the group grows. The rest of the examples are even worse, potentially damaging and some show that people will be hurt in the offline world as well.
Popular beliefs, fooling the masses and common delusions are common throughout history. So what is the article really about? Well it’s a typical article showing technology as being dangerous and uncontrolable – it is simple fearmongering based on anecdotal (but most probably true) evidence.
This is journalism selling itself on sex and horror stories not with the intention of achieving anything and barely with enough material to be considered news. It is journalism profiteering on sex and horror which of course means it is not journalism but rather a profiteering on the same sex and horror it is pretending to be concerned about.