Rock the Internet Blues! A critical view of the evolution of the Internet from civil society

• Autor(a) principal: Pimienta, Daniel
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Rodríguez Leal, Luis Germán
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Ibero-americana de Ciência da Informação
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/RICI/article/view/33041
• topic: Internet; Comunidade virtual; Redes sociais; Emergência digital; Literacia da informação; Sociedade global do conhecimento; Internet; Comunidad virtual; Redes sociales; Emergencia digital; Alfabetización informacional; Sociedad global del conocimiento; Egomación; Internet; Virtual community; Social network; Information literacy; Global knowledge society; Information ethics; Egomation

Starting from an analysis of the differences between virtual communities and social networks, a critical description is developed of how the Internet has evolved in the last 20 years towards a situation marked by the end of dialogue and the obsessive promotion of visions centered on egocentric interests. The historical singularity from which this situation was triggered is identified in Google's decision, in the early 2000s, to make advertising the focus of its business strategy and how it transformed, with the help of others Technology Giants (TG), users in user-products and then agents of their own marketing, with the use of their egomation. The paper investigates the role played by civil society specialized in global information society issues, where it has presented little resistance to the changes that have arisen along the way. In addition to representing a divorce with the shared initial utopias, this evolution is a threat with important repercussions in the non-virtual world, including the weakening of the democratic foundations of our societies. After showing some dystopian perspectives, some concrete guidelines are proposed to change course, highlighting the most important measure: that of declaring a digital emergency that contemplates massive education programs to insert citizens in the ethical challenges, the potentialities and risks of the global knowledge society and especially in what information literacy means.