.............................................
The Internet
Top 5 Myths About the
Internet
BY DAVE ROOS
Bill
Gates will pay you $245 for forwarding this e-mail.
At
the stroke of midnight, March 31, the Internet will be shut down for 24 hours
for its annual spring cleaning.
Microsoft
is developing a portable toilet with Internet access called the iLoo.
Sound
familiar? Those are just a tiny sampling of the thousands of ridiculous
Internet myths that have run the spam e-mail circuit over the past decade.
Not
that we ever believed any of them, of course.
What
is it about the Internet that makes it such fertile territory for goofy hoaxes,
elaborate jokes and urban legends?
Perhaps
because many of us are so awed about how much the Internet has changed our
lives, yet equally clueless about how the thing actually works.
As
a result, we find ourselves taken in by the Internet's many distractions --
some innocuous, some quite harmful.
What
follows, in no particular order, are the top five myths that continue to warp
our understanding of the Internet, its origins, who controls it, how it makes
people rich (or poor) and who's prowling in its darkest corners.
5 Al Gore Invented the
Internet
This one's actually a myth within a myth.
The
first myth is that former vice president Al Gore invented the Internet.
The
second myth is that Al Gore ever claimed to have "invented" anything.
On
March 9, 1999, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer interviewed Al Gore as Gore was
beginning his 2000 presidential campaign.
Answering
a question about what he would bring to the table, Gore replied:
"During
my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the
Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives
that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and
environmental protection, improvements in our educational system."
Even
Gore's most loyal defenders admit that if he never meant to take sole credit
for the creation of the Internet, he phrased it awkwardly.
It
didn't take long for critics to leap upon what appeared to be a gross
overstatement, if not an outright lie.
Two
days after the interview, journalist Declan McCullagh wrote a story for Wired
News lambasting Gore for exaggerating his role in the Internet's creation, and
then followed up his story with an e-mail newsletter titled, "House
Majority Leader Armey on Gore 'inventing the Internet'" [source: Finklestein].
The
story exploded, and although Gore never uttered the words "invented the Internet," that phrase would be repeated in
nearly 5,000 news stories and countless late night talk show monologues during
the campaign [source: Boehlert].
While
Gore did popularize the phrase "information superhighway" and
supported early high-speed network legislation, the men traditionally credited
with "inventing" the Internet are Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn [source: Google].
4 Your ISP Is Tracking
Your Every Move
Your Internet service provider (ISP) is your local
link to the worldwide computer network known as the Internet.
Every
page request you make and every e-mail you send must travel through your ISP's
routers first.
It
would seem, therefore, that your ISP has the power to scan and save every piece
of data that flows through its system.
The truth is that it does have the power.
Fortunately
for us, it doesn't have the money or the desire to archive every bit of
information that comes its way.
ISPs in the United States don't routinely save the Web
surfing histories and e-mail conversations of their users [source: McCullagh].
It
would simply be too expensive to save all of that data and the public outcry
from privacy rights and civil liberties organizations would be deafening.
However, ISPs can (and do) track the online behavior
of suspects targeted by an ongoing Homeland Security or law enforcement
investigation into charges of terrorism or child pornography.
In European Union countries, ISPs are now required by
a European Commission regulation to save e-mail logs of their users for up to
two years [source: Tryhorn].
The
e-mail logs don't contain the contents of the messages, only information on who
sent messages to whom and when. The logs can be used in criminal
investigations.
A hot topic in the U.S. concerns ISPs who partner with
advertising firms that store cookies on users' browsers to collect
"behavioral targeting" data designed to cater to visitors of various
Web sites.
The
advertisers claim they don't associate collected data with individual IP
addresses, but privacy groups are still up in arms [source: Greenburg].
3 The Internet Is Filled
With Sexual Predators
Every parent wants to protect his or her children from
emotional, psychological and physical harm.
