Tag Archives: internet

The problem with relying upon the Internet for activism

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Posted by maxporter on November 11, 2011 – 4:20 AM
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In recent years, I’ve witnessed how the Internet has evolved into a tool that can be used to organize social change. For instance, think about the protests that Anonymous organized against the Church of Scientology. Moreover, it is fast and efficient – think about how easily 4chan found the perpetuators of animal abuse cases posted to Youtube, for instance.

But recently, I have been wondering about the limits of the Internet as a tool for social change.

For instance, people have begun to rely upon the Internet for social change. And they become passive in the progress – it’s enough to blog about it; it’s enough to click on this grain of rice to create a dollar donation to feed hungry children; it’s enough to ‘like’ this organization x number of times; it’s enough to buy Dial soap. It’s created this illusion of social change. In effect, we are like the television-dependent individuals of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Another, more pressing issue is the fact that not all people in the world – or even this nation – have reliable access to computers. There may be no money for computers in the house, and the house may be far from the library. Or, if a computer does exist, it may not be safe to access it freely – it may be in your grandmother’s living room, for instance, and she’d have a heart attack if she read your blog over your shoulder.

If we’re serious about social change, it’s not enough to talk on the Internet. That’s definitely a good first step in the right direction – so many people benefit every day from what they read and learn about on the Internet – but we need to do more than that. We need to tear ourselves from the electric glow of our screens and take to the streets.

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The Internet as a Mirror, Pt. 3

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Posted by maxporter on July 6, 2011 – 12:02 AM
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As the Internet has become more and more widespread, another thing that I have noticed is the fact that so many people talk about how much of a time drain it is. Many complain, for example, that Facebook has taken over their lives and has forever ruined social interaction.

I think that there is something deeper to the sense that one is wasting time online. After all, if people were truly happy with the way that they use the Internet, why would they complain about spending so much time on what they enjoy?

I reiterate: it is not about the technology; it is about human nature. People will always find ways to waste their time, with or without the Internet. Likewise, communication will always change with new technology. When I hear people complaining about how the Internet has ruined their life, I can only think that they need to reevaluate themselves rather than blaming the Internet. Change is the only constant; deal with it.

As much as I’ve praised the Internet, I admit that I do have concerns with it. Personally, one concern that I have with the Internet is that it can lead to isolation. It is wonderful to have an online space in which one can express his or her true self, but what if that’s the only space to do that? I personally think that it can be alienating to feel like that none of your meatspace friends could possibly accept you like your online friends do. Maybe that is simply the extrovert in me talking; I love face-to-face interaction.

I have to conclude, however, that this is simply another facet of human nature that has existed since before the Internet was around. When I read about, for example, gay people who grew up in the backwoods without the Internet, I’ve noticed that they sought escape and anonymity in other ways: becoming a bookworm, driving hours to a gay bar where nobody will know their identity, cruising in parks.

So, like I said, the Internet does not create or cure problems in and of itself. It simply amplifies human nature.

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The Internet as a Mirror, Pt. 2

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Posted by maxporter on July 5, 2011 – 7:56 PM
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OK, I wrote this series a while ago, and it’s been sitting on my computer for a while. I’m sick of editing it. I still can’t quite get my ideas across the way that I want to, but I’m just gonna accept its imperfect nature and publish this installation plus a third one.

The Internet as a Mirror, Pt. 2

Anonymity is useful. It is not appropriate in every single situation, but I believe that it is important in that it gives us a safe space to form our identities and gives us courage to articulate our true selves in real life. It’s a space to fail with relatively few consequences.1

For me, anonymity was really important when I was growing up as a queer teenager. When I was questioning my identity, I certainly didn’t want my family to know. What if it turned out to be a phase? So I adopted an online handle and talked to other people who had adopted online handles. Needless to say, it wasn’t a phase. I can’t state enough how important the Internet was in my emotional and social development; how long would it have taken me to come out if I didn’t have that freedom to experiment?

To be sure, the Internet has exposed some ugly sides of human nature. Much has been made, for example, of people who drive others to death. But I strongly believe that this is not a reflection of the technology itself; it is a mirror of human nature.

