Based on my life experiences, there is a big difference between having the choice of using new technology and finding out new information, and not having the choice. I know that most Americans don't ever give that choice a thought, because it is a guiding tenet in our government and is inherent in our culture. We worry more about the lack of privacy, the notion of "Big Brother" watching our every move, than we do about not being able to access necessary information. The consequences of life without freedom of information are beyond our scope of experience.
Let me make this more concrete by giving a few personal examples:
I was in China in April, when they had another Avian Flu scare. Having lived in Asia for some years, it was not high on my list of things to worry about, because I'd already been through quite a few "we're all going to die!" flu scares, and here I am, still living. BUT, what did surprise me was the number of complete strangers who came up to me in the street and, in their respective attempts at English, told me not to eat chicken. I was touched that they would care enough to warn a complete stranger, but I could not figure out what eating chicken had to do with an airborne influenza virus. I was smart enough not to go to the bird market, where I might be exposed to influenza through meeting up with an infected live bird, or human; but I just couldn't figure out how an airborne virus could be transmitted via eating dead meat. I also couldn't figure out why complete strangers were trying to warn me of this.
Of course in China, internet access is very controlled. Facebook is almost always blocked, wikipedia also, and several other sites. Plus most of what pops up in a search is in Chinese. There must be dozens of people employed just to block new sites. So internet research wasn't much of an option for me. (See? No choice.)
After talking with a few expatriates who were more familiar with the language, I learned that the Chinese government was running full-page ads in the local newspapers, stating quite clearly that no one should eat chicken. They had also pulled all chicken out of the local grocery stores. The ad stated that eating chicken would lead to catching avian influenza, which is actually not physically possible, because the virus is AIRBORNE. Being on an airplane full of coughing strangers was a lot more dangerous, in terms of catching influenza, than eating anything.
But the local population were taking this very seriously, so seriously that they were willing to risk embarrassment and possible rejection by telling a complete stranger not to eat chicken. They had very limited choices in their information seeking, even though they are, as a culture, highly literate, technologically savvy (practically everyone had a smart phone), and not very gullible.
That's how Chinese communism works; information is carefully regulated, and only that which is deemed advantageous to the state is doled out.
But it's not just communist governments that restrict information. When we lived in India - much poorer and less literate than China, overall - the newspapers would not print the temperature if it was going to be over 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit). They didn't want mass panicking, and their theory was, well, let's just not tell them - most people can't afford a thermometer, so they'll never figure it out. The particular region where we lived regularly got to that temperature, so I learned to rely on imported thermometers to check the weather.
India also cuts off all text services - for entire states, huge swathes of people - when there is a terrorist threat, or actual event. There's no notice or explanation at the time; your texts simply bounce back. It's because the terrorists use mass texts to create mass panic, or to communicate with each other to coordinate the attack. Again, you have no choice in the matter; your ability to check in with friends and family is gone. Sometimes they include the actual phone service also. One source of information gone. And there is no thought of redress; when you are in any country, you must abide by their rules, as the U.S. State Department will be happy to tell you. (Freedom of information there!) A U.S. passport, and accompanying citizenship, does not mean that you have U.S. rights in another country, unless you happen to be standing in the embassy or consulate, which is technically U.S. soil.
The last situation I will mention is the saddest to me personally. There are so many, many people in the world who do not have access to correct information about personal hygiene, health issues, or even basic nutrition. Every day in India we saw people who were hungry; people who were dirty; people who were endangering themselves out of ignorance. When you have no access to correct facts, then you wind up making explanations up, which becomes tradition, and then superstition rules. I wound up giving the "facts of life" talk to my daughter one day, not for her, but for her sweet Tamil friend who had no idea why she (the friend) was bleeding. It is traditional in Tamil Nadu to give a big party when a girl begins to menstruate - it's certainly not kept secret - and there are many illogical requirements of the girl, related to her new position in society; but, the actual physical process is never explained to her. Most girls naturally assume that they are bleeding from their bladder, and most do not have access to any information at all - not in print, not over the internet, not at school. Their mothers and their aunties don't know the facts, so that's a dead end too. This girl was in India's middle class (in our society, it would be considered abject poverty); she was attending school and was very intelligent. She used cell phones, knew about computers, was a whiz at math, read in two languages, and spoke good English. But she had very few options when it came to finding accurate information about her own body.
So, I'd choose freedom of information and mass media, and the accompanying worries about lack of privacy and accuracy, over no information at all. It requires more care in decision making, but it gives you more options.
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