Trippi, Lurie, and Kelly: Optimistic Viewpoints of the Internet Age

All three of these writers converge on a similar idea: the internet gives people power. Power to deconstruct, in Lurie’s opinion, power to interact in Kelly’s, and power to engage in Trippi’s. Lurie goes so far as to state that “the most powerful and pervasive source of moral relativism [is] the Web. Technology undermines traditional belief systems even as it creates a belief in a kind of heavenly paradise, a kind of Technopia.” The internet allows users to delve into creative processes, explore and research ideas, and express beliefs. And as Kelly points out, most of the information out there has been created by the users. In reality, we’re helping each other learn/explore/understand by compiling a giant web of information, largely by ourselves. The internet, as these writers see it, is definitely optimistic. Trippi states wholeheartedly that the internet connects us all, and “collective power is our greatest wealth” (205). With a technological tool as pervasive and accessible as the Internet, possibilities seem nearly endless. Kelly and Lurie point to innovations such as hyperlinks, that expand information on one source to multiple, opening the eyes of users to different viewpoints and perhaps, as Lurie and Trippi argue, a liberal, well-informed mindset.

Not only could the internet be influencing our views, it also is remembering everything that we put into it, creating what Kelly calls “the Machine”. He states, “The more we teach this megacomputer, the more it will assume responsibility for our knowing. It will become our memory. Then it will become our identity. In 2015 many people, when divorced from the Machine, won't feel like themselves - as if they'd had a lobotomy.” I feel like this is already occurring, long before the world of 2015 Kelly is creating. The iPhone, Blackberry, or Android phones can readily be seen as extensions of this Machine. These devices can behave like a phone, hold personal and business-related information (photos, memos, music, e-mail, contacts, the list goes on...), all while being connected to the Web, allowing posting on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc., as well as simple informational inquiry. It seems that more and more people (myself included) honestly rely on these technological devices, and treat them like extensions of themselves. Without these devices that allow for increased connectivity to the outside world, I believe that people feel as Kelly suggests—not themselves, and maybe in very extreme cases, “as if they’d had a lobotomy.”