The Internet society
In terms of the time bias and space bias, I think the Internet is very high on the space bias but low on the time bias. The Internet as a communication medium can cover a vast geographical area immediately. Like some people said, the Internet killed distance. However, the Internet is low on the time bias. Information online is changing all the time and at a high speed. When website pages are updated, it is usually very hard to find the pervious versions. So it is easy to get the latest information, but can be very difficult to have the information last long.
Based on its high space bias and low time bias, Innis probably would propose that the Internet is a communication medium that encourages geographical extension and democratic society and discourages long lasting tradition and customs.
Take the geographical extension as an example. Though nowadays’ state boundaries are more stable than in earlier human history, and therefore territory expansion is less frequent, political and cultural influence can and in many cases has successfully overcome geographic barriers with the use of the Internet. Similar to Innis’s analysis of radio, the Internet changed the communication boundaries from the political and geographical ones to the linguistic one, i.e. it extends influences to people speaking the same language. Therefore, the Internet should encourage people to look beyond their local area and have more interest in the outside world.
Many people also share the belief that the Internet encourages democracy. If newspaper, and radio have encouraged democracy by quickly disseminating information and creating an informed public, the superior speed the Internet offers should render it great contribution to the development of democracy. Even better than newspaper and radio, the Internet breaks the information monopoly, and give the voice to diverse parties – a basic characteristic of a democratic society.
However, since the online information is low on the time bias, it is hard to have long lasting tradition and customs. A piece of online information can have enormous impact in a moment, and completely lose the impact the next moment. Tradition and customs are replaced by fads, which come and go quickly without many deep meanings.
Therefore, the Internet society could be one in which people receive information fast, react to information fast, but show no profound patterns or principles for those reactions.