The Internet Vs. Critical Thinking

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A recent article in TechNewsWorld raises the point that the Internet could conceivably cater to those who prefer not to be exposed to news or information that contradicts their own personal beliefs. Before the days of online news and RSS feeds, people were forced to develop a critical lens that would help them to digest different types of information, but has the web eliminated our need for this? The article writer asks the question, "Does the Internet make for shallowness of thought?"

The problem with such reasoning is that when you talk about regulating the internet, you are inevitably talking about censorship, which tends to concern people. "Can we change people's reading habits so they can think critically about what they read on the Internet? Perhaps. Should we do so? Only if we consider ourselves appointed the guardians of the public weal."

In other interesting news, a new Harvard-based site called Herdict.org allows people to anonymously report suspected cases of internet censorship. Robert Guerra, a project director for the Internet Freedom Program at Freedom House who was quoted in the article, says that censorship is "far more pervasive than people think."

Heredict's model is community based and usually beats the media to the punch on reporting censorship as a result.

Curt works for Journyx, which has solutions to help improve business execution.

Curt Finch

Curt Finch has more than two decades of software development and distributed workforce management experience. In 1997, Curt created the world's first internet-based timesheet application and the foundation for the current Journyx product offering. Curt has a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. His book, All Your Money, is available on Amazon. @curtfinch