Issues of the Web and the Homo Interneticus' Web experience

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No copyright infringement nor plagiarism intended.

Used here non-commercially, for academic purposes only.

            The Web has offered us a lot of things. We get to meet and socialize with our friends and to our relatives even beyond local or national boundaries; we get to shop even if we are inside our home or in offices; we get to be informed and updated about current events even if we don’t get it from traditional media; and we get to earn degrees even if we do not go to schools or universities to attend hours of lectures. These innovations are not new in the world of the digital natives[1]. These have now been embedded in our culture.  

            These phenomena have been part of us already because we grew up with the Web; however there are still a lot of issues and limitations that are associated with it, as presented in the third and fourth episodes of the Virtual Revolution.

            The first issue is the way we share information. True enough that the Web has opened an avenue to democratize information to everyone who needs it. Personally, the Web has been vital especially to my academics because of it, I can easily access all the information that I needed in a very little span of time and in just a simple click I get all the data I need for a class. But this has its own disadvantage to me because I do not get all the pertinent information that is essential for my course.  The result of my Web behaviour examination maybe true about my being a Web Ostrich which is a fast searcher but does not get accurate results[2]. Another reason maybe because of the internet’s wide range of choices for a searcher, it leaves him at lost with all the available data on the Web.

            The second issue that the Web has as shown in the documentary is that it does not leave a borderline between our public and personal self anymore.

There are a lot of things that people do on the web which are very, very intimate. In a way, you know what somebody’s browsing on the Web, you’ll find out whether somebody is gay and wondering about coming-out, looking other people’s stories… These are all kinds of very, very sensitive things that people do on the web.[3]

            I agree with Sir Tim Berners Lee with his point that we do a lot of things on the web that are very sensitive and very intimate. I believe that it is truly an intrusion to one’s privacy if other people will know your actions within the internet especially if it is unsolicited and worse, the person who uses the web does not have any idea that he is being monitored by somebody. I interviewed some of my friends about their reactions and insights if they were being monitored or surveillance is running while they are surfing the Web, and the result of the interview was against the surveillance. My friend Dane, whose face really turned into awe as I told her about it, said that she cannot believe it. She only thought that Dilnet, the internet provider inside the University of the Philippines Diliman campus, was the only one who can monitor the sites that the students can visit. And that she cannot believe that even at her own personal house, she is still monitored by someone. “Akala ko Dilnet lang ang may kakayahang i-check and mga websites that we visit. I really can’t believe this.Are you really sure, baka naman mali lang source mo,” Dane added during the interview.  

            “In return for a Free Web, our privacy has become a commodity. We are economic units in what has become the new commercial frontier,” said Dr. Aleks Krotoski. I could believe that this is the real happening or the real business on the Web. The documentary said that it is a way for some companies on the Web to determine the needs and to have a clear psychographics of their market and audience. Dr. Krotoski demonstrated in the show how Google scans every message of an individual and how it gives recommendations to you for you to click. And by clicking it, Google earns. According to Dr. Krotoski, that since we are not spending for the services of Google, they need to earn back and through advertising, they earn a relatively very high amount of cash and that it is the cost of free services we get from it.  

             Knowing this from the documentary, I could not believe how I was betrayed by the Web, or by the people behind this phenomenon! All this time I thought my actions on the web are surveillance-free and that I can search about anything and watch almost anything online! What about the things I posted on my blogs?! What about my personal details?! What about my personal photos that should only be kept offline?! I think the most dangerous piece of information that could be traded about me is that my dad owns a lot of guns and weapons of various calibres. These photos were uploaded in one of my accounts in SNSs. Now we are in danger especially if this information is traded to our enemies or to people who are against my dad.

            If I am Google and be able to have this tactic, and for me as a form of revenge for getting this data about me, I will trade the information or even the sites being visited by the Unites States of America President Barack Obama. And that I will trade that information to the country who wanted to have a insight on how to take over the current stature of USA as the most powerful country in the world.

            Another issue presented to us by the documentary The Virtual Revolution is the Web’s power to reshape humanity. The very rampant way on how the Web reshapes humanity is the devaluation of friendship. As Dr. Aleks Krotoski said in the show that Facebook gives friendship a lesser value and importance than what it used to have when it was not yet created.  I think this is true. On this date, I have 2,116 friends in Facebook, and the quarter of it I personally do not know. I do not send as much messages on the Facebook walls of my really close friends, but of classmates and acquaintances yes. Maybe this also agrees with what the author of Here Comes Everybody said that no one has really friends that can reach up to thousands.

            Another fact that was stated in the documentary is that the Web makes us immortal. On one side this is an advantage for us especially to those whose research relies on archives. It is also an avenue to know our roots by this feature, we are free to look at photos that our relatives in the past.

Once it’s on the Web, it is almost impossible to erase. All our interactions on the Web from our Facebook and Twitter status updates, to news that we share with family and friends, to gossip that’s spread about us, will be on line for ever. The web effectively makes us immortal. The upside is that we can live on. There are thousands of dead people who are still receiving updates and even being poked on Facebook. But the downside is that young people, who are growing up in public by living so much of their lives on the web, will have to face living with all their youthful indiscretions that can be accessed by anyone.[4]

            I agree with Dr. Krotoski’s point that it makes us immortal however that it also has disadvantages especially if your credibility and personality is at stake. Blogging, uploading photos and videos, and posting almost anything on your Facebook wall, and tweeting almost every other second maybe a normal activity to do especially in our age today. But do we realize what the implications might lead to when our children and grandchildren saw and read these posts? I do not think so. Maybe we are not informed about this, and we cannot do anything with these posts anymore because according to Professor Nigel Shadbolt of University of Southampton, these remains as our digital fingerprint which is as much as valuable as our genetic fingerprint.[5]

            With these issues, I believe there is a strong need for us to guide and educate our children properly on their internet usage especially those who just use the Web for granted. However, I believe that we should not limit the Web because the real essence or the real purpose of the internet which is to provide unlimited information and data will be diminished. My suggestion will be to just properly educate the users and the ones who guide these users for them to know the advantages and disadvantages of using the Web and that if we have a high level of internet literacy, we then can have no problem with whatever panics it might cause.

