The Internet: For Better or for Worse

Steve Coll- The Internet: For Better or for Worse (April 7, 2011)

Hey guys, sorry this is late...

With the invention and subsequent adoption of the internet, a new wave of social activism has been born. Published in The New York Review of Books in April of 2011, “The Internet: For Better or for Worse” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll discusses the internet and the way it acts as a way of communication between its users. In comparison to previous communications such as the telegraph, radio, and television, does the internet favor its users over centralized authorities? What does this technology do to advance free speech and assembly?

Coll gives an example of activism right away by mentioning Wael Ghonim of Dubai. Ghonim, using Facebook, organized a protest against the Egyptian police and the unrightful death of twenty-eight year old Khaled Said. The campaign was successful, attracting over 470,000 people online in Egypt. Ghonim later went on to be a leader in the Egyptian Revolution against Hosni Mubarak saying, “if you want to liberate a society, just give them the Internet.” Written two months after the resignation of Mubarak, Coll’s article mentions the Arab Spring movements and the role of “Internet freedom” as an American foreign policy.

Some authors such as Evgeny Morozov in The Net Delusion argue that the Internet is not a force for liberation, saying that there is “a naive belief in the emancipatory nature of online communication” and that social media in overestimated as a tool for political liberation. Morosov, hailing from the repressive government regime of Belarus, claims that the strategy of promoting democracy on the internet only creates a “significant push back from the governments [they] sought to challenge.” Morosov mentions the failed Green Movement uprising in 2009 in Iran as another example of social media’s failing. In The Net Delusion, an over-arching theme is the grasp of authoritarians on digital spaces. This ranges from the use of Facebook to enhance surveillance to the rise of Hugo Chavez as a tweeter.

In the United States, Hillary Clinton and her advisors want to promote “the freedom to connect” saying that “connection technologies are going to transform the world alone.” And that is true with today’s society; the freedom to connect is important. The internet is the public square of this generation. Facebook is our Tiananmen. Twitter is our Times. Ultimately, it is important to keep an open internet, to preserve virtual public spaces, and to keep it open for the individual. Yet Wu, the author of The Master Switch, says that “the twenty-first century world of information will look, as much as possible, like that of the twentieth century, except that the screens that consumers are glued to will be easier to carry.” Wu is right. The age of the revolution has gone mobile and social. Gone is the age of riots in the square. Welcome to the time of KONY 2012. Welcome to the time of twitter trending topics. Welcome to the time of the internet revolution.

Ciara Bridges and the Digital Puppet

When I began my search for “Digital Puppet” I started simply by typing my first and last names into Google and White Pages to see what those Network sites would produce. Not much showed up in Google or the White Page with simply my first and last name, so I dug a little bit deeper. I entered my city and zip code along with my name, but still I yielded no results. A trip to the images portion of Google showed some rather old and previously artistic photos from my early teen years (which I still cringe at, ick), but nothing that was representative or even brought up who I am online. I attribute not finding a lot about myself to the fact that I’m not yet 18, which would explain why I’m not on the White Pages or many other online mediums that look up adults across America.

After going through Google for a few pages, I found one of the older usernames I used when I was about 13, so I clicked on the link. What caught my attention was the fact that this site had the first “Ciara Bridges” in Chicago, IL that I had seen so far in my trek to find myself online. The site is named peekyou and it apparently showed all of my email addresses and all the sites I was on with this username. However, most of the information was bogus seeing as it listed emails for servers I had never used and accounts I had never signed up for. I continued my search by trying to narrow the search down by adding my middle name into the mix. This yielded even less than before, so I added the city I lived in, which was Chicago. This is where I hit the gold mine. All my previous activities came up on the front page of Google, along with my beRecruited page for rowing and my group poetry which had been recorded by a radio station. My old Youtube and twitter also appeared from the previous search, but nothing extremely modern was found.

