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The age of the Internet has brought about a great deal of social advancement. We have the option of learning about nearly anything, of understanding the world in a way we never have before. Yet the Internet brings a multitude of challenges to the way our society works. Some of the most profound are the ideas of morality. How do the most basic foundations of morality fit in this new digital world? These fall into three broad categories. The morality of ignorance, the morality of information, the questions of ownership and the ease of doing things we would likely never do in real life.

The morality of ignorance is one that has always been faced to some extent. How much are we responsible to seek out an understanding of the world? Is it an acceptable moral stance to worry about just our own home? It is certainly easier to simply not know and it is common for parents to protect their children from an understanding of the world. Every parent has had to face at some point that question, but less often we ask it of ourselves. Do we want to know about the genocide's that are happening? Do we want to understand the cost in human lives of the diamond we wear on or finger or the suffering of animals for the food we eat? Do we want to know that 5000 children a day die of diarrhea because they don't have clean water? These questions have always existed but in a time when the knowledge is constantly at your fingertips it become a more important question.

Next is a question of action. No matter how much you may stick your head in the sand you are going to hear about things and often the understanding that something must happen is overwhelming. We must then ask ourselves is it acceptable to assuage that need to do something on the Internet. Is the sending of a email to a congressmen really action? More importantly how much of our time and effort do we put forth. There was a time in the past before the Internet when there was a natural limit. You could throw a charity banquet and put a great deal of effort into it but then you were done. In the age of the Internet there is never a time when you are done so you much make a moral decision when enough is enough.

The third is a more direct question of our own morality on the Internet. The most obvious example of this is the question of piracy. There is no doubt that those who own the copywriters and trademarks want us to believe that downloading their material is theft, but the morality of it is still being argued. Is piracy theft? Can it be theft when nothing was taken or it is some new type of action. This can also include the "theft" of ideas, pictures, digital space, and even the idea of buying up domain names or creating "net neutrality". These answers will not come quickly but we as a society must decide on them.

The final question is that of doing things on the Internet you would never do in real life. The most obvious of these are flame wars. With the natural fear of getting punched in the face gone people feel far more free to speak their mind, which is a good thing but they also feel the ability to simply mindlessly attack, and even say things purely to make people angry. This anonymity of the Internet can spread out into far more than simply this though. People would would never consider going into the local xxx bookstore will surf sites on the Internet with the same material because they won't be caught.

The Internet, like any truly powerful technology, can be used to improve our lives or damage them and just as in so many aspects of our lives the Internet rather than truly changing things becomes a magnifying lens showing us better who were already were.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
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