wfn.org | UMNS# 05080-Is the World Wide Web changing our ethics?

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Is the World Wide Web changing our ethics?

Feb. 3, 2005	 News media contact:   Matt  Carlisle * (615) 742-5470*
Nashville {05080}

A UMC.org Feature
By Marta W. Aldrich*

A boss peeks at employee e-mail. A straight-arrow college student rushes
to draft a term paper by cutting and pasting entire paragraphs from
Internet sites. A teenager who never would shoplift a CD has no problem
downloading music without paying for it. A Colorado woman awaiting a
kidney transplant tracks down her own donor through the Internet,
prompting new worries about organ trafficking.

Is the World Wide Web changing our ethics?

With bullying, gambling and pornography at unprecedented levels in
cyberspace, it seems anyone with a computer and modem is tempted daily
with opportunities that are morally questionable. No institution is
safe. Even pastors have been caught lifting whole sermons from the Web.
And it's all happening at a dizzying pace.

Families, churches, business and government are struggling to catch up
and develop an ethical and legal framework that can help individuals
navigate this sudden explosion of access, choice and information.

Quentin J. Schultze, professor of communication at Calvin College in
Grand Rapids, Mich., says society's love affair with the Internet
reflects the "increasingly frenetic, chaotic and morally impoverished
lives" of North Americans-lives that leave precious little time to
consider ethical concerns about Internet use.

"We're so busy rushing to and from, and messaging back and forth, that
we barely have time to catch our moral breath," Schultze says. "In this
context, the World Wide Web becomes a temptation as much as a solution."

In his book Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the
Information Age, Schultze charges that such technology fosters
individualism and self-interest over community and responsibility,
leading society to stray from its moral center.

"Today, we increasingly assume that doing things quickly and effectively
is more important than doing them carefully, thoughtfully and
ethically," he writes. "As a result, much of our daily communication
slips into junk messaging - the informational equivalent of junk food.
While we gain access to more information and speedier means of
messaging, we also weaken the kinds of shared practices, such as
neighborliness and hospitality, that we need to maintain our moral
bearings. Our manner of informational living deflates our moral
character."

Steven A. Hetcher, a law professor at Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, Tenn., says technology is advancing faster than society's
ability to develop social norms that contribute to its moral compass.

"It takes time to develop a pattern of behavior that makes up social
norms, but technology is not waiting," says Hetcher, author of Norms in
a Wired World.

For instance, the social norm among teenagers is that downloading music
or copying movies without paying for them is OK. Society is still
catching up with the concept that lifting intellectual property -
whether it's words, ideas or creative works - is the same as stealing.

Hetcher says society should do less pointing and clicking and more
talking about concerns associated with technology, including the
Internet. "We must start thinking about the pace of technology and what
this means to us as a society," he says.

Many schools and businesses have developed programs to teach critical
thinking about appropriate Internet use. Ethicists say discussions about
"cyberethics" and "Netiquette" should be served up at the family dinner
table.

Ramon Barquin, president of the Computer Ethics Institute in Washington,
suggests "Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics" to encourage
consideration and respect for others when using computers and the
Internet. Ethicists agree such ethical guidelines are worthy of frequent
review - along with a healthy awareness of cyberspace dangers - because
of the Web's inherent characteristics of distance and anonymity.

"Any technology that separates the individual from his or her actions
makes it much easier to engage in actions the individual normally
wouldn't do," Barquin says.

For example, a soldier in the trenches sees a different kind of war than
a pilot who drops a bomb from 20,000 feet. "They're both warriors,"
Barquin says. "But the hands of the soldier in the trenches are bloody,
while the pilot can return from his mission and have a drink with the
officers at the club."

The Web has that kind of anonymity and distance multiplied by millions
of people. Individuals can engage in bullying, cyber smut and theft
without ever leaving a keyboard. They can develop or visit Web sites
that explore narcotics, gambling, violence and anything else you can
think of - a worldwide mall of virtual stores where the shoppers believe
identities and actions will never be revealed.

"Is the Internet revolutionary? Yes. Is it going to bring significant
change? Absolutely. What exactly will that be? We don't really know. It
took several hundred years just to assess the impact of the printing
press on society," Barquin says.

The Web is a human creation, and humans are ethically bound to oversee
it in the spirit of Jesus Christ, says the Rev. Frederick W. Schmidt,
director of spiritual life and formation at Southern Methodist
University's Perkins School of Theology in Dallas.

"The Gospel requires the renewing of our minds and, with it, the
development of a sense of moral responsibility that cannot be laid aside
simply because the landscape of information sharing has changed...," he
said. "Cyberspace is fully our responsibility."

# # #

*Aldrich is a freelance writer in Franklin, Tenn.

News media contact: Matt Carlisle, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5153 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

This feature was developed by UMC.org, the official online ministry of
the United Methodist Church.

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United Methodist News Service
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