What I found personally from this exercise is that it really depends on the person to see how much they will find on the internet. While many of my peers found quite a lot on themselves, I found next to nothing because of the commonality of my name. My first name I share with the famous singer “Ciara”, my middle name is “Chanel” shared with the perfume and clothing/accessory line, and my last name “Bridges” is shared with a famous black girl from the times of school integration. None of my names are inherently unique, but combined, they produce a strange concoction of results which only catch snippets of who I am, or was, in a developing state. I think if I was to enter in some of my online usernames, much more information about my current self would be found online. What I take from this search is that what you can find on a person is conditional to how much they put on the web under what name or alias, and if that information is recent. If someone Googled me unbeknownst to me, they would find random information which doesn't represent me currently as a person, and that is kind of terrifying for me to think of. 

How the Crash Will Reshape America critique

Richard Florida, the author of “How the Crash Will Reshape America,” writes about the social and economic effects of the recent fiscal recessions. Published in The Atlantic magazine in 2009, the article creates feelings of reflection and hope for America’s future. Florida starts out with a short background about his experience with the Great Depression: the recession of all recessions. His father grew up during this time and suffered greatly as Florida, his mother and six siblings had to work and combine their income in order to make sufficient funds. Such a lifestyle represented that of most other Americans during these times filled with suffering and distress.

This article was published in the hype of the 2008 stock market crash. While Florida remains hopeful about the future toward the end of the article, he first notes, “No place in the Unite States is likely to escape a long and deep depression.” Notice his use of the word “escape.” I feel that his main focus evolves into the methods through which the country can survive the detrimental impacts, as they are, as he clearly describes, inevitable. According to Florida, the crisis will hit hardest in the interior of the country (factory towns and the Sun and Rust Belts), as these modest areas and manufacturing regions are least associated with finance. They do not have the capitol to support as many jobs and, simultaneously, property values decrease.

Large city-centers like New York City have interesting dynamics as a result of the fiscal crisis. The reasons New York survived are not very obvious (at least they weren’t to me). As Florida says, this mega-region is not solely dependent on the monetary job market. In fact, financial positions make up “only eight percent of New York area jobs.” Because this city is so heavily populated, there are people with a wide range of skills and areas of interest. New York City is also home to designers, musicians, artists, film directors, etc. Consequently, these citizens make up a diverse and innovative collection of people. That being said, one of Florida’s main thesis points is the need for innovation and diversity in our American society. Jane Jacobs even labels diverse economic and social structures as engines of growth.

From what I have gathered, Florida’s main focus revolves around letting go of the old fashioned American Dream and embracing a new future reliant on a more innovative, resourceful perspective. For instance, Florida presents the real estate industry in a new light. He proposes part of the solution as an end to the focus on homeownership. Renting a home/apartment is not only more economically efficient but also does not necessarily bring undesirable social status. While many Americans feel homeownership is a key to the American dream, a recent study by Grace Wong reveals that “homeowners are no happier than renters, nor do they report lower levels of stress or higher levels of self-esteem.” Another solution he presets is the need for growth and population redistribution. During the time the article was written, there was a large need for an efficient circulation of people, goods, and ideas. In effect, society would be making mega-regions/ money-centers more accessible to all classes, not only the elite.

Upon further research, I found this article on The Atlantic website. As an urban studies theorist with a focus on social and economic theory, it is not surprising that the comments on his article vary in opinion. Most think it is a well-done, accurate description of and consequences from the 2008 crash. That being said, some are critical of Florida’s outlook and criticize him for his lack of consideration to the role of government throughout the whole process. All in all, I think the author does a great job addressing the much-needed improvements in American society that were illuminated by the economic crash. I also think his predictions of the future economic state are very realistic, as most of them are either taking place or beginning to take place today. 

Gabriella's Digital Puppet

For the geodemographic search, my name does not show up, however, both my parents and my uncle’s names show up, along with past places they have lived. I discovered something interesting and that due to the government shut down, the factfinder.census.gov site has been shut down until further notice. I find that really interesting that the government shutting down would even effect the sites they host. For the accessdane.co.dane.wi.us I found no information. I am guessing it is because I am from out of state and they cannot pull up my address?

