The Internet and Its Complexities: A Response to the Readings

The internet is like a large rubix cube, full of complexities that only certain individuals can unwind, within minutes. However, the internet also possess something that anyone can use to their disposal—knowledge. I am not about the knowledge one gains from googling historic information, instead the knowledge I of speak of is what one typically gains throughout their lifetime.  It is from the reading that I draw this conclusion, but to single out one in particular is extremely hard. The reason being is for the most part they all complement one another, filling a gap the other possessed.

The article, Recent Futures: TAZ, Wired and the Internet by Geert Lovink was one of the readings that stood out to me primarily because it opened my eyes to Cyberculture and its role in what the internet is today. I found it interesting how Lovink spoke about the how the internet shifted from a tech-savvy leisure for creativity to a big business. The motto that he used to describe what the internet has become:

“Catch the youngsters, squeeze the creativity out of them…and sell out as soon as you can”

really stuck out to me. This is because this greed to make money is what led to the web crash mentioned in another article Geert Lovink wrote, entitled After the Dotcom Crash: Recent Literature on the Internet Business and Society. In fact, companies have found ways to use the internet to manipulate people into buying their products by making their ads appear on every page you browse after leaving their website. From both articles it was made clear to me that the internet became nothing more than a ‘get rich quick’ system and as the internet expanded corruption and bankruptcy followed. However, it is from this disarray that the knowledge comes from because the crash of the internet led to people learning from their greed and how to be content with what they have.

Although, the internet was used by some in shady ways, the articles, History of the Internet and Its Flexible Future by Leonard Kleinrock and The Past and Future History of the Internet by Barry Leiner portrayed the internet in a different light. Kleinrock’s article touched on the internet as the reason for a change in our behavior and attitudes as it started to shape us into a more informational society. I agree with Kleinrock because many people today get a majority of their information from the internet, actually the internet has made it possible for social websites such as Facebook to become huge sources when it comes to gathering information. This only provides a glimpse of what the internet is capable of doing in fact the article by Leiner takes this even further and suggests that the internet can only get bigger and better, as its complexities are explored. I agree with Leiner because not only has the internet open doors for a new way to communicate around but it has also revolutionized the way we look at technology, take touch screens for example, without the internet this would not have been possible.

Overall the articles provided me with a glimpse as to what the internet really is; they did a great job at showing me the good, the bad, and the ugly as well as enabling me to explore my own feelings about the internet and the direction that is going today. As I stated before, the internet is full of complexities, but within all that complication is a great deal of knowledge that is just waited to be consumed and what is done with that knowledge is entirely up to you.