[People] somehow assume that the Internet is going to be the catalyst of change that will push young people into the streets, while in fact it may actually be the new opium for the masses which will keep the same people in their rooms downloading pornography.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that the Internet might not lead to the empowerment of young people but could instead trap them in passive consumption.
Evgeny Morozov's quote critiques the commonly held belief that the Internet will inspire social change among young people. Instead, he argues that it may serve as a distraction that keeps them indoors, passively consuming content rather than actively participating in societal change, effectively likening it to a modern opiate that dulls their engagement with the world around them.
In practice
In a debate about youth activism today, this quote could illustrate the potential distractions posed by the internet.
Just as Josef K, the protagonist of Kafka's 'The Trial,' awoke one day to discover that he had become part of some unfathomable legal carnival, we, too are frequently waking to discover that the rules of the digital game have once again profoundly changed.
Technological defeatism - a belief that, since a given technology is here to stay, there's nothing we can do about it other than get on with it and simply adjust our norms - is a persistent feature of social thought about technology. We'll come to pay for it very dearly.
For many oppositional movements, the Internet, while providing the opportunity to distribute information more quickly and cheaper, may have actually made their struggle more difficult in the long run.
I have no problem with technological solutions to social problems. The key question for me is, 'Who gets to implement them?' and, 'What kinds of politics of reform do technological solutions smuggle through the back door?'
The newspaper offers something very different from Google's aggregators. It offers a value system, an idea of what matters in the world. Newspapers need to start articulating that value.
Social media's greatest assets - anonymity, 'virality,' interconnectedness - are also its main weaknesses.
Green technologies - going green - is bigger than the Internet. It could be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.
When you talk to a human in 2035, you'll be talking to someone that's a combination of biological and non-biological intelligence.
It is deeply against my principles to work on any project that I think is to weaponize AI.
If there's any object in human experience that's a precedent for what a computer should be like, it's a musical instrument: a device where you can explore a huge range of possibilities through an interface that connects your mind and your body, allowing you to be emotionally authentic and expressive.
Wandering around the web is like living in a world in which every doorway is actually one of those science fiction devices which deposit you in a completely different part of the world when you walk through them. In fact, it isn't like it, it is it.
We are now living in a completely digitalized world and a completely globalized world, so we have to find some new mechanisms and values to deal with this post-digitalized and post-globalized world.
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