Innis and the Internet
Today's Question: What would Innis make of the Internet? Write a brief analytical comment about the relation of the Internet to society that you can defend as consistent with Innis's ideas in some way. For example, you might employ one of his concepts (information monopoly, time-biased, space-biased) or borrow one of his analyses from an earlier technology (cuneiform's effects on the invention of abstraction in math) and apply it to the Internet.
My Response:
When thinking of Innis and Internet together, the first question hit my mind is how Innis would label Internet. That is, is Internet time-biased or space-biased? It seems that Internet belongs to neither category, but the Internet has the advantages of both at the same time. For service providers, the operation of the Internet requires heavy media and devices, such as cables, computers, routers and etc. All of them are not very portable to provide stable services. The Internet for the users, however, is independent of specific devices. Individual users can always access the Internet no matter where they are and what receivers they are using, which could be laptops, desktops, or even PDAs and cell phones. So, the Internet is both portable and unportable. On the other hand, while the information on the Internet is constantly changing, it is usually convenient to find archived information with the help of search engines. So, it could be said that the Internet is both changing and stable. Innis may conclude that the Internet breaks the limitation of time and space and thus doesn’t fit into the “time-biased and space-biased” classification.
Actually, the Internet integrated almost all communication methods and media adopted by human beings. On the Internet, people can exchange information using oral method with the help of audio or video communication tools. Written characters and texts are also widely used on the Internet in all kinds of websites. Radio and TV services are provided online as well.
Another important characteristic of the Internet is that individuals are no longer silent information receivers. They can easily become information providers. Consequently, this new technology has the potential of breaking the information and knowledge monopoly, and can eventually change the social relations and the society structures.