Two examples: One of the major problems with anonymity, of course, is that one can con others. I have read so many stories about people pretending to, for example, have a terminal illness in order to solicit donations. This is terrible, sure, but I think that what we have to remember is the fact that people have probably been conning each other since the beginning of civilization. Technology itself is not to blame here; human nature is. Another issue is the hivemind that sometimes arises when a large number of anonymous people congregate in one space. Much has been made, for example, of people who organize DDOS attacks on major corporations. But, again, I think that this is more a reflection of human nature than technology. The mob mentality has been around since the beginning of time, and a certain portion of the population is always going to try to find a way to outsmart “the system” in ways that are sometimes destructive.

I’m sick of reading all these stories about how the Internet has ruined our lives and has caused all these psychological problems and so forth. I think it’s time to take on ownership for the problems that we ourselves cause due to human nature, and it’s time to focus on the positive aspect of the Internet.

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  1. For more on this point, I highly recommend watching this TED talk about anonymous spaces. [↩]
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The Internet as a Mirror: Pt. 1

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Posted by maxporter on June 17, 2011 – 6:04 PM
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As the Internet has become more prominent in mainstream culture, I’ve noticed that more and more people are offering up critiques of the Internet. And, perhaps most strikingly, more and more people are taking those ideas to heart.

One critique in particular has caught my attention: the idea that one creates an artificial identity online that then subsumes his or her physical identity. The reasoning is that the Internet is a sort of an escapist fantasyland in which there are unlimited ways to fool other people. A similar vein of thinking is that one creates a delusional parallel life on the Internet and then becomes consumed by it.

In a lot of ways, this isn’t exactly a new idea – I am reminded of when I was a child and the adults around me were warning me about the creepy people on the newfangled AOL chat rooms. When I became older, people began to warn me instead of “men pretending to be women” on the Internet.

Basically, the premise behind many of these critiques is the assumption that the offline identity is more ‘true,’ or more authentic, than the online identity. I think that this is a problematic assumption. Yes, people pretend to be others online, but sometimes, online identity differs from offline identity because there is no way to express yourself offline. Therefore, online identity may actually be a more accurate representation of one’s true self.

What strikes me about the critiques of online identities is the fear of fluid identities that underlies them. Again, this is nothing new. Queer people, for example, have faced these issues for a long time: You are born one way, and you stay that way all your life. Others determine your identity instead of allowing you to articulate your own identity.

This is a very black-and-white view of identity. Sometimes, especially when we are young, it is difficult to overcome these teachings from heterosexual society: if following the norm is the way to a good life, how could you possibly deviate from that norm? Being queer, therefore, is a big no-no.

This is where, for me at least, the Internet comes in. I grew up queer in one of the most conservative areas of this country. In a lot of high schools, there is a group of misfits that sits together in the cafeteria – for me, the Internet was like an extension of that group, but even more accepting than that. On the Internet, I could be honest about who I truly desired and I could talk about my non-normative plans for the future. It was a way for me to form my identity in a safe space when I lived in an area where I didn’t feel safe being myself. Instead of worrying about coming out and then later taking it back, articulating my identity online gave me the courage to come out to people in meatspace.

Another positive benefit of the Internet is the fact that it connects people who would otherwise never have met. For instance, I found role models online – most people that I spoke to were in their mid twenties who initially assumed that I was the same age. When they learned that I was still in high school, they would offer me advice for surviving my teenage years. Because I lived an area where I knew no queer adults and because the queer community is all too often age-segregated, the Internet was a valuable way for me to reach out to my elders.

In addition, having grown up in a homogenous area, being online has allowed me to connect with people from other cultures and countries. I’m not saying that the Internet is the most diverse place or that it’s colorblind – it certainly can echo the oppressive norms of society. Nonetheless, I think that the fact that I can talk with people halfway around the world is truly amazing.

The Internet has gradually evolved into a less-anonymous space – think, for example, of the prevalence of social networking sites that use your real name – but I have observed teenagers using the anonymous spaces to articulate their identities and to connect with others. I am happy for them – if nobody knows your real name when you express your authentic self online, it is harder for the mean kids in your school to go on a smear campaign against you.

I admit that there are problems with the Internet. But it is not as simple as unilaterally condemning the trolls and sock puppets; there are more nuanced questions that we can ask about anonymity online. Above all, we have to keep in mind that anonymity brings benefits as well as problems.

