The Internet: Scary or Safe?

Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner’s essay Oppositional Politics and the Internet: A critical/ Reconstructive Approach demonstrates the positives and negatives found with the Internet. As Kahn and Kellner state, “the Internet constitutes a dynamic and complex space in which people can construct and experiment with identity, culture, and social practices” (1). This is both interesting and scary all at once. Think about how many people create fake identities on the World Wide Web. Hackers who go on others Facebook’s and pretend to be people you actually know in need of help, and need to use your e-mail to send something. In reality, they just want to hack into your e-mail system, but how are you supposed to know if that is actually your friend Facebook chatting with you or a hacker. Online dating sites allow you to put up whatever lies you want to say about yourself (weight, height, hair color, etc) and whatever extremely photoshopped picture or a picture of someone else you choose to upload. No one knows who is standing behind the screen of that computer. As Kahn and Kellner state, the Internet has been shown “to retard face-to-face relationships” (1). As the cartoon below states, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” This is a scary thought.

On the other hand, the Internet allows for information to be widely available to a greater number of people around the world. I personally do not see what I would do without the Internet. I use the Internet everyday of my life, whether it be on my computer or on my cell-phone. Another interesting point Kahn and Kellner make is that now the Internet is available to a greater number of people because of the invention of Wi-Fi. Many wireless networks are not secure with passwords; so people can use those networks if they are within the area, this makes hacking much easier (9). The Internet has also now allowed for many people to partake in online politics that before would never voice their opinions – “technopolitics.”

Our world is surrounded by the Internet and has turned all of us into Internet junkies. Look where we are today, not only do we now have online dating, but online classes where students can lay in bed in their pajamas, cheat off the internet, and pass courses. We can even read books online now without actually having to purchase a hard copy.

A Virtual Life

Danielles youube video stuck an interest in me about the obsession with virtual life’s on the internet. At first I though Danielles video was a joke till I noticed that this game is very much real. Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner talk about “groups and individuals excluded from mainstream political and cultural productions” which have been active in the construction in the Internet culture. They talk about “communities of color, gay and lesbian groups, and man other under-represented communities which have set up their own e-mail lists, websites, blogs and are now a thriving and self-empowered force on the internet” This is similar to the imaged life such as “second life” where minorities create a place to express themselves.

It is amazing to me that someone can be so indulged and connected with another life, such as this one which they rely on this “imaged life.” It is scary to see that this virtual game can be so real and realistic, but at the same time so fake and imagined. I believe that people become obsessed and addicted to games like this because it takes away from their own lives and troubles and allows them to create a life that is perfect in their eyes, and where no one can judge or ridicule them. The video says, “Be yourself, be different, free yourself, change your mind, change your look, love your look, love your life.” This in fact displays an imaged life. They are portraying that you need to do all of these things in your virtual life through this game rather than in your real life and reality.

An article from guardian.co.uk titled, “Girl starved to death while parents raided virtual child in online game.” Tells a devastating and scary story about parents who become obsessed with raising a virtual child and neglecting their own child. --

According to the Yonhap news agency, South Korean police said the couple had become obsessed with raising a virtual girl called Anima in the popular role-playing game Prius Online. The game, similar to Second Life, allows players to create another existence for themselves in a virtual world, including getting a job, interacting with other users and earning an extra avatar to nurture once they reach a certain level

"The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby," Chung Jin-Won, a police officer, told Yonhap. "They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/korean-girl-starved-online-game

Again, like the “second life” video, this article did not seem real to me at first. After reading it, it is in fact very real. These virtual games empowered through the internet create an imaged life for people, which allows themselves to become addicted to this “perfect” life, which is in fact fake, neglecting their reality.

World Wide Web

Kahn and Keller both argue that the internet is such a vital necessity that is used in everyday life. People can post anything they want and share what ever comes to their mind. It allows us to access more information quicker and more efficiently than ever before. Because of this, more people are able to view this information, and also there is a wider range of sources to information than previously. The internet has led to globalization that we have not seen before. We are able to share information quicker than ever with anyone around the world due to this technological advance. The other aspect of the internet is that the majority of people now own some form of mobile device that has the internet in their hands where ever they are in the world. Even when you are not by a computer, you are still able to access any information you want, in a small PDA. Besides for the positives of the internet, there are some negatives that the internet provides. People are able to hack information and computers all through the world wide web. The internet has made identify theft easier than ever.

