This year, motor vehicle use in the US will result in 40,000+ deaths, 4 million+ serious injuries, and $300 billion in expenses for medical treatment and productivity losses. 7,500+ people will die from the particulate pollution that electrical power plants produce (many more will be impaired).
The list of the unintended side effects of technology goes on, and we tolerate them because of the greater benefits we receive — vehicles take us places, and electricity lights up the night — perhaps so much so that we are oblivious to them (until we’re impacted directly, of course).
So what if deadly madness is simply a side effect of the Internet?
What if a small number of people who get isolated by embracing stupid, sometimes dangerous ideas is an unavoidable byproduct of a far greater majority of us accessing information and becoming more enlightened and connected?
Could the ubiquitous access to information that allows most of us to make more informed decisions rob a small percentage of people of the ability to responsibly manager their own actions?
And then there’s the polarization of our politics, loss of credibility for institutions, and the general decline in civil discourse to consider. What if these also are indirect side effects of the digital technology that lets social media sites earn billions, and companies map the buying proclivities of their customers?
If so, it means we should rethink how we understand terrorism and other acts of mass murder, the issue of personal privacy, and the cost/benefit for using digital technology…
Read the entire essay at Linkedin