Lobo's essay

For those who might care, I present the first draft of my essay:

The Internet. Arguably the greatest thing man has created. It is an invention that has brought the sum of human experience and wisdom into each and every home. No doubt something to be loved by all. However, I believe that some of America’s greatest minds, namely Emerson, Whitman, and Thoreau would detest and fight against its existence.

Thoreau found the news to be a useless distraction. One that removed people from the area around them and brought their thoughts to faraway lands and to situations they had no power over whatsoever (not that they have much power on their own situations). Thoreau would have hated the Internet for its power to bring news and gossip from around the world to people in a matter of seconds. The Internet manages to connect people to all of the rest of Earth with ease. That’s what it was designed for. The Transcendentalists would have detested such interconnectivity. In an age where even the hobos have cell phones and laptops, where can one go to escape? The answer oddly enough lies within the Internet. While the Internet provides for an unprecedented amount of connection, it also allows for complete anonymity. Emerson said that one must retire from not only society but also from his chamber. This was necessary to escape from ideas other than your own original ones entering your mind. Emerson also said that “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” This leads me to the conclusion that Emerson not only wanted people to retire from their chamber, but also from themselves. The Internet’s total anonymity provides for the perfect way to escape oneself. On anonymous forums it is possible to express and think freely without fear of retribution for what is most probably nonconformity. In addition the immense amounts of different opinions leads to so much variability of what is expressed, coupled with the fact that everyone can add to it that there really is no fear of being too influenced. In every single little forum thread you can find so many conflicting opinions that you can easily build your own from scratch; and from there have an original opinion. So in that regard I say the Transcendentalists are wrong. The Internet does not deprive you in your ability to escape.
Another thing the Transcendentalist would find at fault with the very concept of the Internet is how it removes you from nature. To be on the Internet you must be on a computer and be near a source of bandwidth. These things are almost always found inside is the normal presumption. The Transcendentalists, who believe that nature is akin to God and that nature is that with which me must find a connection to, would loathe this dependency on streaming electrons. However again they would be wrong. While the Internet can easily be seen to deprive one of Nature it is easy to reconnect thanks to the Internet. Even as I type this I can, with a few clicks and a couple of keystrokes, place myself at any point of the globe. A little typing and instantly I can gaze at the forests of Amazon, a few more keystrokes and I find myself in the Sahara, again and I am in the frozen tundra of Siberia. The Transcendentalists couldn’t access this kind of instant nature! They had to hike miles out into the woods to get to nature, and then they were restricted to what little biomes they could visit. The Internet on the other hand allows for me to see the entire world. Furthermore the internet does not deprive one of access to nature. I can easily get a satellite uplink on my computer and go out into the forest, and still have access to both nature and all of human experience and knowledge simultaneously. Not too shabby a deal.

Another issue that the Transcendentalists would have with the Internet is the sheer fact that one can access so much information with such ease. I believe that the Transcendentalists, especially Emerson, would have detested how much knowledge can be gained second hand. Again I find myself to disagree with them. In their time knowledge was spread via paper and word of mouth, thus making knowledge sources subjective was extremely easy. However, now that knowledge can be spread so quickly and, thanks to Wikipedia (lets face it, how often do we use other sources?), it can be edited easily. This of course leads to information having to be much more objective. Objectivity is needed because if everyone is capable of adding what they think about something with anonymity then they can just as easily complain about information being biased. Therefore the information, while received secondhand is in a much more pure form then that which would have been presented to the Transcendentalists. Life is so much easier nowadays.

While the Transcendentalists were very intelligent and were assuredly some of America’s greatest thinkers, their ideas remain unnecessary in the face of the Internet. While their ideas do make for an interesting read, they cannot be put into the context of the internet and hope to hold up. In short, the Internet is awesome, and the Transcendentalists are outdated.

any and all comments appreciated.