To what extent has a lack of diversity influenced the development of the internet? How does this lack of diversity harm societies and individuals?

“The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow,” said Bill Gates. When it comes to the Internet, diversity is often synonymous with it. The history of traditional media dominance has evolved into a status quo where new media are powerfully plundering and dominating large markets. This is all about the social and personal progress of the Internet. But with the advent of the web 2.0 era, many scholars and users have identified and analyzed the many problems exposed by the Internet, and these problems are worthy of deeper investigation. The Internet is uncovering racial inequities, the neglect of people with disabilities, the lack of small languages and the control of the economy and actively exploring solutions is an important step in the development of the Internet for the future.

 

 

Racial inequity

Racial politics has a strong voice in determining the diversity of the Internet.“The way journalists report upon various cultural groups and cultural diversity in general has a long history of academic enquiry, without much positive change,” Dr Wake said. The fact that men and whites are at the top of the social ladder hasn’t changed much today. According to observations on youtube big data tends to see few relevant recommendations from bloggers of color, internet jobs and politicians are also heavily dominated by men, heterosexuals and whites, and minorities are among the first candidates to be laid off in the face of the coming epidemic. This has created a conflict for the growth of diversity on the internet, as well as a negative image and incomplete coverage of minorities.RMIT University, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Dr Alex Wake said “news reports can perpetuate damaging stereotypes about race, class, and gender as journalists inadvertently ‘other’ certain individuals or groups of people, usually from cultures outside their own experience”. http://thecityjournal.net/media/lack-of-diversity-in-newsrooms-leads-to-inaccurate-portrayals/ The presence of a single race also makes Internet information biased. When viewed from the perspective of a reader from a culturally diverse background, news stories, particularly editorials and commentaries, seem to convey a message of ‘otherness’.（p2223, Rodrigues, U. M., Niemann, M., & Paradies, Y. 2019, p2313–2331).   The single race also prevents different viewers from finding a sense of identity and thus slows down the expansion of the diversity of the Internet business, making the information soil even more barren. Nyadol Nyuon, a Sudanese lawyer said “the conflation of people of South Sudanese descent with gang crime is hurtful because it not only associates people who look like her and her children with criminality, but also draws a line between them and the rest of Australian society”.https://thecityjournal-net.translate.goog/media/lack-of-diversity-in-newsrooms-leads-to-inaccurate-portrayals/?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=zh-CN&_x_tr_hl=zh-CN&_x_tr_pto=sc A long historical legacy has made diverse race building no easy task. The development of the Internet in China, on the other hand, has been manipulated by a government and capitalists with a lot of power, hindering the people’s right to freedom of expression. The key difference between culture and technology companies in China and elsewhere is likely to be the role of government intervention (p25, de Kloet & Fung, 2017). All ethnic homogeneity and political interference undoubtedly have an impact on the development of the political diversity aspect of the global Internet and hinder the future development of societies and individuals. It also creates a potential danger to social riots because of racial homogeneity.

 

Potential related health issues

The potential problems of society should also be mentioned regarding the neglect of people with disabilities on the Internet. Irving Goffman’s notes on stigma are an important starting point for the study of disability and television (p22, Goffman, 1974). The absence of images of the disabled population on the Internet has resulted in social neglect as well as prejudice against them. This has also led to the division of normal and abnormal people in the classification of human autonomy, so that the masses are confronted with stereotypes and the belief that they are in need of healing. Therefore, when Internet practitioners are in a single situation and do not know the real life of people with disabilities, the reports they produce are often tinted, and the audience receiving the information is guided by the media and simply accepts it. This social problem is exacerbated by the expanded reach of the media. When there is a neglected part, it inhibits the development of the Internet in one more direction.

