Perceive the good from the bad

Looking at a recent interview with David Brin I came across something that hadn't immediately crossed my mind . . . . "It always takes a while for the people to learn how to use the new media critically, to be able to perceive the good from the bad." We often see rapid adoption of technologies and new media forms and delivery mechanisms and assume that because people are using them and adopting them that they are immediately good a perceiving good from bad in the new format. David's right . . . More info and a larger excerpt below with a link to the full interview.

Excerpt from David Kushner's interview with David Brin as seen in Discover Magazine online version (06.07.2007)
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jun/the-discover-interview-david-brin

David Brin states:
"Printing not only vastly expanded the ability to convey human knowledge and memory to other people but also made it more robust. People tend to assume that when things like this happen, it automatically results in an improved humanity. This is what you’re hearing from the techno-transcendentalists on the Internet. It is a religious statement that what we’re seeing on the Internet today is improving discourse and improving democracy and improving markets. I’m very skeptical of that because at the beginning of any of these revolutions, always what is empowered is demagoguery. The immediate outcome of the printing press was the Thirty Years’ War. The immediate outcome of radio was the empowerment of demagogues like Huey Long and especially Adolf Hitler. It always takes a while for the people to learn how to use the new media critically, to be able to perceive the good from the bad."