My first show for "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" was focused entirely on making internet harassment and trolling feel real. Because at the time, just a few years ago, that felt like an argument that needed to be made. The consequences of how we behaved online seemed somewhat disconnected from reality, and I wanted to talk to people whose experience of internet culture told a different story.
Revisiting that show this week, in 2019, the idea that the internet affects real life seems obvious — for better or worse. You don't have to look too far to hear incredibly nuanced and insightful things about how the internet shapes all of our lives — The New York Times' Kevin Roose talking about the connection between internet memes and the mosque attacks in New Zealand, This American Life dedicating a full hour to internet troll hunters, and even comedian John Oliver spending a full segment talking about how the anonymity of online life has brought us into a dark age of widespread online public shaming.
The case for covering the intersection of technology and culture seriously has been made and made well — both by TTBOOK and others. This weekend, we look to the past and ahead to the future in a full hour at building a bigger, more inclusive internet.
But where do we go from here? Giving digital citizens the tools to hold tech companies better accountable? Or maybe shining a light on the places where technology might actually have a shot at solving impossibly intractable problems?
After being shaken at the destructive potential for internet culture in the past several years, I'm hoping to find more stories of how the internet might actually save us all. I don't know for sure what we'll find as we look, but I'm excited to see what we all find out together.
—Mark