Â鶹Éç

Available for over a year

Good morning. Not long ago I was speaking at conference. When I finished, a man warned me, ‘There’s a huge storm on Twitter after I posted your words.’ I replied, ‘What words?’ He told me. ‘But that’s not what I said,’ I insisted. ‘Well, it’s set off a huge storm,’ the man replied. That incident crystallises a media revolution. First the internet shared information; then it became interactive, and let loose the angry troll; now we’ve removed the referee and people say whatever they like. The inventor of the internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has lamented this ‘downward plunge to a dysfunctional future,’ citing data breaches, hacking and misinformation in addition to outlets for vitriol and sheer nastiness. It’s all happened so quickly. But there’s something deeper than just how we shop or who holds our data. If you go back to my conference lecture, the whole notion of one person being knowledgeable and everyone else sitting at their feet comes from another era. Authority has changed: it doesn’t come from accreditation; it’s bestowed by likes and hits, trends and follows. It’s increasingly difficult to distinguish between the information available to everyone and the wisdom of the professional that discerns which item of knowledge is appropriate for today. My questioner didn’t apologise. He gave a shrug of the shoulders that said, ‘Well, it’s on Twitter now, it’s out there.’ You wonder if truth has been blown away by the thunder of opinion and the lightning of instant judgement. If he heard me say it, who was I to say I hadn’t said it? Facts get lost in a froth of claim and counter-claim. The web is saturated with comment: one misunderstanding may not matter much. But try telling that to someone whose misquotation or unwise remark has triggered massive reaction and consequent shame and ostracism. 500 years ago the printing press democratised Christianity because everyone could make their own judgements about the meaning of the Bible. Today that democratising is going a step further. Many who used to assume authority must now earn respect by becoming agents of hospitality and surviving arbitrary tests of authenticity. The internet is triggering a new reformation. Just as 500 years ago, that reformation creates winners. The internet gives voice to the suppressed and fosters communities of the excluded. It also creates losers. It’s unsettling for bearers of traditional authority, like those who perform sacred actions and interpret revered books. And it’s vulnerable to exploiters who undermine reputation, manipulate information, or steal data. In short, the web is like a magnifying glass. It amplifies our virtues while exacerbating our vices. What it can’t do is what all technology tries and fails to do: make a better world without our becoming better people.