Teaching about the Internet has never been more important
ORDER DIGITAL DISCONNECT
The internet, once hailed as an unrivaled tool of liberation and democratization, is now being sold off to the highest bidder and transformed into a tool of corporate surveillance, unchecked monopoly power, and unbridled political corruption. If you’re looking to help your students make sense of the larger history of how we got here – and especially how the systemic use of surveillance-driven advertising algorithms has been affecting our democracy – then be sure to check out this timely new film, Digital Disconnect.
Digital Disconnect trains its sights on the relationship between the internet and democracy in the age of fake news, filter bubbles, and Facebook security breaches. Moving from the development of the internet as a publicly funded project in the late 1960s to its full-scale commercialization today, renowned media scholar Robert McChesney traces how the democratizing potential of the internet has been radically compromised by the logic of capitalism and the unaccountable power of a handful of telecom and tech monopolies.
“The release of this film based on Robert McChesney’s Digital Disconnect, updated to the present moment, is a most welcome development. It is a major contribution to the enlightenment and self-defense of citizens.”
- NOAM CHOMSKY
Along the way, McChesney examines the ongoing attack on net neutrality by telecom monopolies like Comcast and Verizon; explores how internet giants like Facebook and Google have amassed huge profits by surreptitiously collecting personal data and selling it to advertisers; and shows how these companies have routinely colluded with the national security state to advance covert mass surveillance programs. Even more urgently, the film details how the rise of social media as a leading information source is working to isolate people into ideological filter bubbles and elevate fake news at the expense of real journalism.
While most debates about the internet continue to focus on issues like the personal impact of internet addiction or the questionable data-mining practices of individual companies like Facebook, Digital Disconnect digs deeper to show how capitalism itself is turning the internet against democracy. The result is an indispensable classroom resource — a vital tool for helping students make sense of a technological revolution that’s radically transforming virtually aspect of human communication.