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It’s just a hobby, after all

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Posted by maxporter on May 14, 2011 – 4:03 AM
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It’s about 3:40 am in the time zone where I just came from, so I probably shouldn’t be posting to my ‘serious’ blog in this state. But I’m restless and eager to say something, so here I am.

I wanted to give you guys an update on this post about my changing relationship with the Internet. A friend of mine and I talked about it a little and she wrote an entire post about blogs. She says that:

In large part, I write this because I myself value from this discussion. I might contend that the completion of the thought process isn’t communication or discussion, as maxporter contends, but articulation.

I thought about it some more, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I agree with her.

For one thing, I realized that there are other places on the Internet to discuss things. I tend to categorize my online use: Tumblr is for pretty pictures, LiveJournal is for personal blogging, etc. It’s okay for me to have a space where I just talk; I can find a more two-way avenue of communication elsewhere on the ‘net.

And it did remind me that I enjoy blogging for blogging’s sake. The happiest that I’ve been with this blog was when I decided to do NaNoBloMo – I posted once every single day for 30 days. The point was just to keep generating new content and to keep writing. I enjoyed that, and I hope that others gained some enjoyment from it as well. The more I think about it, the more I think that blogging is largely a “build it and they will come” type of endeavor. If you don’t write anything, of course nobody will read it. But if you write posts, people may or may not read them.

Now, I’m going to be honest – I have mini existential crises pretty regularly. To me, changing my mind is good because it’s a sign that I’m alive: it means that I am growing and evolving into a better person. (Hopefully.) That being said, part of why I felt a little bit of uncertainty about this blog is because the Internet becoming a hobby rather than my primary means of socialization. I feel that, for me, it’s a much healthier relationship.

But it does mean rethinking how I blog and so forth. In the long run, it actually may be a good thing for this blog. If I’m not obsessively counting hits and attaching my self-worth to how many blog readers I have but am instead treating it as an outlet that I engage in for pleasure, I feel less pressure to produce posts with Earth-shattering insights.

And, with that realization, I don’t feel like I need to write a jaw-droppingly good conclusion. Hopefully this will suffice for now.

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This blog & the Internet

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Posted by maxporter on May 9, 2011 – 2:54 PM
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I’ve been spending less time on the Internet recently because my router and/or browser keep crapping out. I don’t really have the energy to deal with that right now, so I have been focusing on other things.

In that time, I have been thinking about my relationship to the Internet, including what I want from this blog. I want a space where I can put forward my unfinished thoughts so that they can be completed via discussion. In my opinion, thoughts are always unfinished unless you have someone else to discuss them with.

I feel like my blog sometimes reads like I’m saying, “I think everyone should think this.” That’s definitely not how I intend it to come across. Come on, nobody knows shit, myself included. I’m not the type of person who comes up with an essay – or blog post – and sees that as the end-all-be-all; it’s a work in progress. There are some blog posts from two weeks ago that I completely disagree with now because I kept thinking about the issue and came to a completely different conclusion.

I think that a blog is a difficult space to discuss things. Part of this is because the Internet is written in ink: you wouldn’t ever have any idea that I changed my mind unless I told you. People can still navigate to a post from 2009 and read what I thought in 2009. Part of it is that people just don’t comment – I’m not sure what’s up with this. I think that part of it is that blogging is a passive medium. I post, you read the post, then you move onto the next part of your day. But I genuinely want to know if there’s anything that I can do to foster discussion. If any of you have any suggestions and feel comfortable sharing it, please let me know.

Maybe one thing that I could do is to be better about posting. For example, when I change my mind, I can come back and say, “Oh, by the way, I changed my mind.” In the past, I’ve been pretty anxious about things like having perfect grammar. Now, though, I think my ideas are more important than being perfect all the time – I want to open up a discussion, not lead an English class. What do you guys think?

Anyway, like I said, I’ve been spending less time on the Internet and I’m happy to report that it’s been going well. In the past, I relied on the Internet a lot because of a combination of deafness and not being out. It is a space in which I can communicate with people very easily without having to worry about reading lips or making my speech clear. When I was figuring out the missing pieces of my identity in college, it was a space where I could meet other people like myself and post pictures to find validation that I was attractive.

