My last couple of posts have raised concerns for the future of the Internet and specifically the role the Internet plays in society and education. When raising concerns, I do think there is some obligation to offer suggestions and propose fixes. Many of the concerns stem from issues beyond my pay grade, but I will make suggestions I feel are reasonable for individual action.
Some ideas:
Use a variety of services – keep more companies in business by distributing your attention – buy through different services, use different browsers and search services, etc.
Host your own content – you can rent space on a server and pay for a domain for less than $100 a year.
Generate content – move beyond consuming or sharing what others have created to producing. Ideally, produce and share from your own server space.
Do not block ads – this recommendation may not be intuitive, but if content producers include ads they are using this approach to be compensated for their work. You do not have to click, but you should respect the author’s wishes. Also understand the possible difference between the content creator and the service provider (in many cases). The service provider learns about you from your use of a service – this is your payment for a free service. This same payment does not extend to content providers. You are free to not include ads on content you create.
Support net neutrality and an open Internet – this requires that you make your support known and contact public officials. Unless public opinion influences decisions regarding Internet regulations, the big money players will have their way. This is one area in which government regulation is necessary as many aspects of the Internet are not influenced by the competition that is present in other areas of commerce.