However, people do not make use of this knowledge, but instead react to input as if it were a traditional mass medium (TV, newspapers, magazines). This is even more destructive because it replaces journalism with randomness.
It’s not just about ‘knowledge’ it’s how people interact with that knowledge.
In a face to face conversation, a topic like Batman’s utility belt, will come up, be discussed for a few minutes, and then the conversation might shift to tear gas or handcuffs or super heroes in general.
If I’m on the web, I’ll find another idiot and spend three hours just discussing the utility belt and research the exact issue it first appeared.
By encouraging research into trivia, the web makes us less able to step back and focus on bigger issues.
Detective Comics #29. :)
Seriously, there’s a Wiki JUST FOR the utility belt.
I’m not saying that the internet isn’t a good thing. Everything you say is possible, desirable, and happens every day. But it comes at a price because people don’t know how to use it. Misinformation and hate are rampant because people see the internet (rightly so, given their informational independence - if they have any) as their primary source of information. However, things like quality journalism are no longer possible here because the business model no longer works at all. This means that there is no one left that does investigative journalism and that people have to inform themselves independently - which most just can’t and won’t do. The situation in the US is the logical result of that.
And as for Batman: I don’t even want to get started on Palantir and their Gotham project…
Any technology is going to be misused.
Sad, but true.
Making use of annas-archive, sci-hub, online courses, video lectures, etc. improves your knowledge.
Making use of platforms with an attention-economy shrinks it.
Yes, that’s true, but AI, such as meta LLMs, definitely makes use of it—and not to expand human knowledge, but for profit and also for what you call attention-economy (they will and in fact already do base their propaganda machines on sites like Anna’s archive since they don’t have to pay a dime to train their LLMs from these (of course) very valuable sources)
