What’s in a Meme?
Early adopters of the internet constituted an important influence on what the culture of the net would become for the years until what we now refer to as “Web 2.0” or the social web. While perhaps a bit stereotypical, it is not too much of a leap to say that in the period following it’s conception, those who embraced the internet were for a large part young nerds needing an outlet for socialization which was provided by the computerized network and its technological barrier from mass entry. Combined with the slow adoption by larger society – and therefore, business – the early communities that emerged on the web were, in essence, unabashed expressive spaces. In here, anonymity provided an outlet for even the most absurd, that had not previously been allowed in the real world with it’s permanent identities and subsequent social constraints. (more…)
Information, Ignorance, and the Self
In the moments before taking the stage to deliver a public display of one’s ideas – as one might for a speech or presentation – it would not be unreasonable for the individual to feel a sense of dread. Alone in front of many, her words are to be considered and if necessary critiqued. It is the nature of the situation. The combination of a few factors, e.g., the elevation of the stage, the direction faced by the seating, and the silence of the audience, convey the message that it is her words that are of most importance and that she should treat them as such. Nervousness, a characteristic of the less experienced – the individual with less self-verification – is a bi-product of the rostrum’s seriousness. (more…)
Botnets and Resistance
At one time, I, like many others, held on to the belief that because I had viewed the internet as a new frontier for the possibilities of freedom – which for me is most easily understood as permeable and unabashed communication – the protocols of the internet should remain untouched. In a sense I believed that as long as the network remained open, control would be properly managed by the overwhelming nature of masses once having been given a taste of the possibilities. This perspective is essentially the capitalist dream of a self regulating economy without hierarchical intervention. It does however ignore a fundamental quality of the very thing I had set on a pedestal. That is, that overtime, and without any real dictator or planning committee, the network has built itself on code. Code is at base neutral – having the potential to produce both virus and social network – and in this way it has become the manifestation of law in the digital land. (more…)
