That Final Pape Part 1

The 21^st century internet is having a major impact on our culture and the way we live our lives. The internet has become one of our most powerful tools, and we must learn how to harness its power for the greater good of humanity. We must now keep it out of the hands of our government, and the corporations that would use it to take our money, and control us. In the next few years could bring major change in the way we use the internet. The web 2.0 will either  develop into a media tool for mass population mind control and advertisements, or it can be used by the people to speak out, and fight back against the corrupt powers at hand through grassroots activism at least while we still have a means of free expression on the internet. The government is trying day and night to gain full control over this media tool with acts such as PIPA and SOPA, and now is the time for us to fight back.

“What the net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. Whether im online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski.” Carr, 6)

The point Carr makes is one that I have not stopped thinking about since I first read this. The analogy is perfect. I too have similar feelings about how the internet and other modern technology has changed the way I ingest information. While in grade school you are taught how to read and write, and the way I was instructed made it possible for me to lose myself in words.  Each word written down was to be analyzed and were individual pieces of a what made up a structured sentence. The difference for me today is that I am used to looking for key words. I will rarely come across an internet post and immediately start reading from the very top to the bottom, without skimming or skipping ahead. The first thing I would do is actually see how long the article is, and actually look for key words that I may be searching for. Quite often the subjects, quotes, names, or whatever I may be searching for will be conveniently highlighted for me, and could even be a direct link to what I am really looking for.

“We seem to have arrived, as McLuhan said we would, at an important juncture in our intellectual and cultural history, a moment of transition between two very different modes of thinking.”

It’s an exciting time to be alive in the world! Things are rapidly changing around us, and new technology is developing exponentially faster and faster. In a little more than a decade we have gone from a world where cellular phones were just becoming available to a world where nearly everyone of almost all ages carries a device capable of not only making phone calls, but accessing the internet, and making media stream able to you from almost anywhere on the planet. Technologies such as smart phones are going to be a major part of the human race from now on. I don’t see a way of us getting rid of them now. I predict that the smart phones will continue to develop into stronger tools, and will become essential for everyone to own. They will act like a second brain that does all of our thinking and remembering for us, and those people who never buy into the technology will eventually be completely left out of our society of smart phone addicts, who will be busy uploading and downloading information at a constant rate. The youth of the future will have no time for books, and no time for any old ways of thinking.

“People didn’t have to memorize everything anymore. They could look it up.” (Carr, 177)

By making artificial memory we no longer have to rely on our own memory. We can have a backup. We can have multiple backups of information. The artificial memory can be easily accessed and it is permanent. Unless we erase the information ourselves it can last forever, which is not always possible for our human brains. To me there is something that just doesn’t seem right about the way we are heading. Search engines such as Google, are giving us abilities to access information that no one else in human history has ever come close to. The greatest libraries in the world all put together do not have as much information as the web 2.0, and the time it would take to find a certain book, then read through that book, could take hours, while it takes me less than 10 seconds to search literally anything in the world on my iphone. This is a major change in human history, but most people never even take that into consideration. To many it’s just another advancement in technology that they must buy immediately, or they risk becoming obsolete like the previous technology.  

“In worrying that writing would enfeeble memory, Socrateswas, as the Italian novelist says, expressing “an eternal fear: the fear that a new technological achievement could abolish or destroy something that we consider presious, fruitful, something that represents for us a value in itself, and deeply spiritual one” (Carr, 178)

The technological race to have the best of the best technology is an endless one. The technology we buy will be obsolete before we even turn it on. With so much focus on new technologies we forget that we were perfectly fine with the old technology, or an older way of doing something. Today the fear of being out of date or obsolete outweighs the fear of destroying or abolishing anything from the past. We are a culture of constant growth and exploration, and constant improvement, whether we are actually improving ourselves or not.

chapters 7,8,9,10

Revolution 2.0 Wael Ghonim

Chapter 7

“By the time people went home, the internet had been flooded with images and videos from Jan25 protests across Egypt.”

