World Wide Mess
Technology, Communication, and the Decline of Trust
I sat back at a crawfish boil yesterday, simply observing the scene: families, babies in arms, children dashing about, friends and strangers conversing. A soccer ball kicked carefully between small feet, future stars imagining the pitch. Cajun music drifted through the yard, lifting the mood. Long tables were set up in the middle of the lawn, with some people taking shade on a big, comfortable porch. In due course, the tables were covered with hot crawfish, piled beside potatoes, corn, sausage, and whatever else the cook had conjured up and tossed into the pot. Anytime crawfish are boiled and spread out, everyone is going to -- as Cajuns say -- pass a good time. Add the special flair of an efficient and charming hostess, and the pleasure is nearly guaranteed.
As I observed this mix of New Orleans’ racial and ethnic makeup, what interested me most were the social interactions. It was delightful, a joy to observe.
Later that afternoon, I found myself at home in front of my computer, writing about Information and Communications Technology -- ICT for short. It’s an umbrella term for the converged digital ecosystem, encompassing the technical means used to handle information and facilitate communication, most often describing the merger of audiovisual, telephone, and computer networks. Once I sat down to write, I found it was best done with Cajun music playing in the background.
I love my computer. I could not write articles twice a week for Democracy or Empire without it. My vision is limited due to an exotic disease in my eyes -- I cannot see down or to the side. I can see straight ahead and upward, blurred but functional. So I mirror what’s on my small laptop screen to a large TV directly in front, where I see it clearly. Even so, as I hunched over the laptop and began to write in isolation, the contrast with the shared, easy communication of that backyard crawfish boil was striking. Of course, the comparison is unfair and beside the point. Still, you know what I mean.
I continue to warn my children and colleagues not to use the internet to communicate anything they expect to carry feeling, subtlety, or depth. Online, it all lies flat on the page -- stripped of tone, stripped of voice, and certainly stripped of body language. We can be unpleasantly surprised by how such isolated words are interpreted, leading to serious misunderstandings and, often enough, unintended breaches in personal relationships. Even a handwritten letter conveys far more personal intent, genuine feelings, and emotion. This problem is small and personal compared to the internet’s effects on society as a whole.
Nicco Mele, a good friend and one of the most respected experts in the field of ICT, teaches computer science and political science at Harvard. In 2013, he wrote a book titled The End of Big: How the Digital Revolution Makes David the New Goliath, an early assessment of the impact of new technology. It was not an optimistic outlook.
I was immediately struck as Nicco described a process in which young developers expert enough to design the modern internet took a perverse joy in shaping it to undermine the most important institutions of our society. He argues that it was not necessary to design it this way. The internet could have been built in a manner compatible with long-lasting and valued social institutions. Yet its designers were determined to bring an end to “big.” Of course, this also made them personally indispensable -- and very wealthy indeed.
As smart and stable as I knew Nicco to be, I must admit I wondered about such a dire assessment when I first read his book over a decade ago. There were problems to be sure, especially in government, education, and economic inequities. But I could not bring myself to see the drastic change that was bubbling beneath the surface and about to break into the open, tear society apart, and change the social dynamic of America. In short order, Donald Trump was elected president, surprising and shocking many of us.
Perhaps like you, I found myself asking how such an unexpected and drastic event could occur. In trying to make sense of it, I went back to Nicco’s book and reexamined it. I realized that this was exactly what he had seen coming and had tried to warn us about. In his expertise and courage in the face of hard-hitting criticism, Nicco signaled what others refused to see. Most could not bring themselves to open their eyes and look beyond the dazzle -- and the undoubted value -- of the new technology.
It is too much to cogently explain here how ICT has been set up to foster discord and distrust in society’s most significant institutions and in one another. We can, however, easily show that the proof is in the pudding.
My good friend, a retired neurologist, and I often have long conversations over spectacular blueberry muffins. We talk about whatever is on our minds. One observation that frequently comes up is that people no longer trust and respect doctors and lawyers as they once did. Our concern -- his perspective from medicine and mine from law -- is that the motivation for entering either profession now seems driven more by anticipated income than by a sense of vocation.
