I got the request to make a how to for schoolchildren on using the Gemini results of a Google search. First I argued against it. ‘No, no that is not learning how to use the internet!’ ‘But they are using it already!’ And then I politely declined.
I feel terribly sad about this. Torn and confused. About how the fierce campaigning and (almost) monopoly of big tech forced us to endure these ai ‘results’. How we are driven away form visiting actual websites. How we are cut of from the beautiful mess the internet is. And how we learn knowledge is not on Wikipedia, but in a shiny generated easy digestible snack that pretends to be search.
So I made a comic to use if you encounter a similar situation. Use it! Share it!
I have loved the internet fiercely from the start. Access to information and people for everyone, being able to publish everything, connect to little niche groups, organising collective action, all of it! And now that is taken away from us.
Big tech is serving us ready made snacksize meals, and discourages us to go haute cuisine. In their view we never get to go to websites anymore. Websites that will surprise us, teach us, enrage us, confuse us, inspire us. That would be a barren land.
Teach kids about genAI, but tell them real story. And show them the rough and adventurous internet. Don’t degrade them into passive consumers.
(More) inspiration:
- Elsbeth Kwant on the accessibility of (original) sources: The picture in the box.
- Ralph Kruzen en Lauren Woolsey: Waarom #genAI kl*te is en je het niet zou moeten gebruiken.
- (Will add more later.)
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