week4 task 1 c

The Internet world provides us with new ways of communicating and receviing free information’s from people online, as Koolock puts it online is a “gift economy.” We can see that in this sense the Internet is a useful device. However as active consumers of the Internet we have to be careful with the types of information we receive. For example, if we were to search online for health advise we have to be careful what sites are trustworthy, that of the government obviously would be useful and one to trust. But general online sites and especially the likes of wikipedia make it easy to acquire information that maybe false. The suggestion that the internet is a “gift economy,” is true but these gifts may in fact be unpleasant. Cookies, viruses, unwanted spam such as that from advertisers for lipo suction and so on are all types of “dangerous materials” that lack use. Viruses especially “have caused so much damage that in the last few years many Internet users have become extremely cautious” (White: 47). Because there are fewer restrictions online, the freedom to essentially search and do what you want will mean you will always encounter the unsafe and unreliable. Despite the fact that freedom allows for greater involvement in academic discussions around the world as Durkheim would have us believe. There are in fact negative implications to such freedom, who and what do we trust?