In 2010, three in four Americans went online and accessed the Internet, but at the University of Michigan, that number is undoubtedly near 100%. UM students need the Internet for everything from communicating with professors to accessing course resources, submitting assignments, and registering for classes. In fact, most of you probably applied to the University of Michigan online and received your acceptance invitation via email.

The Internet is an invaluable tool in both our academic work and our personal lives. The wealth of information accessible through online libraries, databases, journals, and newspapers makes conducting research both easier and more productive. On a personal level, online newspapers, blogs, and social networking websites provide real-time updates and information on world affairs, controversial issues, upcoming events, and friends and family.

Few can reasonably imagine a world without the Internet and its innumerable benefits. Yet the expansion of the Internet into every crevice of American society has surely come at a cost, and to mitigate those costs, we must first recognize them. Through its ability to rapidly spread misinformation and reinforce preconceived biases, the Internet threatens the health of political discourse in America.

Fundamentally, the freedom provided by the Internet allows for online inaccuracies and misinformation. Low barriers to entry for Internet bloggers allow anyone with a computer and an Internet connection to start a blog or comment on an issue—expertise or knowledge not required. Combined with the fact that information spreads rapidly over the Internet, this mixture of stupidity and speed creates an enormously powerful tool for the misinformed.

We can see this particularly well in the case of Shirley Sherrod, the former Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who was wrongfully fired due to the rapid spread of online misinformation. When conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted incomplete videos of a speech by Sherrod, a media firestorm erupted, with many calling for her head over seemingly racist comments. Spurred on by public outcry and claims of racism within his own administration, President Obama and Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack fired Sherrod for her comments.

However, further investigation and a complete reading of the transcript indicated that Sherrod had in fact condemned racism in her speech. Only after several interviews on network television and cable news was she able to clear her name and reputation. But the damage online was irreversible. Despite efforts by the Obama Administration to offer her another position in the Department of Agriculture, Sherrod decided to retire from public life and focus on personal initiatives to combat racial prejudice.

In addition to propagating misinformation, the Internet also reinforces preconceived biases. During an online search, users have the ability to input their own search terms and queries. This element of user control naturally limits the scope of the research, as the search engine returns results most representative of the user’s search terminology.

For example, in researching the consequences of President Obama’s health care plan during its debate in late 2009, many conservative users who limited online searches to “Obama death panels” would have been met with hundreds of blogs and articles validating claims made by Sarah Palin that the new health care law condoned forms of involuntary euthanasia. However, if users expanded their search terms and instead inputted “Obama health care law” or “health care reform,” legitimate search results would have illustrated the inaccuracy of Palin’s “death panel” claim, a claim considered by Politifact, a nonpartisan fact checker, as 2009’s Lie of the Year.

Generally, the output of an online search matches the scope of its search inputs, regardless of the accuracy of the inputs themselves. As shown above, this further reinforces any preconceived bias represented in a user’s search terminology and proliferates misinformed extremism in our political discourse.

Other recognizable costs of widespread Internet usage across the nation include the invasion of our privacy and our infatuation with ourselves. These characteristics are well represented through the pervasive use of social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter; but, the biggest concern with widespread Internet usage is our complete and utter dependency on the web. Almost everything we do, see, and hear has some form of an online presence. Just as American society has learned the costs of our dependence on oil, we must recognize that too much of a good thing is never a sustainable trajectory for societal growth. Satisfying ourselves with inaccurate information built from our own biases limits our ability to explore productive solutions to the urgent problems of today.

It is not my intention to argue for a return to the times of letter-writing and encyclopedias, but rather that we must recognize and understand the costs associated with widespread Internet usage. Only then will society elevate its discourse to levels of independent thought necessary for genuine progress in the 21st Century.