Part I. Virtual Revolution 3: The Cost of Free.
The internet machinery is working its wonders. It’s more commercial than we think. The Virtual Revolution 3: The Cost of Free unravelled one of the biggest mysteries of the Web – its actual money-making schemes.
Prior to seeing the documentary, most of us thought that the advertising platform of the internet is just the same with the traditional media radio and television. Advertisers would place spots in the websites that they want to, just as advertisers buy airtime from selected broadcast networks. However, advertising in the internet penetrates more deeply into us, the ‘power’ is reversed and the net users become the products. The money-making scheme in the Internet reminds me of Jeremy Bentham’s concept of the Panopticon. To whom does the power actually belong? Is it to its users who are empowered to send emails for free, watch videos for free, access articles for free, et al? Or is it to the ‘owners’ and Internet gods who can access and manipulate the most private of our information? In Bentham’s concept, the prison is structured in such a way that a ‘higher being’ oversees all prisoners. Everyone is being seen by that higher being. We aren’t sure if there is actually a higher being.
It’s basically a give-and-take situation. As a form of payment for all the services we get without paying any cost, Google, for instance, gets to see our deepest secrets in our emails. In a micro level, in my case for instance, I don’t think that this has negative effects and implications in my internet usage and in my life in general. If the internet opens lots of opportunities and possibilities for us, then, this might be a small price to pay.
Part II. Virtual Revolution 4: Homo Interneticus
The internet, for us, netizens, has been both an alternate world and a parallel universe. In the previous episodes of the same documentary series, Dr. Aleks Krotoski pointed out that there were 1.9 billion internet users in the world, where 500 million of them are active in Facebook. If Facebook alone was a country, then it will be the third most populated country in the planet.
Dr. Aleks Krotoski, in the documentary, also said how the Web has developed a culture of its own. The Internet has developed its own set of morals and ethics. The late Dr. Walter J. Ong postulated that our mentality as people has changed with the advent of the internet. The ancient times were an oral culture. The birth of Johann’s Gutenberg’s printing press revolutionized the world and the oral culture almost died, giving birth to our new breed of printed literature. Now, another paradigm is in the move as the Internet changes the mentality of the people virtually. E-books will be our new form of literature.
Following the trail of internet happenings, soon, internet will not just be a part of the real world, but rather evolve to be a world in itself. It will be inhabited by a certain species of humans Homo Interneticus, who resembles the anatomical structure of a man, but has the senses of an ‘internet man’ (for the sake of convenience, let’s call them avatars). Today’s digital natives will be the ancestors of these avatars.
Michael Goldhaber said in a study that in the internet world, the idea of space collapses. Geography ceases to be a barrier in people’s interaction. We’re just as close to our neighbor next door to our relatives in the US as both of them are just a PM away. Homo Interneticus thus, do not have the sense of distance.
History is in the making. We cannot alter the changes in the world. As UP Department of History professor Dedina Lapar said in her lecture, the world is constantly adapting in the changing times. In a macro view of history, the evolution from the Australopithecus to the modern day man was a scientific and natural process, in such a way that the evolution of the Homo Sapiens to Homo Interneticus is a natural process. Internet is ultimately changing the world more than we might know it. We must not be alarmed for it is a natural change and development we must all welcome. Who knows, the creation of virtual restaurants and farms, as well as online role playing games are a precursor to the rise of the actual virtual world. In a few years, our lives might be fully grounded on the internet and we’ll transform from Homo Sapiens to Homo Interneticus. People change, it’s a fact of life.
In that case, Charles Darwin might have to revise his theory of the evolution of man.
Conclusion
The Internet is continually redefining our friendships, our lifestyles, our culture, our senses, and our view of the world. It has opened up a new world that we are currently co-habiting and enjoying. We are empowered to use the Internet for free, however, we had a price to pay.
In history, civilizations wax and wane. Assyrians and Phoenicians grew and lost. Egyptians rose and were defeated. Today is the blossoming of a new tribe, a tribe of Homo Interneticus. The Virtual Revolution, and the Virtual Evolution, is here.
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Sources:
http://131.193.153.231/www/issues/issue9_6/goldhaber/index.html
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