If “the Internet is Not the Answer,” what was the question?

A new provocative book entitled “The Internet is NOT the Answer” is generating a lot of discussion before it comes out, thanks to articles like this.

And as always, the comments are as interesting and enlightening as the article itself. (Score one for the Internet! Heh.)

One of the sayings I say so often I’m a broken record: Every tool is a weapon, every weapon is a tool.

If the book title had been posed as a question, I’d be asking: Is it the right question? As it is, the thought that any one human trend, development or area is “the answer” to anything is specious at best.

There have been several authors – I once saw Clifford Stoll speak at Tektronix, over 20 years ago – who over the years have bemoaned what our lives lived largely online now have wrought – and how far from the noble goals they have strayed.

But noble goals always run headlong into the reality of fallible, often rude, nasty or worse humans. Not that robots would be any better.

Of course the media, the government and businesses large and small have “embraced” the Internet (like they had much of a choice) – and in doing so dealt it something of a “death grip” in some people’s eyes.

But with all its faults, weakness and impact on everything from the family staring at screens rather than talking to school plays that are now a sea of smartphones and tablets recording (rather than people actually just watching their kids perform) – is this a genie we’d really want put back in the bottle – even if we could?

Perhaps the “mindfulness” movement highlighted Sunday night on 60 Minutes is more the bit of an antidote, from the legacy of the ’60s book with the deceptively simple name: “Be Here Now.”

Our connected tools should free us to get more done in less time – then to turn away from them to be with our children and friends and family, or other pursuits that still involve the mind, the hands and no screens in site.

But is that wishful thinking? Are we being consumed by our technology, so dependent that the fears of cyber-war becoming more than an inconvenience or embarrassment to — well, the possibilities are endless.

We should critically review and be … mindful of the impact of any technology, good or bad. But be cautious about giving this huge, world-altering development too much blame or credit for its impact on our lives. Right?