40. Mythinformation

1986- Langdon Winner published his essay called "Mythinformation"

In the essay "Mythinformation," Winner provides his thoughts on computer technology and the cultural ramifications that have occured and will continue to occur should computer networking travel further down the same path without change. I agree with his support of the ideas that information brings knowledge and further, that knowledge equals power. The Internet is filled with vast amounts of information, however, most of this information is highly biased and opinionated. Therefore, how could such a system facilitate democracy? Additionally, knowledge based on hard evidence can lead to greater awareness of the world and a greater ability to develop sound opinions and judgements of the world, but knowledge does not equal power. Knowledge, when aquired through the internet can be deceptive because so many sources being utilized by network users lack credibility and present falsehoods which are often misconceived as truths. Overall, I think Winner made some very interesting points in his essay and it is very important for us to think about the good and the bad brought about by internet technology and try to advance the WWW possibly by developing monitoring systems that evaluate web content and rate it.