The Trouble With Sweeping Questions About the Internet

[Commentary] Confusion about the Internet’s role is endemic in today’s public sphere. And that’s in part because we keep asking the wrong questions. The wrong kind of question asks whether the Internet can cause positive social change. Unless you define “the Internet” as the technology together with everyone who uses it, the Internet is an inanimate tool, just a communication channel.

The Internet is not, nor will ever be, the primary, systematic cause of real political change any more than lanterns -- “one if by land, two if by sea” -- were the primary cause of the American revolution. “Can technology X cause social change Y?” Answer “yes” and you’ve granted technology more agency than it has; answer “no” and you’re denying that technology has any role to play. These questions are loaded, because the key issue isn’t about technology at all but, rather, “What social, economic, and political conditions would change people en masse?"

[Toyama is the W.K. Kellogg Chair Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information]