Reflections On the Internet

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a one of a kind conference with the famous author and speaker Roy Christopher. The discussion during the conference left me with several impressions of the internet that I didn't think of before.

The first was the idea that the medium is the message. What this means is that the medium, or the mode of language, defines the way that a message is viewed. For example, stick a character like Batman into a comedy and you'll get a very different message from the somber message of justice in his own movies. Even changing the format from a book to a movie can change the message of the story.

How do we survive in this new culture of the internet? The moment I even open my browser, I am flooded by updates on Facebook or irrelevant pictures of lolcatz, with a few news articles thrown in there.A lot of this can be overwhelming. However to master the internet, or rather, not be controlled by it is to know more about it and how it works. Knowledge is power. This especially applies to the internet. The more you know about filter bubbles, and of similar barriers, the more you will be able to utilize the internet to the best of your abilities.

On a side note, I don't really use the internet to the best of my abilities. Sure I'm in this class and am part of a community of similarly minded students studying English, but most of the time I fail to use the internet for anything other then my own entertainment.

 

After seeing how diverse the internet's role in people's lives is, it brings me to another point.

Technology is defined by the users. How you use the technology will shape what the technology is. It is different for everyone. For this farmer in Africa, it was a way to save his crops and educate his community. For others it's a source of entertainment.

As people grow and new generations are born, new technologies will be formed that the children of that era will grow up with. However, adults shouldn't try to influence the way that these technologies are perceived by the generation before them. Take this present generation of people. We have grown up with the internet. However some adults don't trust us to be able to use the technology for the better. Because of this they try and censor it or show us there way of using it. But going back to the above idea for technology, the way they use it might not be the way I use it. Because of this, the youth should be trusted with discovering and mastering new technologies for themselves.

What will happen in the future with technology is unknown. What is known is that we can help shape the way that technology will be used in the future. Provided that the older generations let us do that.

-Nicholas Lycan