Johanna BaynardJun 4 · 3 min read
We continue to get so many opinion pieces on the internet. Everyone wants to weigh in on what the World Wide Web is doing to us. I read today about TikTok, I read about Youtube, I read about Instagram and Twitter.
So much of what I read was about how the internet is changing us — but not for the better. Lately I have read a lot about politicizing the Internet. There are loud and compelling complaints about Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram and now TikTok.
I’ll never forget years ago; I was standing in the hallway of a convention center complaining loudly about the lack of service and the lack of coffee. I was the hostess of the event and I was dealing with a broken agreement. One of my trainers asked me “so do you really think this hotel should do things your way?” That put me in check for a second and he continued with “do you believe that the world should act according to your rules?” It was food for thought and it made me think hard.
I never did get coffee that day, but I did learn the lesson of my frustration. If I want to live more peacefully, I’ll have to accept that people don’t always do what they say and things never go just right when you’re planning a huge event, or any event, for that matter.
It is this conversation that I think about when I read articles about the Internet. From the beginning, when my colleagues were complaining about texting, I would always respond differently. Colleague “my kid is always on his phone, he won’t stop texting”, Me “he’s learning how to read quickly and how to spell, all good”.
What I find interesting is that so many believe that the Internet should be controlled. Even the Facebook Staff.
First, I don’t believe the Internet is controllable. That is what is so amazing about it. The Internet has given those without a voice, a real voice: including a place to meet and a place to talk and all online! Secondly, how will 7 billion people ever come to any agreement about the way that the internet “should” be? Yes, no and maybe.
We the people have responsibility for what we understand, we cannot pass that responsibility to another.
Right now, Trump is trying to change the narrative about who he is and what he stands for.
Trump is going after those who disagree with him.
Imagine a world where there was only one story: Trump’s.