Growing up as a JW in the 70's and 80's we didn't have the influence of the internet. I, of course, believed I was in "the truth" and never heard anything (from the outside) that negative about our JW religion. Of course, now and again, we had some angry people at the door, but other than that I can't recall very many outside negative criticisms.
Now, however, times are different. In this information age,...a JW can type in the words JW, jehovah's witness, WTS, etc, into Google and some 1,190,000 sites emerge. After scrolling through a handful of pages its easy to see that, except for wt.org, the greater majority of websites are anti or very critical of the JW religion.
Hypothetical- [Let's say I'm thinking about buying into a franchise. I decide to google the business name to see what pops up on the internet. The first website that appears is the business website and they really appear to look polished and professional and then all the other sites are completely critical of this business franchise. Of course this is going to raise huge red flags and it should cause me to look into things more diligently so that I'm not scammed.]
The internet has to be having a huge impact. Each and every JW who has the internet and googled "JW" has to either believe that they are under heavy persecution or red flags must be appearing in their minds about their own religion.
I've personally experienced the JW mind control,...but I can't help but think (if I was still in) I would wonder why all of these thousands of websites are so critical of us. I think I would have looked into it.
Why doesn't my brothers? Why doesn't my mom? They are all internet savvy and have probably googled "JW" before. I'm sure that they've probably even looked at many JW critical websites too.
Yet, year after year goes by and they are still in. Even with the mind control, I just don't understand how they can keep on keeping in that religion. I don't get it.