Lack of linguistic and cultural diversity

In order to promote diversity on the Internet, culture is also a crucial consideration.“The Web does not just connect machines, it connects people,” said Tim Berners-Lee. But the vast majority of languages do not have a digital media future because the dominant language in most of the world’s media is still English, creating the phenomenon of digital divide.In the paper Digital Language Death researcher András Kornai predicts that 95% of all languages in use today will never gain traction online.https://labs.theguardian.com/digital-language-divide/ According to data from the Ethnologue project, practically one out of every three languages that is spoken in the world has African origins, in other words, the African continent houses some 30% of the planet’s linguistic diversity.However, African indigenous languages are missing market share on the Internet.https://lab.cccb.org/en/what-if-the-internet-were-an-ally-of-linguistic-diversity/ It is a matter of perceived cultural bias and exclusion that undermines the original spirit of Internet freedom and inclusiveness, and narrows the amount of Internet adoption worldwide. Clearly the challenges to eliminating digital divide are enormous, and mainstream languages are becoming more prevalent with vigorous popularization. far from infinite, the internet, it seems, is only as big as your language. For humans, perceptions and links to the world have also created limitations. “Countries, communities and individuals without access to the Internet and its resources are certain to be marginalized,” says UNESCO. For society, it undermines the potential for social interaction and hinders the development of a global culture. It also threatens to stimulate a sense of superiority among ethnic groups and thus intensify conflicts and cause social unrest.

 

The economy is controlled and directed

In fact, the singularity of cultural issues also comes from the economic constraints. The Internet has developed into numerous Internet companies, but only large companies such as Instagram, facebook, wechat and Tencent have achieved capital consolidation and emerged as acquisitions, mergers and monopolies under the big wave. The diverse development of small and medium-sized enterprises has caused a hindrance, forming a situation of dominance. This phenomenon has also plunged the Internet into a deep cultural desert. Behind the seemingly cultural exports there is also the control of capital, making cultural exports singular and purposeful. For example, in recent years, Chinese online talk shows have made a big splash and gained attention through Tencent broadcasting, but because Chinese stand-up comedian Yang Li has gained a large number of female followers and resonance with his derogatory and ordinary yet confident remarks about men..https://www-bbc-com.translate.goog/news/world-asia-china-55744860?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=zh-CN&_x_tr_hl=zh-CN&_x_tr_pto=sc Not only stimulate women to the promotion of the Internet entertainment economy also make men begin to focus on the external investment in themselves; stand-up comedians spouting stock investment loss experience caused ST Intercontinental’s stock to stop such a situation does not seem to hinder the development of the Internet economy in fact, under the intentional manipulation of capital viewers are more likely to lose their independent consciousness of judgment. The innovative thinking on the development of the Internet economy is limited and then forms the real sense of the economy backwards. Under the domination of capital, causing economic stock market and social surface turmoil and because of gender dichotomy in economic interaction exclusion and also prove that the Internet needs to increase regulation and avoid market hot speculation.

 

In conclusion, The Internet is at its peak, but there are still neglected parts of it. Research and studies have found that racial inequities, the neglect of people with disabilities, the lack of small languages, and the control of the economy all hinder the development of the Internet and the individual in society. What citizens can do to address these issues is to make their own judgments about the content of the Internet, to participate in the innovation and development of the Internet for individuals when appropriate, and to reduce the intervention of the state in the development of the Internet and appropriate regulation to help the Internet develop in a healthy way while also significantly ensuring the stability of society and the safety of citizens.

 

 

 

Reference

Bajo, C. (2019, October 29). What if the Internet were an ally of linguistic diversity? CCCB LAB. https://lab.cccb.org/en/what-if-the-internet-were-an-ally-of-linguistic-diversity/

Beya, G. (2021, November 18). “Social media has fewer barriers, but the limits are still there for us.” London Metropolitan University. https://www.londonmet.ac.uk/news/expert-commentary/2021/november/social-media-has-fewer-barriers-but-the-limits-are-still-there-for-us/

Charlton, E. (2018, December 13). Chart of the day: The internet has a language diversity problem. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/chart-of-the-day-the-internet-has-a-language-diversity-problem/