Trouble is, WHEN?

(if you agree with the next three paragraphs of this post, what will you do when you read the fourth???)

The first three paragraphs. Read them carefully!

(1) The promise of the Internet age is one of unparalleled access to information of all kinds, but it has also seen the rise of some powerful gatekeepers that control our access to that information: gatekeepers like Google, Facebook, Apple and even Twitter.

(2) Of course, people don’t have to use Google, or Twitter, or Apple, or Facebook. They are free to use other search engines and information networks, and many do - but the vast majority of people do not. As research has repeatedly shown, most people use defaults because they are easier (which is why search deals like the ones Firefox signs are so valuable). And that has the potential to erect barriers to free information flow, even if most users don’t realize they exist.

(2) What are the potential ramifications of that for society, as more and more people access the Internet through proprietary platforms and devices, or become “locked in” psychologically to certain services?

Fourth paragraph:

If you have read so far, I am pretty sure you will agree that all the “interferences” on society described in those three paragraphs are real, big, and mostly negative. This begs a question, though: why did you not realize all this TEN YEARS AGO?

The three paragraphs above are copied verbatim from “The rise of the new information gatekeepers”, published exactly ten years ago, on December 1st, 2011. And this, of course, begs another question:

shall we waste ten more years to deal with these information gatekeepers", especially considering everything we learned about them since 2011?