A threat to indigenous tribes?
Starlink, a satellite company owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX, has brought high-speed internet service to the indigenous Marubo villages in the Amazon rainforest. Will this be a blessing, a curse, or a mix of both?
Since gaining internet access in 2022, elders have observed behavioral changes in younger tribe members, including less interest in traditional ways of life, and laziness. Not surprisingly, they give much of their time to video games and pornography, of which the detrimental impacts on the human brain are well documented.
However, the elders believe more good than harm will come from the tribe's Internet use and have collectively agreed to limit the amount of time its members can spend online.
Learn more in this article from Global News and share what you think. Is the tribe's access to the Web a powder keg of trouble, or will the technology ultimately improve their lives?
https://globalnews.ca/news/10547068/amazon-marubo-tribe-internet-starlin...
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Slipstream
With just a few months of internet access, the tribe now has problems with lazy teens, pornography, loss of interest in working for the community, and tribe members isolating with their phones to watch videos. Sounds far too familiar.
Although tribal elders have put time limits on the amount of internet access, they'll probably learn that the internet is more of a threat than any of the variety of poisonous snakes they have in that area.
Thanks to the internet, they might wake up one day and find they are extinct. I appreciate reading about this but can't help being a bit sad...
Well Street
I agree that with some sweet will come bitter.
Slipstream
I have a love/hate relationship with the internet.
Evangel
The tribe leader is not happy with how the NYT emphasized the pornography complaint from one elder and how, subsequently, other news outlets blew that way out of proportion and, thus, according to his rebuttal, turned it into "fake news."
Listen to his rebuttal here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8AGodqOPoh/
Well Street
I appreciate his thoughtful commentary and do not doubt that internet access has been beneficial. That said, describing parts of the NYT article as fake news doesn't add credibility to his argument, in my eyes.
By using that term, first coined by a pathological and unrepentant liar, his assertion that "there's nothing to see here" regarding problematic porn usage among tribe members is less believable.
Evangel
It's no secret that pornography permanently incapacitates teenage boys from having healthy, intimate relationships as they grow up. Pornographic videos and imagery can never be unseen. The ongoing viewing of women being abused and degraded triggers visceral excitotoxins that can never be met in a loving sexual relationship. The boys will change. Brazilian indigenous tribes should learn from the countless American boys who are in therapy groups today trying to rid their minds from the deep-seated repercussions of their repeated viewing of today's pornography. So sad and troubling.