The Guardian's Interview with Andrew Keen, author of "The Internet is Not the Answer"
After listening to the The Guardian's February 4th podcast titled The Internet is not the answer - Tech Weekly podcast I realized I was in disagreement with Andrew Keen's perspective of technology and the internet in general. Of course time and more information may change my viewpoint but, at this point, I retain my positive thoughts about the internet and digital age. As a result of that podcast, I have requested the latest of Keen's books, "The Internet Is Not the Answer", through an inter-library loan. I did this through the library website.
In the podcast Alexs Krotoski interviews Keen about "The Internet Is Not the Answer." It is a lively discussion and I find myself thinking Keen's puts too much emphasis on what he considers to be a negative role that technology and the internet are playing in our society. In a review of Keen's book by John Naughton at The Guardian, Naughton sums up Keen's point of view, "Far from being the “answer” to society’s problems, Keen argues, the internet is at the root of many of them. As a result, it poses an existential question for democracies everywhere: can elected governments control the waves of creative destruction now sweeping through our societies as the digital revolution gathers momentum?"
Where is the digital revolution taking us? Is it necessarily destructive? Is the standing of experts declining as the result of technology? These are a few of the questions that were not discussed in any depth by Keen in the podcast.
Keen kept his discussion to business, monopolies, the personalities involved in the digital world and the negatives in the advance of technology. Two examples of negatives that Krotoski gives as a quote from Keen in the beginning of the podcast are "media is really anti-social" and "the sharing economy is really the selfish economy."
Certainly the internet is changing the landscape of business and education. Look at company websites, online advertisements, online shopping opportunities, museum websites chock full of information, individual online courses, online degree programs, and apps such asYouTube.
At YouTube you can find information on any subject. Let's take Amira Willinghagen as an example of how YouTube can help make dreams come true. Amira is a young girl who wanted to sing. She went to YouTube to find out how to sing and is now singing. In fact, there is a YouTube video of her singing! She performs and, indeed, has an album for sale. Half of all the proceeds from her performances and sales go to a charity she formed. Wikipedia has a wonderful article about her.
As the podcast interview progressed Keen admitted the positive aspects of the internet and began to frame his book as more of a documentation of technology. In fact, Keen's conclusion at the end of inteview was clear - technology is not the scapegoat and the point of his book is more about explaining the breath and depth of the changes technology is creating in this world.
This certainly was an excellent podcast and another excellent example of technology and the internet.
Resources:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/audio/2015/feb/04/internet-andrew-keen-tech-weekly-podcast
http://techcrunch.com/author/andrew-keen/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Keen
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-the-internet-is-not-the-answer-by-andrew-keen/2015/01/02/8627999a-7973-11e4-9a27-6fdbc612bff8_story.html
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/01/internet-is-not-the-answer-review-andrew-keen
https://www.youtube.com/qDqTBlKU4CEwatch?v=
http://www.amazon.com/Amira-Willighagen/e/B00JOMTIUS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amira_Willighagen
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