Sony CEO “doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet”
I just read an excerpt from an interview with Michael Lynton, the CEO of Sony Pictures. To quote him,
I’m a guy who doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet. Period.
He backed up this statement by arguing that the Internet feeds the mentality that people “can have whatever they want at any given time”.
For the typical person, day to day use of the Internet is fairly trivial. Read the news, check Facebook, play a game, look up a BBQ chicken recipe, check Facebook again. While this may be true, you don’t have to think too hard to determine that the near instantaneous access to information offered by the Internet has had a more than trivial effect on our lives. Apparently, however, the comforts created, the improvements to quality of life, and even the lives saved as a result of this innovation are negated by the negative impact of piracy.
I personally don’t see how someone can make a statement like that, unless he completely misspoke or is just completely ignorant of the reality of things. Does he really think that the Internet has created such a huge problem that all of the good stemming from it is not worth mention? I’ll accept that the Internet has caused more problems then it has solved when Michael Lynton can’t afford a golden toilet seat. Until then I’m going give the same amount of merit to the opinions of Sony CEOs as I do to: people who claim aliens abducted them, people who don’t believe in medicine, and people who communicate with the dead. I draw this comparison based on the fact that their opinions and statements are all grounded in about the same amount of reality.
