The Internet: Freeing or Dangerous?

My good friend Wade commented on our thread The Science of Beliefs with some skepticism toward my pro-internet viewpoint. In response, I explored some avenues of where I have seen the internet free people. I also briefly discuss the "dangers" of the internet's knowledge. Enjoy!

Excerpt from The Science of Beliefs:

How is the internet "freeing society"? Excellent question.

When I was in Puerto Vallarta last, I was hosted by a generous Couchsurfer named Anahi. She took me to the Malecon where we got gelato and watched the sunset. We took a bus out of the tourist district and into her neighborhood. As the bus jostled through potholes on the unpaved streets toward her house, I could see piles of garbage left in the middle of intersections. Despite these infrastructural limitations, I pulled out my iPhone to find that the entire area was wired with free public wifi. Free internet and gravel roads! It didn't make sense. 

And yet, I would never have met Anahi or seen the local side of Vallarta without this free internet. She would not have a Couchsurfing account where she can interact with visitors from all over the world. She could not supplement her income by working on her friends' websites. She wouldn't have all the world's knowledge right at her fingertips like we do, a fact I take for granted every day.

This is just one story of how the internet is freeing society. One story of a billion. Entire nations are using the internet to free themselves from dictatorial rule in the Middle East, to unite their people under a common cause and break free from oppression.

My own story with the internet, though far less transformational, is one of freedom. With the internet, I have taught myself nearly as much in 2 years outside of college as I learned in college. I learned to program in web languages, in-turn creating a way to make a living from anywhere in the world. Anywhere! I'll be in Chile on an 8 month unpaid internship. Am I worried about finances? Not for a minute. I have developed a skill that can be monetized in any hemisphere. 

Have I lost the ability to think critically due to the amount I rely on my "digital brain"? Perhaps when I first discovered Wikipedia, I copy and pasted willy-nilly just to shortcut homework assignments. But now that I am out in the world studying what genuinely interests me, I am no longer satisfied with regurgitating other people's thoughts. When I read Wikipedia, I read it with a slight edge of skepticism. I know that the information comes from humans, and humans are human (subject to error). Furthermore, my digital enlightenment has led me to not only question what I read on pages like Wikipedia, but it has led me to want to add my own knowledge to these wonderfully free sources of information.

Is there dangerous forms of knowledge on the internet? Yes. We can learn to make a pipe bomb, calculate the blast radius, and place it in the most destructive location possible. We can figure out how to synthesize illegal and dangerous substances like methamphetamine and crack cocaine. Do a majority of us spend our time wandering these dangerous avenues? Or do we rather research ways to improve our community, to increase energy efficiency in our homes, or how to expand our minds with safer substances like LSD and mescalin. 

Personally, I have encountered a handful of the latter instances in Jackson. Yet to see any of the more dangerous alternatives outside of freak incidents on the news, incidents that are becoming less frequent as knowledge continues to triumph over ignorance.

The internet is not the end-all answer to our problems; then again, no one source of goodness ever will be. But the internet is freeing people every day. People like Anahi. People like me. And, even if you are skeptical, the internet is freeing you as well.

Perhaps One Argument for Experimenting with Hallucinogens

Experimenting with intense psychological drugs like LSD or mescalin can be intimidating. However, if taken in the right circumstances and the right frame of mind, their effects can be enlightening. 

My biggest word of advice prior to your first experiment is to research the substance you are about to ingest and try to understand what is about to happen. This way, as your experience plays out, you will be far more comfortable exploring the depths of the rabbit hole and spend less time unnecessarily worrying. 

Huxley ends his wonderful essay The Doors of Perception, his transcendental experience with mescalin (derived from peyote), with the following:

"But the man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less cocksure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable Mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend."

Controlling ADD without Medication

One doesn't simply control the ADD mind. One can only steer it in the right direction.

My mother sent me the following email:

Noah – I work with a woman whose son is 12 and struggles with concentration/focusing.  She would like to try to deal with this in a way other than medication at this point and I thought you would have some suggestions for her.  -mom

Here's my response:

Mom,

Master To-Do: I have had a lot of success keeping a single master list of "to-do" items. I prioritize them and rearrange them based on what I want to get done first. Anything that makes the list gets done at some point (sometimes it takes over a month, haha, but it always gets done).

Gaming Out: "Gamifying" tasks (turning them into a game) is a great way to incentivize the easily distracted mind to focus. The more instant the feedback we can receive for a task, the more we will want to do it again.

Perfectly Challenging: Sometimes it's hard for me to focus on a task if it is too easy (probably why I slept through a lot of classes except for science in high school). Crank up the difficulty! Add a real challenge. I will also say that if a task appears (or actually is) too difficult for me, it will make focusing on it much harder too. There's certainly a sweet spot, no doubt about that. 

Creative Outlets: When I am especially having trouble focusing, I will switch to a creative task (e.g. watercolor painting). A task like this requires me to focus in, I can enjoy it, and it helps me relax. When I need a break from high-logic computer tasks, I'll throw on some music and do some right brain activity to recharge. This can even just be doodling in a notebook. :)

I hope this helps. Medication can really kill creativity, and a kid that can learn to control his wandering mind wields a powerful tool for creating the future. It may not be terrible to experiment with medication for a while to develop some good habits and to give the kid a taste of a more focused mind. However, I strongly support never getting to a point where one relies on a substance to function.