Internet

We have information – but are we informed?

John Moriarty on June 4, 2022, 8:10 am

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“Bits of information provide neither meaning nor orientation. They do not congeal into a narrative. They are purely additive. From a certain point onward, they no longer inform — they deform… I am not sure that the information society is a continuation of the Enlightenment. Maybe we need a new kind of enlightenment.” These are the contentions of Byung-Chul Han, the Korean-German philosopher, given in an interview with Noēma Magazine. There are 7.9 billion of us on the planet at …

Going internet cold turkey at Christmas…

Annemarie Mullan on December 13, 2020, 8:00 am

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It would be for a week, said Virgin Media – a week before my new modem would be available and meanwhile, long (technical) story, I could not use the old one in the interim period. No bother, I thought. I’m a practising artist. I might even get a lot more work done when I’m not making comments on other peoples’ latest creations; getting sucked into plucking images from Instagram postings onto my Pinterest boards or, reacting to the various Whatsapp …

The Pope Is Still A Catholic

Gerry Lynch on October 2, 2015, 10:37 pm

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Lefty atheists from North London to Northern California are in outrage today at the latest shock revelations that Pope Francis is, in fact, a Catholic. “The pope played us for fools, trying to have it both ways”, thundered Michaelangelo Signorile in the Huffington Post, outraged that the Pope had (briefly) met Kim Davis. Ms Davis, you’ll remember, is the rather silly Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on ‘biblical’ grounds while herself being on …

The Arena – Discussing Irish water, Banking Inquiry and Censorship

Johnny Fallon on July 30, 2015, 1:08 pm

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This week the Arena Political podcast takes a long hard look at Irish Water, the latest from the banking Inquiry and asks if we need laws to censor the internet. Take a listen and get in touch with us with any comments, suggestions or thoughts Johnny Fallon

#Oirsocm: TD’s and Senators must first get past the blind panic induced by the word ‘Internet’…

Mick Fealty on March 6, 2013, 9:51 pm

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The Irish Twitterati are killing themselves with laughter after an indifferent to extremely poor performance by a Joint Committee of the Oireachtas tasked with looking at social media this morning. But in fact, unlike Stormont’s more self indulgent performance (who have no powers in this regard), the lack of understanding amongst TDs and Senators (who do) is a matter for real concern. There were a few points of common sense. Anne Phelan, a Labour TD from Kilkenny (and sadly probably one …

“Regulation of the internet is not an issue that falls within my responsibility or, indeed, that of any part of our devolved Executive.”

Pete Baker on February 12, 2013, 12:16 am

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For which, I think, we should be very grateful indeed. Not that such constitutional technicalities prevented MLAs, of all parties, from enthusiastically debating a Sinn Féin motion last week calling for the Northern Ireland Justice Minister “to explore the introduction of better regulation of [social networking websites]”. Here’s Newton Emerson’s response in Saturday’s Irish News Worse was to come when Stormont debated social-networking sites, in a session that might as well have been entitled “we support free speech, but”. One MLA …

Coming to terms with the Internet will not entail switching it off, but facing and evaluating fears

Mick Fealty on January 8, 2013, 11:48 am

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Gavan Titley has it about right. Moral panic is about the best way to describe the latest outbreak of social media bashing in the Republic. The first political party in the south to take to the business of engaging online was Labour, as this report from Damien Mulley outlines. The first Twitter storm I witnessed was a spectacular one when Fianna Fail used Joe Rospers as blogger bait, and got burned for their efforts. Much of the criticism we’ve seen …

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, It Will Be On The Internet

Gerry Lynch on January 13, 2012, 10:04 am

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I walk past the Occupy Belfast protesters opposite St. Anne’s Cathedral nearly every day. It would be easy to sneer at them. They have some rather nice tents out of Decathlon, that well known bastion of anti-capitalism, and they seem to have a lot of fun. Not only are they not occupying anything more than Belfast’s new-but-now-traditional venue of left-wing protest, but they aren’t even properly persecuted. I can’t remember the last time I saw a cop there, let alone …

Kate Fitzgerald, annonymity and a ‘hacked’ voicemail?

Mick Fealty on December 2, 2011, 12:03 pm

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Last Saturday, the Irish Times told the story of a young, brilliantly talented US born Irishwoman. It followed a very powerful piece by the woman herself back in September, just before, as it much later came to light, she had taken her own life. But having first linked the story, John Ryan’s Broadsheet.ie is now at odds with the paper ever since his subsequent identification of Terry Prone’s Communication Clinic as Kate Fitzgerald’s employers. Without getting into the legally complex …

Egypt: Will it be the secret policeman’s fall?

Patrick Corrigan on February 1, 2011, 9:23 am

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President Hosni Mubarak’s shuffling of the Egyptian cabinet while Cairo burns, has all the appearance of rearranging deckchairs on a doomed Titanic. Yet, despite the protests, he may still survive. If he were to go, who would replace him? His son, the just as unpopular Gamal? The Muslim Brotherhood? Mohamed ElBaradei? Or Omar Suleiman, intelligence chief and new vice-President? Whatever the outcome of this week’s events across Egypt, any administration genuinely wishing to bring the country out of chaos must urgently address …

When the facts change, I’ll stick with my beliefs

Mick Fealty on August 26, 2010, 1:47 pm

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Nice piece from the Boston Globe (via Gavin on Google Reader), which may or may not have a relevance to the ongoing saga at Northern Ireland Water (which has ruined many people’s attempts to take a holiday, including my own)… In reality, we often base our opinions on our beliefs, which can have an uneasy relationship with facts. And rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. They can cause us to twist …

Irish MEP: Facebook makes you mad, so let’s have a law against it…

Mick Fealty on June 23, 2010, 3:10 pm

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Of all the political parties in the south, Labour is one of the ones which ‘gets’ t’Internet most. But I wonder if Labour MEP Nessa Childers‘ question seeking a written answer in the European Parliament ever saw the desk of leader Eamon Gilmore? There is certainly no sign of it on her blog. Adds: Clare Minnock seems to be the only member of the MSM (well, the Carlow Nationalist at least) to pick up the story and she treats it an …

“A funny thing happened to us on the way to the future.”

Pete Baker on June 20, 2010, 3:01 pm

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An eminently sensible article by John Naughton in The Observer setting out nine big ideas, or steps, towards a better understanding of the internet. 1 Take the long view 2 The web isn’t the net 3 Disruption is a feature, not a bug 4 Think ecology, not economics 5 Complexity is the new reality 6 The network is now the computer 7 The web is changing 8 Huxley and Orwell are the bookends of our future 9 Our intellectual property regime is no …