Month: April 2016

Digital Culture Shift

“[U]nlike other media, the Internet was free of corporate gatekeepers and it enabled individuals or organizations with few resources to engage millions of people in conversation with a sufficiently compelling message or call to action.”

–A Center for Media Justice “The Digital Culture Shift”

This line from the report just stood out to me because it really reinforced what Boyd was talking about in his article. The internet is one of the first types of media that allows almost anyone to have their voice be heard by millions of people.

Truth is a Virus

I enjoyed reading Andrew Boyd’s article “Truth is a Virus”, it gives some insight into how certain contemporary political movements start, and how big they can grow. Compared to Postman, who says we should fear the flooding of information, because it will drown out information that could be critical. Boyd’s movement might have never taken place without the help of the internet, and it brought to light a stance that may have not gotten much of a voice if it was done several decades ago, before the internet was popular. This is an example of how the age of mass information can be good for society, as it leads to greater diversity and can even help smaller causes have their voices be heard. But this is a double edged sword, because Postman still has a point. For every cause that makes it big, there are hundreds or thousands that didn’t take off, and although a good chunk of those failed for good reasons, there are some causes that were important and didn’t get a chance at being heard. And to add to that, not everyone pays attention to things on the internet, even now, over a decade later, there are still people who refuse to use the internet, or just plain ignore the parts of it that they don’t like.

Fishposting

This meme started off in the beginning of January this year, with the original sentence saying “When you’re at a party and someone says they’re the best at smash”. Since then there have been many variations of this meme, and it may have even lead to a long line of spongebob memes currently taking over certain parts of the internet.