That's
why parents are so disturbed by programs like Dateline NBC's "To Catch a
Predator" and news stories that portray the Internet as a breeding ground
for sexual stalkers.
The
truth, according to a recent report by David Finkelhor -- director of the
University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center -- is
that the Internet hasn't created a new kind of child predator.
Instead,
the Internet has provided a new medium for an old phenomenon: adults looking
for underage sexual partners.
The
study finds that in the vast majority of "online predator" cases, the
adult perpetrator clearly identified himself online as an adult looking for sex
with minors [source: Wolak et al].
Most
predator crimes are statutory rape, not sexual assault, meaning that sexual
relations between the parties involved weren't forced.
This
is an uncomfortable subject, but an important distinction, says mother and
Daily Beast columnist Lenore Skenazy.
Instead
of banning a child from using Facebook, for example, parents can focus on
teaching their children about healthy relationships [source: Skenazy].
And
teachers and authorities can focus on the danger signs -- abuse at home, drug
use, isolation from peer groups -- that would lead a young person to engage in
risky online behavior.
2 Everything You Read on
the Internet Is True
The Internet has revolutionized the publishing and
media industries.
Anyone
with an Internet connection can instantly share their thoughts and opinions
with a worldwide audience. The result, according to Google, is that there are
well over a trillion unique Web pages [source: Alpert].
Since anyone can publish a Web site, you can never
tell where that information comes from.
That's
not the case: By using a relatively simple set of guidelines, you can evaluate
the credibility of information on any Web site.
The first thing you should examine is the Web address
itself. Does it end in .gov or .edu?
Does
it include a person's name? With nothing more than a URL, you already have a
good indication of the source of the material.
If the online material is an article, does it include
the author's name and publication date?
Search
the author's name and find out more about his or her experience and expertise.
If the article is old, consider whether it covers the kind of information that
changes quickly.
If you don't recognize the name of the Web site from
an offline publication -- newspaper, magazine or TV show -- read the site's
"about" section to find out more. Look for clear signs of bias or
commercial interests.
Above all, say the librarians of the University of
California at Berkeley, you should approach all online information with
"healthy skepticism" [source: UC Berkeley].
Use
the same analytical tools you would use to examine any other form of media. In
other words, consider the source.
1 The Internet Will Make
You Rich
If you believe the "I make $50,000 a day
online!" advertisements and spam e-mails touting the "Millionaire's
Secrets to E-Trading," then the Internet is one big gold mine just waiting
for a shovel.
Or
someone has a gorgeous suspension bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
It's
true that a few visionary -- and lucky -- entrepreneurs cashed in big when
venture capitalists and large brick-and-mortar companies funneled billions into
their fledgling tech startups during the dot-com boom years.
Huge
flops like Webvan, eToys and Pets.com made news, but the memory of these
flameouts would fade with time [source: German].
From
a business perspective, it's still tempting to think of the Internet as a magic
bullet for increasing sales on any existing product or service.
After
all, if millions of people are online, then you must have a huge customer base.
Then again, you may not.
Effective
online marketing is a tricky business.
It
requires savvy search engine optimization, complicated online advertising
models and sometimes even expensive offline commercials.
The
sad thing is that even if you can convince millions of people to visit your
site, there's no guarantee that they're going to buy anything [source: Borrego].
There's
no formula designed to ensure online business success. On fact, most online
businesses succeed or fail by the same principles as offline businesses.
The
quality of the product or service is the most important of all, followed by
your ability to forge and maintain excellent relationships with employees,
business partners and customers [source: Holloway].
Dave Roos
CONTRIBUTING
WRITER
Dave is a freelance journalist who has contributed hundreds
of articles to HowStuffWorks since 2007. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Dave attended Duke University where he earned the B.A. in comparative religious
studies that has served him so well. Dave began freelancing when he and his
wife moved to Mexico in 2003, publishing articles about Mexican food and
culture in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. Nearly 15
years and three kids later, Dave and his family recently moved back to Mexico
and just might stay a while.
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