Late at night a college student stares into the cathode ray tube that is telling him about Cindy Crawford's current bust size. His neighbor is typing a paper based on the Wired article that was just downloaded off of the net. Later in the evening (or morning, depending on how one looks at it) they are both "surfing" Usenet for helpful information, such as what the phasers are calibrated to on away missions and how to properly use a Bresemham Line Drawing algorithm. Across town, students of equal age and intelligence are flipping burgers and sitting in public libraries. Students are still become educated, but the cultures they are growing into are dividing. The library of congress in moving to electronic books. The Times can be found on the World Wide Web. Voters can send their views to the President of the United States from a lowly AOL account or better. It might seem as if a growing portion of the population is getting access to information, but in truth only a particular portion is getting access. Students with college account and sometimes highschool students are gaining access though schools. Large and small business that can afford the fees are gaining access for employee communication. An ever growing portion of the upper middle class is gaining access though providers such as Compusever, Delphi, and America On-Line. The problem is the growing portion of the lower class and lower middle class (mostly minorities) who are not getting access to these services due to lack of funds to pay for these services. As time progress, the split between the have net and have no net will increase as cultures develop independently and as the information that the academic and business communities depend on become more dependent on the "net" those who have no training (i.e. are not literate) in the net will loose touch with a larger and larger section of the academic and business community.
First we must answer a simple question, is it possible for people to have social and cultural interaction using only telecommunication as a medium? David Belson would say yes, it is possible. He would cite the WEIRD conference, created under the VAXNotes conferencing software at Stevens Institute of Technology, where conversation between friends who only know people by an electron handle will talk and trust each other with their hopes and fears. He would mention that members of the WELL consider themselves to have a community, based on the sentiments of inhabitants after the suicide of one of the members. On a similar vein, Andy Hawk, author of the Manifesto for FutureCultures, sees the internet as an natural extension of an already technology based society. He would say that cultural interaction over telecommunication is already happening, and politely point to television, radio and telephone. Mr. Hawk would say that while it is possible to have a culture on the net, it is more important for it to be an enhancement for the already existing cultures, and not a replacement.
With a different view on the idea of separate cultures, Scott Adams, the artist of the comic strip Dilbert, wrote an essay on why he believed that men who used computers would become the sex symbols of the 90's. He humorously puts people who understand computers on a pedestal, while those who do not will eventually "grow tails, sit in zoos and fling dung at tourists". He concludes that he does not thing people who do not use computers are less attractive, it is only that none of them would be reading his essay in the first place. He has taken advantage of the idea of one cultural group not venturing into the territories of another social group. With confidence, he can use non-computer users as the butt of his joke, because if the essay is to be read as it was distributed--through electronic means--then those who might be offended would not be reading his essay. If one believes a culture can be defined by the media that are in common use, such as the books, televisions shows, songs, and papers, then by Mr. Adam's statement, a schism is forming between those who use computers and those who do not, simply for the reason that they will be basing their knowledge on different sources. This is an extension of the idea of authors catering to ideals of the target audience.
Proof of the growth of internet can be the fact that this essay, if presented as the author intended, is being read over electronic communication. Knowing that the audience is using electronic means, I can make make assumptions about other resources the reader has available. If I should mention the World Wide Web and the reader does not have full knowledge about this topic, I can point the reader to a place where he or she can gain that information, On a more cultural reference, I could use in passing words like grok and grep and be certain that if the reader does not know what I am talking about, they can find the background to the reference that is being made. Conversely, if the reader is viewing this essay outside of electronic communication, more specifically, without the use of a web browser, materials that might make this essay shorter such as links to relevant documents instead of excepts of the actual documents will not be available.
In order for the internet to become an integral portion of the society, it must be used by many people, but the concept that the internet is going to connect everyone eventually is flawed. There are only two way for the average citizen to connect to the internet: through a telephone connection through a local are network. By and large, anyone not in a business or academic environment will have a telephone connection to a commercial service provider, which comes with fees. As with other communities, the only people who will "be around" are those who can afford it, the upper class down to the middle class. The problem is the lower middle class and the lower class will not have these services available, and could be considered discriminated against, not just minorities by race or origin, but by income. Then again, hauben@columbia.edu from his essay The Net and Netizens would disagree. He would say the Net brings together people from diverse walks of life, and makes it easier for these people to communicate.
"Easy connection to people and ideas from around the world has a powerful effect. Awareness that we are just member of the human species that spans the entire globe changes a persons point of view. It is a broadening perspective. It is very easy for people to assume a limited point of view if they are only exposed to certain ideas. The Net brings the isolated individual into contact with people, opinions, and views from the rest of the world."This view can be seen as an extension of Sylvia Scribners, author of Literacy in Three Metaphors, concept of literacy as a state of grace. She would say that by having the "net connection" one has the opportunity to become literate and cultured in the "net" society. Without a "net connection", one cannot participate in the the social interaction that can develop therein. Scribner might then compare knowledge of the internet to the idea of literacy as power because having the wealth of human knowledge at one's fingertips can definitely be considered a form of power.
As the next wave of communication passes over humanity, many people will be left behind. The only way to lessen the blow will be for those who have access to share with those who do not. This could range from government subsidies to commercial providers to publicly accessible computer clusters. At any rate, the future of communication is leaning toward the electronic ether, and only those with access will reap the benefits.
The Hacker's Dictionary, http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_21.html
hauben@columbia.edu, The Net and Netizens, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ch.7_netizen.html
Hawk, Andy FutureCultures, http://www.uio.no/~mwatz/futurec/
Scribner, Sylvia "Literacy in Three Metaphors" American Journal of Education , vol 93, pp 6-21, Copyright (c) 1984 by the University of Chicago.
Usenet FAQ List, http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html