Now that the whole ‘coming out’ thing has worked out very well – way above and beyond my expectations – I find that I don’t need the Internet to validate my identity anymore. I don’t need to post strategic myspace pictures of myself all over the Internet anymore; people now recognize and respond to me appropriately. As for the deaf thing, I’ve been around hearing people my whole life, so I know how to deal with them. It’s difficult sometimes, but that’s part of life as a minority.

How I use the Internet has also shifted. These days, I find I’m less interested in silly games like “how many upvotes can I get in Reddit?” or “how many people will answer this question?” and things like that. I’m more interested in emailing my mom, staying in touch with friends on instant messenger, and so forth. I used to get upset when I went an entire day without emails, but now I’ve realized that my self-worth is not wrapped up in my e-popularity. Instead of using the Internet as a leisure/socialization activity, I’d much rather use it as a tool to enhance my life. Posting in this blog would qualify as a life-enhancement; browsing imageboards would not.

Looking back on my history of Internet consumption, there’s definitely a few things that I would have changed. For example, I wish that I’d turned to the external world for socialization rather than to the Internet; perhaps I would have made more local friends that way. But, really, I did need that supportive space for some time. It helped me so much because I realized that I’m not alone. It’s simply that I have reached a stage of my life where I don’t really need it anymore.

I don’t think I will pay for Internet when I move into my next apartment. If I just so happen to find an apartment with free wi-fi, that’s cool. But I think I’ll be fine with just using a coffeeshop or library to browse the Internet – and to post on this blog.

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Internet beats on my brains / Head in the sand, feet in the clay

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Posted by maxporter on January 23, 2011 – 1:07 PM
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The Whirlwind by Bill Meyers, book three of The Imager Chronicles

The Whirlwind by Bill Meyers, book three of The Imager Chronicles

When I was a kid, I voraciously read everything in sight, including the Christian fiction that was available. One series in particular that I fell in love with was The Imager Chronicles by Bill Meyers. Looking back, the Christian narrative is thinly veiled, but back then, it was simply another fantasy series that I loved, like Harry Potter or something. And, of course, since I was a kid, I absorbed it more readily than I absorb books today.

One image in particular from the series stayed with me for a long time. The two protagonists find special water that allows them to see and hear beyond the illusory world in order to perceive things as they really are. Armed with the ability to perceive the world as it really is, they search the mall for a plot coupon.1 One store off to the side has a display of televisions, and the two protagonists pause, horrified at the sight before them: the televisions actually have tentacles coming out of them that they ensnare innocent bystanders with. The children watch helplessly as a mall-goer wanders into the path of the televisions and is grabbed by a giant tentacle. The tentacle proceeds to feed on his soul, leaving behind a glassy-eyed smiling idiot.

The reason that I bring this up is because I think that a lot of people subconsciously think that television and computers, particularly the Internet, have tentacles that will trap you and drain your life force away. For example, people constantly complain that Twitter has sapped our ability to think in blocks of text greater than 140 characters. And, of course, the title of this blog post comes from Atlas Air by Massive Attack, which is on their newest album, Heligoland. (It’s a great song, by the way.)

I have to say that I disagree with this perspective. I can understand why people complain that the Internet has changed human interaction and that it takes up too much time in our lives. Personally, I can’t sympathize with the first point – in many ways, technological progress has simplified human interaction for me. But I can sympathize with the latter because I have used the Internet as an escape sometimes.

However, I think it’s a mistake to blame technology for problems that are really a result of our action (or inaction). In Blade Runner, when Rachael first meets Rick Deckard, she asks him why he hates replicants (i.e., androids) so much. He replies that replicants can be both beneficial and harmful and that he only concerns himself with the harmful ones. In other words, it’s not the technology itself that matters, but what is done with the technology.

When it comes down to it, televisions and computers are simply glass and metal boxes. They are not endowed with any attributes in and of themselves; we are the ones who assign values to them. Like any other object, televisions and computers are tools that can be used in positive ways or in negative ways.

I hate to sound like an advocate for the bootstraps method, but I don’t think it’s constructive to talk about how much you hate technology if it’s a source of distress. If you feel unsatisfied with your wired life, unplug and do something else. You don’t have to go on a week-long backpacking trip, though that’s a great method IMO. You can do something as simple as turning off every electronic device you own while you sit and read a book. It may be difficult at first, but action is ultimately better than nothing.

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  1. Disclaimer: Links to TVTropes. [↩]
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