The Virtual Revolution Episode 3 is all about how the web destroys the myth of free internet services. It illustrates how commerce has come to dominate virtually all aspects of web provision, allied to their increasingly sophisticated tactics to gather data/information on all web-users.
"The Product Online is not the content, the Product online is YOU"- Douglass Rushkoff.
The World Wide Web’s evolution brought great impact to our society. It allows free access to information and gives us the benefit to be easily connected with people around the world. It also offers us free access to media unlike television and print whereas we need to pay in order to get access with.
As I watched the episode 3 of the Virtual Revolution, I got confused with what was really the cost of this free access . Is the cost of logging in our social networking sites, higher than the cost we pay for watching a movie inside a movie house? or is it even higher than the cost we pay for buying a television set?...
The question that confused me a lot was: Is free access to the Internet really for free?
After I watched the third episode of the Virtual Revolution, I came up with a conclusion that in the web, Nothing is free.
The internet serves as medium for online business, and we as web consumers are their primary target. Lots of companies around the world are investing on the web to place their products online.
Facebook is one example. As we know, this social networking site is designed to serve as a vehicle for the free flow of information. It serves as the extension of our physical life. It mirrors who we are in the real world to the cyber world. We put our personal profile, our likes and interest, thoughts in mind in this site. Its features also allows us to share information more efficiently. But then again, we must be aware of its downside. What we put in our account are automatically owned by the Web. Meaning, the photos and blogs that we posted, and the videos that we uploaded are all properties of World Wide Web.
In the episode 3 of the Virtual Revolution it says that our thought and desires expressed on the web are traced, tracked and traded in pursuit of profit. It is very alarming because most of the web users are unaware of this. The web is like a panopticon whereas we are all under surveillance. Here, the prisons are positioned around a tower, whereas they are being watched and guarded by authorities. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe prisoners without the incarcerated being able to tell whether they are being watched.
In the context of the web, we are alike with those prisons that are being observed without being noticed. The web has the power to trace us and access our personal information. As what Doughlass Rushkoff says “The Product Online is not the content, the product online is you” explains that we, the users of the web are the product of the Online World. How we interact with the applications fed in the internet gives hint to big companies investing their business online of what our interests are. The data from our account is used to target us with advertising catered to our tastes. They then think for strategies to use to promote their products in a subtle way for us to consume without being noticed. These strategies can be seen among various websites wherein all online advertisements are being posted in almost every page.
According to Alex Krotoski, our online life is a trade. We pay for a free web with the currency of information of who we are as a user.
We are all consumers of the World Wide Web. Meaning, we are all under its power and surveillance. But then again, it's up to us whether we resist or not. At this point, the most powerful resistance that we could do is to be responsible and critical of what to put online.
Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ShMZ0Xy2Q
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2208601394
Posted by: Kath Gabaon
It's a sad but normal fact of life that nothing is free in it. Even love. Lol. :)
ReplyDeleteVirtual revolution 3 showed bluntly the greatest edge of internet advertising as opposed to TV and radio advertising and this might cause a shift in the current advertising industry. There is political economy behind this interrelatedness. The convergence and divergence of media creates a ripple for advertisers. :)
Just goes to show that nothing is absolutely free. We all have to play by the rules of money and free trade.
ReplyDeleteNow the thinking comes next....
ReplyDelete