Deschooling Society: Matchmaking and the Internet
In Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich proposes an intellectual matchmaking program where people feed their names and interests or ideas they want to discuss into a computer to meet others who also want to discuss those things. In his vision, the meetings would take place in person, perhaps facilitated by private businesses like coffee shops and restaurants. He also speculated on sharing thoughts by mailing audio tapes.
Deschooling was published in 1970, twenty years before internet newsgroups came on the scene. Newgroups were a virtual space for people to discuss specific topics. If you were interested in ‘frugal travel,’ you could subscribe to the frugal travel newsgroup and share ideas with other people also interested in the subject. Mailing lists, often run by universities, were another way to exchange ideas with people interested in the same topic.
Later on, websites and blogs allowed people to self publish their thoughts and often included a way for readers to leave comments. Forums and message boards run by hobbyists allowed for more in-depth discussion. Social media made it even easier for the less technically savvy to connect with others all over the world.
I often wonder what Illich would think of all this. On the one hand, the computer matchmaking service he described is basically here. We have the power to have conversations with other people about topics of interest. We can share skills and both educate and be educated by our peers.
In Illich’s vision, the computer matchmaking service would be a public good and an option separate from institutionalized values - but is that what we are getting now? Our meetings and connections today are perhaps less self-selected than they were in the past. Corporations like Meta and ByteDance are managing our connections for financial gain unlike the universities and hobbyists running mailing lists and forums who did it for free and the love of the subject.
Influencers without real expertise in topics gain an audience by working the algorithm and preying on human nature. AI generated drivel full of affiliate links has taken over search engines. People may not have the knowledge and experience to tell when someone is truly an expert or a shill. This problem of commercialization and false experts doesn’t seem to be one Illich foresaw, or at least not one he discussed in Deschooling that I remember.
Maybe it just seems like the internet has taken a dystopian turn because I’m getting old. It still offers us a way to connect with so many people and to learn about events in our own communities. I occasionally attend a breadmaking discussion group on Zoom. People from Egypt, India, Germany, Peru, the UK, Singapore, and so many other countries come together to share ideas and experiences. It feels like the pinnacle of what the internet could be.
Illich Random September 19, 2024