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The whistle-blower Edward Snowden belongs to the generation who grew up with the internet in the nineties. In his
autobiography he enthusiasticly describes the childhood of the web, about how he and his friends changed ideas and
teached each other about new ways of doing things, and about adult IT-people who were more than willing to answer
questions from the youth, without expecting money or other counter benefits. And Snowden makes this thought experiment:
Imagine that it could have continued that way . . .But this was before the money people and the monitorers began to
realize the possibilities this new technology could offer. And long before Mark Zuckerberg got the idea of Facebook.
Of course, it could not have continued in the way it started. But it is worth having in one's backhead how it could
have been, when one looks at what the web is today.
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I will in no way critizice that the web among other things also has grown into a huge marketplace. There are many
advantages connected to selling and buying on the web. On the other hand it is a fact that it in some
degree has defeated more traditional ways of trading, and thus is one of the reasons many small shops in the
cities have been closed down. I am also supporting that the police can use the web to fight criminality, although
important discussions have to be hold about how far they can go in monitoring people.
But I am very concerned about the enormous dominance the so-called "social media" have got on how we are using
the web, and how the companies behind them have grown to be the most powerful companies in the world, capable of
destroying newpapers and other media, manipulating political movements and important elections etc.
Below you will find links to various blogg posts I have made about these and related issues.
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