When I searched through social media I received some interesting results. On my Facebook, a person can see my profile picture and cover image, along with things that I have favorite. My profile shows someone who likes, and may possible have a horse, due to my profile picture. As for my favorites, I feel that it shows a very limited portion of who I am. The movies that it shows I like are all high action, like Transporter and Bourne, and then I have children’s movies like Princess Mononoke and How to Train Your Dragon. I actually like a variety of other movies too. However, the showing of television shows is rather accurate to my personality. I love Rooster Teeth content, so the Red vs. Blue and Achievement Hunter depict what types of shows I watch very accurately. In addition, the rest of my page seems like a funny contradiction because under games I have a dew Xbox360 games, but then the rest of my profile is heavily concentrated on sports and wildlife. So I think Facebook gives a somewhat skewed, but rough description of my interests.

The other social media site that I use it twitter. Although, I keep my twitter feed public, so everything that I post can be seen by anyone. My description is “Just a girl obsessed with video games, nature, and animals. Weird combination right? Ohio” I think that my description gives a good idea of my interest, but unfortunately my remark about playing video games can often be met with a stereotype of “gamer girls” which really annoys me. Most of my posts relate to video games and what is going on in the industry. I also mostly post photos of things that I find interesting, but very rarely do I update about myself, or what I am doing at a particular moment. If someone was to look at who I follow, it would again reinforce my obsession with Rooster Teeth, because I practically follow everyone in the company, and that I am really interested in the video game industry.

Through the Google search for my name, I found a few sites that give out my information. One site just gives out the street I live on and my hometown. When I looked at the images results I saw two photos of myself that I used as profile pictures. In addition, I saw many photos for Geek Girl Con. There were also many photos of skiers. I am not sure exactly why, but I am guessing it probably has to do with my grandfather, who was a very accomplished ski racer. I also showed up on my brother’s genealogy tree on a site called geni.com. The only other nonsocial media type site that my name showed up on was for the donor list for Fieldstone Farm Therapeutic Riding Center, which is where I used to volunteer throughout high school.

When I searched for my email, I received no results about myself. As for searching my phone number in Google, the only information I received was where I live, which is Russell, OH in Cuyahoga County.

Overall, I think my digital puppet represents some of my major interests, such as video games, animals, especially horses, and my somewhat obsession with Rooster teeth. However, I feel that it lacks to fully grasp who I am. Often times, when I would search for myself, my grandfather, who was an inventor, would often show up, or other family members. I feel that I have a relatively small digital puppet because I often avoid creating account online, which may be the cause. Although, I do feel like this was a worthwhile assignment and I enjoyed learning about how people may perceive me over the internet.

My Digital Puppet: Paul Hermann

Searching for myself on the internet led to many discoveries, and ones that relieved me in some ways and others that surprised me in regards to how much information available on me. I started my search on whitepages.com and entered my cell-phone number. The site was able to locate my hometown and phone carrier, but nothing else. I then decided to search my address on the site. This time, I got information on the name, approximate age, and phone numbers of my parents. The site also included a list of the same information on all of my neighbors. I was surprised by this since my parents use the internet far less than I do.
Next, I went to factfinder.census.org and looked up my hometown's zip-code. All I received was general census information.

I decided to then log out of Facebook and see how hard it would be to find me. I first searched using my full name, which just led to dozens of other Paul Hermann's around the world. When I added "Wisconsin" after my name, I was the third result. Already visible was my hometown, where I live now, and the college I attend. Going onto my account page showed my cover photo, profile pick, and all of my likes and interests. Though this isn't too reveling, I was surprised that this much information was available; I thought my profile would be more restricted.