It incredible how fast things are uploaded to the internet. Events that happen in real life are almost simultaneously being recorded and made global by uploading it in some way to the internet, whether its facebook status, tweets, or video on youtube. It will be interesting to see how this will effect our history.

“History is made on the streets, not on the internet, I told myself.” Page 190

Once he got the revolution started on the internet, and after the people started gathering in the streets, and truly protesting for a new government, the internet was not quite as powerful. When it comes down to it, people fighting in the streets against the government and police, is when things begin to change. It is what makes the people in power take notice.

“one very famous TV anchor claimed that protestors in Tahrir were attacking unarmed police soldiers while the innocent soldiers were voluntarily carrying fainting protestors to ambulances.” Page 191

This made me laugh. It’s hard to believe that what is supposed to be credible source could produce such lies. This happens so frequently in media it can be difficult to tell what is fact and what has been fabricated.

Chapter 8

“You and the rest of those kids protesting do not appreciate the value of this country, and you have no idea how much we sacrifice for the sake of the home land. You don’t put your lives on the line like we do” page 223

This must have made him realize that the security police and parts of the regime genuinely believe that they were doing their jobs the best they could, and they could not understand why the youth of Egypt was so upset. From their point of view they were the patriots, and the rebels were the enemies of Egypt.

“The army did not and would not use force against the citizens of Egypt. It was a signal moment in the revolution: there would be no bloodbath at the hands of the army.” Page 227

This must have been the biggest confidence booster for the rebels. They now had the support of the army, and that must have been a major eye opener to the regime, as well as a warning that this revolution was truly on its way to toppling the country’s corrupt leaders.

“The new Egyptian minister of interior announced that the police force had returned to it’s original motto “the police serve the people,” in an attempt to reduce the protestors fury.” 232

The attempts that the new leaders made after Jan25th were laughable. They continued to deny the seriousness of the protestors, and the negotiations they offered were far from what the people demanded. This revolution was about a lot more than the motto of the police officers.

Chapter 9

“In their faces I could not sense a tate for sadism or torture. They did not seem miserable or cruel. Instead, the faces I saw could have belonged to any young middle class Egyptians.” Page 250

While he was being held in the cell he thought of his captors as the evil seuqurity gaurds that were capable of smashing a mans head on a rock. He found that they were people similar to him, and could have been walking the streets as a friendly Egyptian civilian like himself. He did not expect to find people who had as many strong feelings about their country as he did.

“Seriously, do you consider yourself someone who loves this country and it’s people? You are nothing but a propaganda minister who spreads lies, and I certainly do not want to appear on a TV channel run by you! People like you should be in prison and not in government positions!” page 266

It would be great to say something like this to all of the big news companies in America. The news anchors and reporters spreading lies to this country should be held responsible for their actions. I think if anyone who has a position in a major news corporation should feel a tremendous amount of guilt for the untrue information that is enforced on the blind and naive people around the world.

“Everybody have to come home, we want to have normal life we don’t want anybody in the streets. Go to work, bring once again back the tourists, go to the normal life, save the economy of the country.” 268

I cannot believe that General Omar Soloman would actually come out on TV and say this. I was outraged to read this! Maybe if he had not said this in his broken English it would not have sounded so bad, but for him to tell people to just go home, go back to work, go back to sleep, forget this whole thing ever happened. Go back to normal so you can start buying things, and rebuild the economy, so I can start making more money off you all again. Our government in our own country would want the exact same thing. The people in power don’t want you to be involved with your own life. They just expect you to be silent and continue the cycle of making them money.

Epilogue:

 “Thanks to modern technology, participatory democracy is becoming a reality.” Page 293

This is really exciting! It never really occurred to me how much power technology like social media has. It makes it possible for everyone to have their own little voice, which can be combined with other people who are saying the same thing. This makes it possible for ideas to spread really quickly and for them to gain a lot of support.

“Slowly but surely, the weapons of mass oppression are becoming extinct.” Page 293

The governments around the world have been able to control their populations through their media. Now in the 21^st century these old methods no longer work on the youth. The youth of the world has almost been set free by our technology. We are free to access endless amounts of information, so we will not be so easily fooled by any government trying to brainwash, control, and manipulate us.

