This house believes that the internet is dumbing us down - closing speeches

Third proposing speech

No one will nowadays contradict the fact that internet became the biggest network world wide, and that the amount of data stored and accessible by everyone is amazing. However, internet is dumbing us down. [...]

by EB

Third opposing speech

It is now time to close this debate. The critics have clearly failed arguments. They said Internet was stupid, unproductive, lacking of quality. Were they wrong? Yes! As DKK said, Internet is a very great tool. But like any tool, you have to know how to use it and be honest about its use. [...] 

by MIR
 

Third proposing speech

No one will nowadays contradict the fact that internet became the biggest network world wide, and that the amount of data stored and accessible by everyone is amazing. However, internet is dumbing us down.

First, DKK said that quantity does not matter, if you know what you are looking for when searching on internet. In fact, many analytic tools could help you getting the right information at the right time. However, there is a paradigm between the information you get from internet, and the information you acquired from books and libraries. Many studies realized by neurobiologists conclude that when we are online, we enter a new environment and behavior that drives to cursive reading, hasty and absentminded reflection, and partial apprenticeship of information read. The same information gather from internet will be misunderstand (at least less understand) than the one from traditional sources of information. Also, while searching on your favorite search engine information, you should know that, most of the time, results will not be sorted by order of relevance, but by the price websites and companies paid Google for appearing on top of the list. 

Internet is full of information. But what kind of information? Please note that one page out of three on internet is pornographic page. There are more than 233 million internet websites. There are two hundred times less book editors. Books are a pledge of quality of information contained in their pages. No any label or standard or even certification exists for information on internet. How could you be sure of the source? Do you believe in Wikipedia or blogs, or even forums? But this is another debate…

Then, there are several brain issues on internet. First, internet drives bad attitude and addicting behavior. Doctor Kimberly Young introduced in 1996, at a time where internet was not yet wide spread, the fact that internet is a source of addiction as well as drugs. The time spends by people on their computer increased by 63% during the last five years: an average French adult spends 3h22 on internet per day… It becomes the first activity done by adults since 2009: surfing on internet. 

DKK said that internet is a strong competitive edge in the medical sector. First, most of medical information technologies are not online: super calculators for medical imaging are offline. Moreover, Internet will never replace a doctor. Many people now prefer going on Doctissimo, describe their symptoms, and be medically advised by anonymous that have never been to any school of medicine.

Even if you could exchange data with your friends, family and so on through internet services (email, Facebook…), it will never replace your social life. For more information, please refer to last week debate: Facebook is not a place for friends…

Internet is a useful tool for business…or not. As DKK said, it could be used to send contracts, reports… worldwide. But it can also send human resources confidential reports to employees, as it happens yesterday at Sogeti/Capgemini. Embarrassing situation, isn’t it?

So, to conclude, internet is for sure a powerful and useful tool. It totally replaced traditional medias and sources of information (Even newspapers are more electronically read than their paper versions). But please don’t forget that everyone could publish on internet. Quantity and simpleness of use are not a pledge of quality of the information. Our brains are now format: gather information as quickly as possible, by reading as less as possible.

A driver could have a car accident because of his behavior. But why do we manufacture cars able to drive at 200mph? 

EB

Third opposing speech

It is now time to close this debate. Indeed, critics have clearly failed arguments. They said Internet was stupid, unproductive, lacking of quality. Were they wrong? Yes! As DKK said, Internet is a very great tool. But like any tool, you have to know how to use it and be honest about its use. [...]

Yes with Internet we can find everything. Information but not only!

Thanks to various websites and business models that have emerged with the development of Internet, we have clearly the choice. We can obtain information concerning news, events, businesses ... and also find love and friends…
And we can look for entertainment, watch the weather, a movie, listen to music ... and many others uses.

But it is clear that if somebody is working, and also listening to music and discussing with her sister on the Internet, productivity is rather low.
It's a choice. And we must be honest about this choice.

If you decide to make a search for your job and you're also on Facebook, do not blame Internet and Facebook about the possible poor quality of your work.
When you are at work, you must be motivated and determined, it’s the same thing!

You'll be a little less productive if you decide to drink a coffee with your colleagues every 30 minutes.

We also have to recognize another fact: on Internet, you can really find everything of variable quality: good and bad.
The notion of experience is also important. Indeed, we often speak about people who may not have known Internet (maybe some pensioners). We notice these people sometimes have rather negative opinion.
Currently, in order to find the right information, it is clear that it could be preferable to have some experience. These people should be supported with their new PC (or MAC), it is normal.

About information found on Internet, it is important to identify the author of the information and the person or organization that verifies information…like any other medium of information!

It is true that on Internet many people can write something. It may be unknown people, or press, public and private organizations, universities, schools and associations… They are mostly unknown people who publish with more or less legitimacy.
To determine the validity of the information on Internet, one of method is to select the right sources of information. We must rely on recognized websites that are valid. Globally it can be better to get information from a newspaper rather than a blog that tells a story briefly and incompletely.
It is also important to identify expertise and amateurism that do not produce the same type of information and the same certainty level of information.

With a little experience on the net, it is not honest to say that we cannot make the difference between information and key information less important.

To conclude this discussion, I wish to develop this notion of honesty about the net. Indeed, we said, the Internet is a tool and nothing else. What is the strength of this tool? It is its worldwide nature, constituted by many users.
On Internet, there are many uses. Unfortunately we see that some people blame this tool saying it is the source of their difficulties, while the real problem is the combination of work and leisure in the same time.

MIR