“Are you are attracted and repelled by the Internet at the very same time?”

I came across the provocative question above in an advertisement in Fortune magazine recently. In the accompanying text the advertiser, MCI WorldCom, describes how experience has shown them that the Internet makes people experience many different emotions at the same time.

While the advertisement is targeted specifically at the business community, the question should strike a chord in many of us.

Undoubtedly, the technical and business developments of the Internet excite many users because of the endless possibilities it opens up. At a lecture in Singapore late last year, Internet pioneer Dr Vinton Cerf described how domestic appliances such as the humble refrigerator can be fitted with LCDs and scanners that detect the bar codes of products, and through the Internet remind the user what food items are past their expiry dates or need replenishing.

Dr Cerf (who coincidentally is also associated with MCI WorldCom) added that, in the future, when you are in a vehicle equipped with global positioning system capabilities, the Internet would allow you to locate a variety of services. Thus, even if you are in an unfamiliar neighbourhood, you will still be able to find what you are looking for — from shops providing photocopying services to Thai restaurants.

Renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough who said that Man’s passion to communicate and to receive communications seems as central to his success as a species as the fin is to the fish. Look at what this passion has spawned.

A paper from the Global Internet Project estimates that the number of Internet users tripled between 1993 and 1995 to somewhere between 40 million and 60 million. This number is expected to swell to a quarter billion regular users this year.

Companies such as the UK-based easyEverything will no doubt speed up the rapid growth of users. Since the middle of 1998, the company has been opening numerous outlets with each megastore having 400 or more Internet workstations and charging low rates for two-megabit connections and flat screens.

easyEverything’s logic is compelling for the person on the street — why buy an expensive home computer with its frequent technology changes if you are very likely going to use it for a very short time daily? With the efforts of companies such as easyEverything to bring in unconventional users, and the growing number of people going online, the gap between the information rich and poor is narrowing. easyEverything already envisions itself as the post office of the 21st Century.

Net gurus have pointed out that the advantages of having the Internet far outweigh any problems. I would agree, but all the same, the costs and the negative consequences ought to be considered, however unbalanced the equation may seem.

For some of the more obvious problems, demand will drive the creation of technical solutions. Thus, for hacking and for what society deems negative activities such as cyber-gambling and cyber-porn, we see solutions in the form of advances in encryption and secure delivery of sensitive information, along with blocking devices that keep out “undesirable information”.

However, as a sociologist, I think we should also consider some of the less obvious and perhaps more far-reaching social consequences of the Internet, including changes to behaviour, identity and our social life. For millions of users, the appeal of the Internet lies in its use as an information acquisition and communication device, as well as its interactive ability.

Like the telephone a century ago, the Internet, in providing these humble but critical utilities, has become an instrument that many cannot live without. This dependence is the basis of the Internet’s capacity for changing the lives of its users and, through the aggregation effect, brings about significant social change. We will look at examples from sex and religion, the mainstay of dinner conversations.

Go to Page 2