“The revolution in Egypt was different: it was truly a spontaneous movement led by nothing other than the wisdom of the crowd.” Page 293

This is a major point of this book. The revolutions of the past started with one charismatic leader, one person who’s voice spoke for the people. No all the people have a voice that can be easily heard by anyone with an internet connection. A single person is not as effective at making new polices as the entire consensus of the nation.  

chapters 4,5,6

Chapter 4

”It was becoming clearer to me that Arabs, no matter how divided they seemed, shared a very deep common anger.” Page 85

This is clearly a good reason to start a revolution. When an entire nation of people can all agree to hate something and protest it, it will surely have to fall. There was so much hate for the regime it was only a matter of time.

Face book post: “This is the new Arab generation… A thousand Tunisians came together to support khaled said… If Facebook youth in this country unite against corruption and injustice, Egypt will become a better place.”page 86

I think it is interesting that they referred to themselves as the facebook youth… Its amazing to me that an entire generation can be identified as all being users of FB, and that it has become their most powerful tool to have a voice for their generation. I wish that youth in our country used facebook in similar ways, rather than using to waste time.

“more than 50.000 members of the page watched the video in the next few days.” Page 86

He is talking about the video he made and posted on the FB page. It’s amazing what FB I s capable of these days. A video itself is a powerful medium, but when you are able to share it with over 50,000 people instantly it becomes a super meme capable of infecting the minds of people everywhere overnight. The Kony video is another good example of something that seemed to appear out of no where and be a topic on everyone’s mind around the country.

Chapter 5

“At 11:30 that morning he returned to headquarters, and as a protest, set himself on fire.” Page 122

This isn’t the first time that self immolation has happened. I googled self immolation, and found that many people have done this in protest. The Buddhist monks in South Vietnam burned themselves in the 60s, and generated a lot of talk about why they did it, and it is still happening today by protestors in countries in need of revolution. There has been 33 people who set themselves on fire in 2011 in china to protest the Chinese government. And 14 people in Egypt did the same to protest their government.

“Often when a traffic officer would pull me over to issue a ticket, I would bluntly say, “I do not pay bribes.” Most of the time the officers would let me go, because he was either disappointed or embarrassed.”

There must have been a lot of corrupt cops! Clearly their police force was not doing its job, when cops are more interested in easy bribe money than upholding any laws or protecting anyone.

“Even some women in the niqab, the face veil, attended church services that night. We published their images, and those of the muslims who held up signs stressing the unity of Egyptians in the face of terrorism in all its forms.” Page 129

Even the dividing lines of organized religion were forgotten during this time of protest. That says a lot about how ready for a change Egypt was. Muslims and Christians settling their differences before the people and the police and regime could settle theirs, is amazing. Maybe someday there will be no religion or government to separate the people at all, but what they were moving towards seems to be a brighter future.

Chapter 6

When the guard at the airport asked him about being on the watch list he said “I don’t like Hosin Mubarak, and that’s why my name is on the list.” “God willing this will be the last time I am searched, because we will catch up with Tunisia on January 25^th” The guard agreed with him, and continued to do his job with a smile.

Many of the guards and police were actually good people who also hated the regime, and that is always a good sign. The fact that the people within the regime were starting to voice their opinions as well, could only help the protestors cause.

Number 8 on the list of instructions for the 25^th protest states “It is very important not to come out alone, because friends come in handy in situations like these.

It is hard to imagine being in a situation like that. Where police could capture torture and kill you, and no one would know what happened to you unless you were with a group of people who knew you. It must have been terrifying just to go about an average day in Egypt knowing that police were capable of such brutality.

“It was then that I Discovered that for the first time in Egypt, the government had blocked Facebook and Twitter.”

 The two internet sites have become such powerful tools! I hope someday our country might be able to harness their power to over throw our government, but what will most likely happen is the government will gain control over them, and use them against us creating bogus propaganda, and using it for advertisement to sell us more stuff we don’t need. I think the future of FB will be used for mind control over US citizens, and corruption of younger generations.