I have noticed in recent years, how quickly information can go around. With the popularity of Facebook and Twitter, people are able to share personal information and current news, quicker than one could imagine. If one of your friends on Facebook goes on a trip and puts in their news feed that they are away, everyone of their friends whether they are close or not, knows instantly where this person is in the world. Similarly Twitter has evolved very quickly in recent years. For some reason, when something happens in the world, people feel like they need to tell the news, or Tweet to their followers. If you type in a topic on twitter, it is just amazing how many Tweets of that topic were posted within that last minute.

My conclusion to this idea of the internet is that we live in a world where we rely heavily on it. It is a hard thing to take the internet away from someone today, because so much of day to day activities and operations take place on the World Wide Web.

World Wide Web

Kahn and Kellner argue in their article Oppositional Politics and the Internet: A Critical Reconstructive Approach the effects that the Internet has on culture and society. Clay Shirky argues different good and bad effects that they see important to society. They discuss the importance of the Internet and how they consider it better than sitting on a coach and watching television. I agree with this and think that doing things on the Internet allows for people to be more active in learning and exploring the endless opportunities that the Internet may offer. This idea is referred to as “cognitive surplus” which can be described, as “group action just got easier.” This means that the Internet with certain things such as blogging and facebooking, is eventually going to lead to an interest and noticeable increase in a humans ability to express themselves.

I cannot imagine my life without the luxury of the Internet. I know that I am constantly “googling” things or facts that I am curious about. I know that I use “wikipedia” for almost everything and I am aware that I use facebook everyday. The Internet is a very interesting, but wide topic and I think that the article covers a large majority of topics that concern the growing impact of the Internet.

Consumerism Wins the Day

While reading the Kahn and Kellner article, I couldn't help but think that the activist bloggers and online communities that are using the web for social criticism and to publicly monitor the government, etc., are in the minority. Although the authors recognize that the internet is being used for commercial purposes and that reactionary groups and the government can use the web to their advantage as well, I think they do not really recognize the predominant use of the web: commercialism. Every website you visit has ads on the sides and top of the page, some even have them in the middle. They give statistics for the number of blogs and the portion of Google web content that they make-up, but I am interested to know how much of the web is commercial. When you search for something on Google, ad results pop-up along withthe other search results. How many of the other search results are actually looking to sell you something though? I'd bet a high percentage.

Moreover, I think that the "contemporary struggle for peace and democracy across the world" that the authors credit to technopolitics is mostly superficial. When you look at the comments on websites the majority of conversation is one-sided and accusatory. It does not seem like the majority of web users are using the web's capabilities to foster discussion and a more comprehensive understanding of the issues.

The Political Technology Era

After reading the article Oppositional Politics and the Internet, I tried picturing my life without Google, blogs, or the Internet at all but I couldn’t. Today our world revolves and operates around the World Wide Web. I agree with many of the problems Kahn and Kellner see in this. But at the same time, I think about the Internet and how it’s only going to stay and increase in value. Though I do agree on the political unfairness that Google or other search engines create when choosing sites to be on the top of the search list. I don’t know how we can try to change this because of how much power Internet companies such as Google hold. In some ways the Internet is very resource and helpful but in other ways it’s a very scary tool. By just a click of a button websites or blogs can be created with inaccurate political or any other subject matter. I am interested in to see how the web will grow and change over a couple of years. In some ways I wonder what it would be like if I could have grown up in a different decade where everyone didn’t relay on the Internet or other technological advances like cell phones.

Cognitive Surplus

In their article Oppositional Politics and the Internet: A Critical Reconstructive Approach Kahn and Kellner argue the numerous impacts the Internet has had on society, both good and bad. On a similar note, Clay Shirky’s view of what he calls cognitive surplus (from his new book Cognitive Surplus), expresses how group activity has been positively impacted through the net, exploring creativity in ways never anticipated. Shirky describes that in past decades we have spent our time watching television and neglecting brainpower. However, today he argues, with the Internet as a tool we have a plethora of availabilities to do something of great value and once we do (although in the end it may not be very useful) it may create what he calls a cognitive surplus. Cognitive surplus can be defined in five words; “group action just got easier”, meaning that this trend of blogging and posting (social media) is leading to valuable and influential forms of cultural production and human expression. Essentially Shirky talks about communication as an art. Each individual has the ability to produce this “art”(“the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects”) by partaking in the frenzy of online communication and networking taking place across the globe.