The 'power of the Internet' is stating the obvious, of course. It's a cliche. And I've known it for a long time too, no doubt. But I refer not to the 'power' that is social networking horrors like Facebook (blecchh) or the 'power' that is being inundated with endless, often mindless e-mails on a daily basis. Not even to the more benevolent power that is being able to do research and learn new things on the Internet like never before. No, not at all.
Rather, I refer to the power of an Internet that allows real change, on the global, the national and the personal levels - and more so than ever before:
* Wikileaks: Global repercussions, no doubt about it. Whistleblowing is as old as politics, and it was what made newspapers once exciting, but nothing on the scale that Wikileaks was able to unleash in 2010. And continues to do so in 2011. Hurrah!
* Tunisia: National repercussions, possibly even regional. Tunisia has been oppressed for over twenty years. And it all exploded in a matter of weeks, even days - the old dictator fled to that oasis for all despots, Saudi Arabia, a national government of unity had to be convened, free elections will be held in less than two months - and the old party has literally been disbanded. All due to people power - with online networking as the catalyst. And the rest of the Maghreb and Middle East elites looks on nervously - very nervously.
* A Brooklyn baby: A woman has her baby girl stolen from a Brooklyn hospital in 1987. A full twenty-three years later, the stolen baby girl, now a grown woman, searches online for clues as to why her 'mother' cannot provide her with a birth certificate. The woman is suspicious and turns to the place where she feels she might get answers - the Internet. She searches and comes across a website with a picture of a baby girl missing since 1987 - a baby girl that looks exactly like her when she was a baby. She contacts the authorities, gets a blood test and, like that, is identified as the stolen baby and finally reunited with her real mother.
For all its faults, for all its inevitable abilities to be a platform for the bad, the ugly and the downright horrible, the Internet is still a life-changing, unbelievably powerful tool that, when used right, is simply exceptional.
It is the technological advance of our time, the great leap forward. Akin in the modern era to electricity and the telephone and television.
May it continue to be a conduit for positive, life-altering change - at every level, great and small.
Do you get my point?
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