Today, we take the internet for granted. We spend so much of our time hashtagging memories on Twitter and Instagram, sending self-destructing selfless on Snapchat, grabbing car rides and rooms on Uber and Airbnb, and sharing files on Dropbox, not to mention searching for stuff on Google, buying stuff on Amazon, and trading emails any which way we can. Our internet handhelds keep us perfectly connected to the rest of the world at all times.
But 20 years ago, the internet as we know it was just getting started, and people didn't really know what to make of it. In those days, "internet enthusiasts" had to clear things up for the n00bs. In 1993, John Allen, one such world wide web aficionado, went on a Canadian TV station to explain what the internet was and how people were using it. Naturally, his commentary (see above) is rather cute in hindsight. But what's so interesting is how he viewed the possibility of cyberbullies.
The internet, Allen says, was just like the real world, except it was easier to reach more people in more precise ways. In cyberspace, it's easier to find people who have the same interests because there are more of them and they congregate in carefully labeled areas. "In this world, there's a table with a big sign on it that says 'Football' and there's 150 or 1000 jocks all around the world who want to talk about football," he says. The internet, he explains, taps into our need to be "rooted" in other people.
This is still true today. But, in 1993, Allen also sees a certain civility in the internet--or just "internet," as the news reporter in this clip calls it. "There's an interesting kind of restraint you find," Allen says. "It's not screenfuls of 'go to hell,' which is surprising."
Twenty years on, that's not really the case. Screenfuls of "go to hell"--and much stronger language--are everywhere, and trolls have become a really big problem, especially for women. Roughly one in three teens who use the internet has been harassed online, and girls are more at risk of being cyberbullied, according to the Pew Research Center. And because the online and physical worlds are beginning to blur, cyberattacks can creep offline.
But in one sense, Allen was right. The internet does give us access to more people in more precise ways. That's true even if you're a bully.
