The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
It all started out so well, and so innocently. It was a means for people to use the internet to communicate with one another easily and quickly. They could say whatever they wanted to say to one another, and at no cost. They were already connected to the internet anyway.
Therefore it was a win-win. They could acquire a group of “friends.” A newly nuanced meaning was given to that word, as happens so frequently with many aspects of cyber-technology. They could instantly be in touch with one another whenever they desired. The means for doing this was called Facebook.
The idea was so innovative that a movie, The Social Network, was produced to tell the story. Mark Zuckerberg was famous in 2010, when the movie came out. After all, the teenager had founded Facebook in 2004. The movie merely added to his fame.
In 2010, Facebook had five hundred million subscribers and it was worth 25 billion dollars. Now it has 2.2 billion subscribers, and it is worth over 500 billion dollars. That makes its market capitalization the fifth most valuable technology corporation on the planet.
Remember though, Facebook, like many of its competitors, is basically in the advertising business. It is not really in the technology business. It is concerned with how many subscribers it has, not in what they say to one another by means of its “platform,” which is another of those tech-words with new meanings.
In a promotional come-on for the movie, there was an internet poster which read, “You Don’t Get 500 Million Friends Without Making a Few Enemies.” From its inception, it was recognized by all its innovators that social media might have a downside. However, it was thought to be basically a revolutionary new means of communication, and it was assumed any potential dangers would somehow take care of themselves.
Then there began to be accounts in old-fashioned new media --- newspapers, magazines, and televised news --- about children or teenagers committing suicide who had been taunted to death on Facebook or other social media. Nonetheless, many other examples of the social media kept springing up. Entrepreneurs of various sorts with varying degrees of ethical sensibility cashed in on this new technological treasure trove.
In 2016 there was a presidential election in the United States of America. Before that election, but especially afterwards, there were claims that social media had been used to affect the electoral outcome.
It was alleged that Russia had colluded to hand over the presidency to Donald Trump. A special prosecutor was named to investigate the matter, but the first sacrificial lamb was soon relieved of his responsibilities. The new prosecutor, Robert Mueller, after many continuing external political machinations, has been looking into the Russian connection, and many other suspicious issues, ever since.
Now, in the spring of 2018, Facebook itself, and not just the social media in general, has once again made the headlines. It has been alleged that the personal information of fifty million Facebook users was nefariously sold without their knowledge through a company named Cambridge Analytica. This information was then made available for who knows what and by whom. It is one of the most captivating conspiracy theories of the decade.
This breach of internet security did not occur in 2018, however. It happened in 2015. Facebook knew about it, but it could not figure out how to undo the damage. It did not do much, if anything, to fix the problem until it came to light via the old media in April of 2018.
Mark Zuckerberg, who has been genetically loath to appear in public to say anything about his colossally lucrative enterprise, felt obligated to appear on a CNN interview. He spoke many words, but he did not say much. He did admit that Facebook had made mistakes, and he assured his 2.2 billion subscribers that steps are being taken to prevent further such technological lapses.
It is not inconceivable that this scandal could bankrupt the fifth-most-valuable technology corporation in the world. If fifty million Facebookers launch a class-action suit against their heretofore favorite social medium, and win, all the accumulated fiscal value through all the thirteen years of Facebook’s existence could instantly disappear.
However, Facebook is not the essential problem. Social media are not the essential problem. The internet itself is the problem. Computers are the ultimate problem. There is so much information now cranked into this amazing and admirable post-modern technology that it cannot be safely contained or controlled.
All of the founders of cyber-technology were technological geeks. They understood its dangers as the rest of us were incapable of grasping. Nevertheless, no one has yet figured out how to avert the kinds of breaches in internet security represented by the latest Facebook brouhaha or by Russian hackers, or by everyone else intending to do harm via cybernetics.
Computer technology is invaluable in countless ways. In the modern world to which we have all acceded, we could not exist without it.
Still, as brilliant as are the minds of those who have positively assembled this immense new information powerhouse, other minds, equally brilliant, have concocted ways to use it for negative purposes. It is not right that geeky kids can utilize the internet to badger other kids into killing themselves. It is not ethical that information can be sold to the highest bidders or to agencies or governments that don’t even bid on the information but still use it to influence elections anywhere in the world they choose.
Computer technology, including social media, has the ability to transform the world for the better. In countless respects, that has already happened.
However, technology also can derail the world unless it can be properly regulated. Not nearly enough has been done to protect society from social media and computer technology.
Over twenty seven centuries ago there was a man who wrote about unethical people. His name was Hosea, and he was a prophet in Israel. He said of those who misappropriated their power, “They sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”
Another prophet said of his enemies in his dying moments, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” The validity of his alleged assessment is debatable.
The titans of technology know much about what they are doing. They must devise far better methods to keep everyone from doing what ought not to be done.
John Miller is a writer, author, lecturer, and preacher-for-over-fifty-years who is pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC.