"The Internet is the great equalizer," has been said before since the '90's and has been proven true in so many ways. One way that this comes to mind especially is in how culture is now informed.
Before the internet, those with a voice were only those with enough power or money to grant themselves one. Therefore society was shaped largely by conservatives and left those with less popular opinions were left out of the decision-making process. Then the internet came along and everything changed.
Fast forward to today and I marvel at the changes the common voice has brought to society. Before the internet, if you weren't part of the majority, you could pretty much forget it (no matter what the issue was) but now you can gather your compatriots and bring your plight to the masses, courtesy of a plethora of devices.
Ten years ago even, nerds were still uncool, and freaks weren't accepted. Gays were still a very taboo topic. Now we have enough voices pushing through saying, "Hey. We may all have equal rights, but we AREN'T all equal. We are different. Accept us."
Yes, many had utopian visions of what the openness of the internet might mean, yet many of those same people are now disappointed in what's happened. So let's question a couple of things:
ReplyDelete1) Have people become more informed? Why is it that with ultimate choice people seem to make narrower or often fewer choices?
2) What has the anonymity of the internet done to and for expression and people? The definition of anonymity itself is contradictory; what does it mean for Web 2.0? http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anonymity
1. I think that ultimately, yes, people have become more informed. While the access to more (infinite!) information is not taken advantage of by all, it seems to me that overall people are more informed (and certainly more opinionated). With more information, we are able to make more educated decisions, and buy (for example) the correct item the first time, as opposed to trying several products before finding the correct one to meet our needs.
ReplyDelete2. Anonymity... is really only so anonymous if people really care to try to discern someone's identity. But the guise of anonymity has done a lot for self-expression. People feel free to publicly blast about something that they would normally shy away from. I think for Web 2.0 it means more typically undivulged information shared from many to many, like WikiLeaks and the infamous 'Anonymous'.