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[1] John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. (Basic Books; 2008)

[2] Web Behaviour Test by BBC. Read my results at http://upcybernomads.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-my-offline-self-meets-my-online.html.

[3] Tim Berners Lee in episode 3 of The Virtual Revolution

[4] Dr. Aleks Krotoski in the 3^rd Episode of The Virtual Revolution

[5] Interviewed on the 3^rd Episode of The Virtual Revolution

AUGUST 1991: The WEBvolution begins

Photo available here. Used here non-commercially, for academic purposes only.

                I found it interesting that eight days before I came out from my mother’s womb on the 14^th day of August in 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee publicly introduced the World Wide Web or the WWW[1]. The World Wide Web is made out of billions of data such as documents, photos, music, videos, that were interconnected by to computers all around the world, enabling the users to share files whenever and wherever they may be[2].  It is quite intimidating to know that the web’s years of existence is the same as my existence in the world.

                I say intimidating because during the first class meeting on the 9^th of November in our Communication 150 class, I realized that we encountered the web and the internet late for our age, and in our generation. For my case, I first encountered the web when I was a 6^th grader when we were tasked to search for something for our subject back then. Yes, it was 2004 and the web was 13 years old already and again, yes, I was also 13 then.  

                Looking at how the web started, you may not even believe that the proposal was at first doubted by the boss of Sir Tim burners-Lee, yet the success is truly significant in the lives of the people in the current century. This is an excerpt from an interview to Sir Berners-Lee by Dr. Aleks Krotoski wherein the web inventor showed how happy he was upon the first flight of the web on the 6^th of August, 1991 as shown in the TV series produced by the BBC entitled The Virtual Revolution[3];

“I get it all wired up then that was the big switch… through the switch the lights went on… and that was the web taking off across the world. People started to log on and typing hypertext and I could feel the power of all these links spreading across the planet and we just have to hold on tight… and a call came from BBC… to cover the incredible uptake.”

               

                Although looking at how big the impact of the web in our life today, it is still seen as not encompassing some of the traditional media such as the television and the radio[4]. But I think it is because as compared to the traditional media, the new media is younger when it comes to the domination aspect. Because looking at it, as young as it may be, the influence and the impact it has made to the people is much bigger than that of other media.  

                As a “Digital Native” or as a person who is born and raised in a world of digitalization, as what John Palfrey and Urs Gasser called it in their book Born Digital[5], I am happy how our life has become more comfortable especially in doing academic works wherein a single click may lead to thousands of ideas ready to be acquired online.  It has also broadened our horizons because what was difficult to achieve before is now a single search away, even in our capabilities on doing some things such as buying expensive books and music. My mother would always tell me that I am blessed having such gadgets and internet because I can chat with and see our relatives who are miles away from us, virtually.

                If the web has its good sides, it is undeniable that it has also bad sides. The most important is the privacy of the individual who publishes almost everything on the internet. According to my professor in my English 30 or my English for the Profession class, Prof. Dr. Helen L.  Lopez when I asked her if I can publish my written output made in class online, she was against the thought of publishing it online. She said that my privacy can be intruded and that the paper I wrote might get criticisms and if other finds it unworthy to be published, then my reputation and also the University’s reputation might be ruined. I was unable to express my point to her. I believe that the web gives an opportunity for us to express ourselves and to let others know what we think or what our opinions are on certain issues.

                According to Stan Yee, our culture now is a “share everything” culture wherein the private data about us is easily disclosed to public which in turn might be subjected to exploitation and abuse[6].  I believe that it also relies on the information that you are sharing online and the settings you establish on the media or channel that you are publishing it on.

                Even there are negative sides on using the web as a medium on expressing yourself, I am still happy that the internet and the web help everything from doing a simple to the most complex actions, easy. And even though I was born with the month and the year when the web was also born, I can say that as I grow old with it, I get to study how it evolves and how it can deeply penetrate the lives of the people particularly its users- the very fact that we are of the same age helps. In short, I am part of making and even witnessing how it evolves!

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[1] “Internet History” available at Computer Hope website at http://www.computerhope.com/history/internet.htm; Internet, accessed 9 November 2010.

[2] “WWW” available at the Computer Hope website at http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/w/www.htm; Internet , accessed 9 November 2010.

[3] The Virtual revolution is documentary series which has four episodes. It was presented by Dr. Aleks Krotoski. For more information, check the website of the series at http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/.

[4] “ Is the Web the ultimate propaganda machine?” available at Dr. Aleks Krotoski’s website at http://alekskrotoski.com/post/event-digifest-is-the-web-the-ultimate-propaganda-machine; Internet, accessed 11 November 2010.

[5] “About the Book” available at the Born Digital website at http://borndigitalbook.com/about.php; Internet, accessed 15 November 2010.

[6] “Are You Checking In- or Out?” in Reader’s Digest Asia’s Guide Tech section, November 2010, 145.