Historically, these professions were not major sources of personal wealth. They were essential to healing and to justice, and to the smooth functioning of matters requiring expert advice, advocacy, or skilled physical and emotional care. Those services were typically provided to clients far wealthier than the practitioners themselves. That has changed. Attorneys and doctors are now among the highest-paid members of society. The tail has begun to wag the dog.
From time to time, the general public is informed about the steady and significant decline in trust of our institutions. In the mid-1960s, around 70% of Americans trusted the federal government to do the right thing, a figure that dropped to roughly 17-20% in 2020. One can bet that it is even lower today. While it was once among the most trusted professions, confidence in church and organized religion dropped to 32% by 2023, and there was a 26-point decline in high-honesty ratings for clergy between 2000 and 2024.
Public trust in medical professionals has fallen from a high of 73% in 1966 to 34% by 2012. Similar declines in trust and positive regard have been recorded over the same time period for the Supreme Court, the courts in general, lawyers, and the police. Confidence in television news and newspapers has also seen one of the steepest declines among all measured institutions.
How much of this is due to what Nicco feared is impossible to say, but he did indeed predict it. I go back and read the book from time to time, and I find myself unsettled about our future.
During the four years prior to Trump’s re-election, Nicco sent a few close friends a series of informative emails. It struck me deeply, because each began and ended with the same line:
“It’s going to get worse.”
And again, Nicco predicted the future. As more and more of our valued social institutions falter and fall into mistrust, I can only ask: what comes next?
Ideas like these are best explored together. Share your thoughts. I read and respond to every comment.
Call me a pessimist and an admitted mild Luddite, but I think this was always how the internet was going to go. I was early on it – started using local chat rooms around 1990. Back then, we teenagers were using it to get stuff we weren’t otherwise allowed to buy. Half of the people on our local chats were soliciting sex from other posters. Some clearly weren't worried about getting to kids. But as it went from a nerdy thing to do to mainstream, things got cleaned up – or at least hidden a lot better. In my opinion, it was awesome for a little while, providing so much information and opportunities people would never have had access to otherwise.
But somewhere, things changed. A common family argument on car rides is my three kids and me against my wife. The question: is the internet a net positive or negative thing for this world? The kids and I always argued yes, despite its downsides. My wife says no.
Recently, I have turned into a no. It is directly linked to kids’ anxiety. Adults are addicted to it. It has not made anything more affordable. It turns even the most local events into global events. For example, garage sales are replaced by eBay, Facebook Marketplace, etc. And everyone charges a premium because they have a world market. I lived in NYC in the 1990s. You could find ANYTHING there. Now, the specialty shops are all gone because specialized items are sold online. The world is homogenous because what is happening in Beijing is also happening in Raleigh at the same time.
And this might have been great. A smaller world could have meant more community, more information, and more justice. Instead, it has allowed the worst of us to seclude and fester in bad thoughts. Instead, we cannot trust anything we read on the internet, because it is as likely to be false as true (all the way down to social media). Democracy is worse off because the info has been even more winnowed down for the stupidity of the masses. Looking for 10-second clips has made political debate non-existent outside of academia (and I doubt there is any there, either). We receive half-truths at best.
The internet has become a paradox. All the good things it should be doing, it does the opposite. It is too big and too available (we walk around with it in our hands and pockets!) to too many people. Add in the profits that can be made by offering ease (appearing – anyone else notice most tasks end up harder than before the internet) and the privilege to not come into contact with another human being, and there is no going back.
It will not be fixed. People are hooked. I tried to go without a smartphone, but many parents told me it was unacceptable because they need to be able to reach me immediately in case my kids need something. WHY!!!!!!!????? The answer is simply, “Because it is expected.” Maybe the worst answer ever.
I will personally continue taking pleasure in being difficult to reach. To go to a ballgame without my phone. To not worry when I leave my phone in the car for a few days. But I am only lying to myself if I say I could imagine returning to a world without the internet. Or even a better internet.
Rant over.
Thank you for writing these, Bishop Doss. They bring me joy – in a weird sense – every time you post.
Another excellent piece, Joe!