Why CAN’T The Internet Be More?

That question has been on my mind a lot lately: Why can’t the Internet be more? Do more, offer more? The answer, obviously, is that it can. And in some ways, it already is. I’m not talking about increasing the volume of mindless “stuff.” I’m talking about better, more intelligent material on the Web.

You see, The Humanity Project offers our cutting-edge website in the belief that the public can learn to appreciate richer, fuller content on the Internet. We’re all so used to “surfing the ‘Net” that we’ve just accepted the idea that everything has to be very short, very quick, very loud, very flashy – but with little substance. Bang, bang, bang. “Hey, let’s check that out. BORING! What about this? Or that? Oh look, I got a new email. Maybe there’s a joke in it!” Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having fun or being entertained. But maybe the Internet also can enrich and improve people’s lives, like a good book or movie.

So our website challenges visitors a bit more than many websites. We do that deliberately because we think that the Web can offer quality blogs and podcasts, with good writing and good sound and good original music. We think that the Internet can provide a new way for artists to express themselves. (That’s what our feature, “A Human Drama,” is trying to do – using the Internet as a totally new medium, a hybrid form that offers a mixture of reading and watching a film and listening to a broadcast.) We also feel sure that people can learn to enjoy sitting at their computers to read quality writing for more than five minutes before surfing off to something else. (That’s what our other main feature, “The Hidden Mind,” is trying to give the public – a non-fiction book, published one chapter at a time, that will help people improve their lives.)

Try thinking for yourself about the possibilities of the Internet. Should technology with the ability to reach billions of people for free be merely a toy, as the Internet often is now? Or even just a tool for fast communication and dry research? Why can’t it also inspire and move and enlighten at the same time as it entertains? That’s what great books and films and music and visual art have always done. Maybe, just maybe, the Internet can too. At The Humanity Project, we’re creating our website in the belief that it can. -- RSK