Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      World Bank set to back South Africa’s big energy grid roll-out

      20 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Sita hits back at critics, promises faster, automated procurement

      20 June 2025

      The transatlantic race to create the first television

      20 June 2025

      Listed: All the MVNOs in South Africa – 2025 edition

      19 June 2025
    • World

      Watch | Starship rocket explodes in setback to Musk’s Mars mission

      19 June 2025

      Trump Mobile dials into politics, profit and patriarchy

      17 June 2025

      Samsung plots health data hub to link users and doctors in real time

      17 June 2025

      Beijing’s chip champions blacklisted by Taiwan

      16 June 2025

      China is behind in AI chips – but for how much longer?

      13 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | AfriGIS’s Helen Hulett on how tech can help resolve South Africa’s water crisis

      18 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E2: South Africa’s digital battlefield

      16 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025

      TCS+ | The future of mobile money, with MTN’s Kagiso Mothibi

      6 June 2025

      TCS+ | AI is more than hype: Workday execs unpack real human impact

      4 June 2025
    • Opinion

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025

      South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

      2 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Alistair Fairweather » How the Internet enforces our prejudices

    How the Internet enforces our prejudices

    By Alistair Fairweather1 September 2014
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    Alistair-Fairweather-180-profileWhenever mankind makes a great technological leap forward, we expect utopia will soon follow. But even the greatest invention in history, the Internet, is subject to the gravitational forces of reality.

    When the Internet entered the mainstream in the 1990s, it coincided with a period of unusual optimism. The Berlin Wall fell, South Africa emerged from apartheid and economic reforms in China and India began lifting millions of people out of poverty.

    The Internet, futurists told us, would sweep away the remaining ills of the past. Universal education, access to finance, efficient global markets and a dozen other ideals were now within our grasp. Ignorance would be banished and corruption vanquished, all by simply connecting humanity to itself.

    And in many ways they were right. Massive open online courses like the Khan Academy and Coursera are educating millions of people around the world for the cost of a basic Internet connection.

    Micro funds like Kiva provide the tiny amounts of capital that micro entrepreneurs in emerging markets need to set up self-sustaining businesses. And peer-to-peer markets like AirBnB, Lyft and Lending Club are unlocking value and empowering ordinary people around the planet while also reducing waste.

    But, like any tool, the Internet has its limits and its abuses. I’m not talking about the obvious horrors — crimes like money laundering, child pornography and global terrorism; all of which have thrived on the Internet. I’m talking about something much more subtle: prejudice.

    I don’t mean racism — although that is certainly part of it — I mean the unfortunate human trait of justifying and defending our own biases. We tend to believe that our own ideas and values are intrinsically good and correct, and that competing points of view are wrong and bad.

    Sadly, the Internet has slowly adjusted to cater to our worst instincts. Google and other search engines learn your preferences over time and prioritise the results you prefer. Facebook filters everything you see, trying to show you only what pleases you. And if it gets anything “wrong”, one click sets it straight. You need never see that unpleasant thing again.

    This kind of self-reinforcing filtering isn’t a problem when it comes to music or shoe brands. But when it comes to issues like public health, politics or economics, it can be incredibly dangerous.

    Take the debate around vaccination. Millions of parents are now delaying or completely forgoing vaccinating their children against diseases like polio, measles and rubella. They believe that there is a clear link between these vaccines and the onset of developmental disorders like autism.

    Unfortunately, this choice is based on false science and is dangerous for society as a whole. Measles was declared as “eliminated” from the US in 2000; the only cases recorded since then were “imported”. Last year, there were 175 cases; triple the average number of imported cases.

    The Centres for Disease Control is quite clear about why this is happening: vaccination coverage is falling for the first time in decades. Chillingly it notes that “unvaccinated children tend to cluster geographically and socially, increasing the risk for outbreaks. Increases in the proportion of persons declining vaccination for themselves or their children might lead to large-scale and sustained outbreaks…”

    It’s only a matter of time before measles begins to kill children in countries from which it was once banished. The same applies to polio, which crippled and killed generations of children. Well-meaning parents worried about autism are collectively risking a global pandemic.

    So, why don’t these parents believe the same science that I do? Because for every article disproving the link between vaccines and autism, there are three “proving” it. Google “vaccination causes autism” and you will see what I mean.

    Facebook is even more powerfully convincing than Google. If you’re a young parent, worried about inflicting an awful disorder on your child, you’re going to find millions of other young parents with the same fears and the same opinions.

    So, while the Internet can magnify truths, it can also magnify falsehoods. This effect is even more pronounced when it comes to murky fields like politics. The bombardment and invasion of Gaza by Israeli troops is a case in point.

    Throughout the siege, my Facebook timeline was awash with diatribes and polemics from both sides. Because Facebook equates activity with popularity, these mini debates constantly rose to the surface. And because I refused to “like” or comment on any of them, Facebook had no way to decide which side of the debate I “preferred” to see.

    Had I begun “liking” the pro-Palestinian posts or the pro-Israeli ones, the others would soon have faded into the background. Facebook’s interest is in pleasing me, not in encouraging debate. Facebook is not interested in fairness or open mindedness or debate, only in comfort and enjoyment.

    Facebook-640
    Facebook is not interested in fairness or open mindedness or debate, says the writer

    This is not Facebook’s fault. It’s just doing what it’s designed to do: keeping people “engaged” and happy by connecting them with other like-minded people. Unfortunately the net result is that, though we are living in an age of infinite information, existing in a comfortable bubble has never been easier.

    It’s tempting to shoot the messenger here, and people often do. The Internet is blamed for decreasing tolerance in everything from the US Congress to the Islamic Jihad. But really the Internet is just adjusting to our basest human instincts: the fear of the unknown and the need for safety. We are the problem. We have always been the problem.

    We should not have imagined that the Internet — or any other tool — would solve all our ills. It gave us the means to make millions of lives better in many small ways, and it is doing so every day. But it has not made us perfect. Only when we stop blaming our tools and each other, only when we stop talking and start really listening, only then will things begin to change. No technology can do that for us.

    • Alistair Fairweather is chief technology officer for Machine, an integrated advertising agency
    • This column was first published in the Mail & Guardian Online, the smart news source


    Alistair Fairweather Facebook Google
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleParliamentary meetings must be open: DA
    Next Article Telkom sets out home fibre targets

    Related Posts

    Stolen phone? Samsung now buys you an hour to lock it down

    18 June 2025

    Major rift opens between Microsoft and OpenAI

    17 June 2025

    Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

    17 June 2025
    Company News

    Making IT happen: how Trade Link gears up to enable SA retail strategies

    20 June 2025

    Why parents choose CambriLearn for online education

    19 June 2025

    Disrupt first, ask questions later – the uncomfortable truth about incident response

    18 June 2025
    Opinion

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    AI and the future of ICT distribution

    16 June 2025

    Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

    13 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.