Lastly, I did a lot of Google Searches. Any variations of my full name just led to different historical people with the name Paul Hermann, such as a German botanist and a French painter. I even found the URL for paulhermann.com led to a guy promoting his own artwork. Adding "Wisconsin" after the search then showed some people-searching websites. I went on one, peoplefinders.com, but after various searches found nothing. I added "Hartford Wisconsin" to the Google search of my name, and mylife.com showed up. The site knew my street (but not the house address), age, and hometown. This was the only people-searching site able to have any information related to my name. Searches for any of my e-mail accounts found nothing, and my cell phone number just showed Hartford, WI but nothing else. Lastly, I did image searches. No pictures of me showed up, but some pictures from my high school's web site appeared. However, there were three strange, tiny pictures that I couldn't recognize that led to my Facebook account with the information I talked about earlier.

Overall, I'm relieved that it took many attempts to actually locate information related to my name on sites other than Facebook. I was surprised that mylife.com knew my age, and very startled that whitepages.com knew so much on older adults in my neighborhood, but nothing on my own name. I ended up not being too upset with the information Facebook showed, but it was intriguing how a person could view many of my interests quite easily. My digital puppet is very limited to the public. A person would have to do much searching to find my hometown, but could not link it to my cell phone or other personal contact information. However there would be much information on my interests, allowing a geodemographic firm to give lots of advertising on Facebook and sites I link with it.

Clara Huerta- Digital Puppet

When I first started to research myself online I didn't think I would find much about myself, but it was scary how much I actually did. When I looked up my zip code on the United States Census I found pretty much what I already knew, Waukesha consists of 90% white population with a small percentage of Hispanic, Black, Asian, and other populations. The average income is about $60,000, but there is about 9% of the population living under the poverty line.

The next thing I looked up was my phone number on the white pages, both home and cell phone and this was probably the most scary because it pinpointed my exact home location, which included a map to my home. When I entered my home phone I gave the names of two of my sisters my dad and my mom, but they all had different addresses, only one was correct. None of these were linked to me personally though.

When I Googled my name I started to find more information about myself, mostly from the various social networking sites I use, Twitter, Pinterest, and also an old picture from my Myspace profile, but ironically nothing came up from my Facebook, which is my main social networking site. I tried different combinations of my name, once including my middle initial, since I used it in school, and combined it with my hometown. I got various school searches such as my graduating class list on the local news station site, and also a list of girls that attended Badger Girl State in 2011. I did find an old Twilight fan site account that I had when I was in middle that I had completely forgotten about, it's kind of embarrassing now. I then searched my email. Nothing came up when I used my personal emails, but when I typed in my Wisc email I found some things like pictures connected to me, especially from twitter because they start the same way. 

So what I discovered from this exercise is that a lot can found out about me with a couple of searches of my basic information on the internet, from where I live to where I go to school to who my closest family members and friends are. So I just hope nobody is truly hoping to find me because they could easily do so, but I guess they could also see, from all the information and sites related to me, that I'm not too bad of a person, at least I don't think

Researching Myself

                My search for my “digital puppet” began by looking up some fairly basic information about myself in a variety of places. The first place that I searched was the White Pages. Here I entered my cell phone number to see what I could find about myself. My search results said that it is a “Verizon Wireless mobile phone from Milwaukee, WI.” The cell phone carrier information is correct, and though I don’t actually live in Milwaukee, I do live near Milwaukee, so anyone searching this information would find a general area of where I live. If someone were willing to pay a small fee, however, they would be able to learn my name and address, which could, in some respects, be concerning for those wishing to keep information like that private. After looking at the White Pages, I entered my zip code into The United States Census Bureau’s database. Here I found that the population of my hometown is 31,987 and that the median age in the community is 44.8. Also, there is an education rate of 96%, a poverty rate of 2.8%, and a median household income of $75,457. From this basic search alone, someone could already begin to draw the image that I come from a more privileged community near Milwaukee, WI and like have received/am receiving an education of some sort.

                Next, I did a social networking search of myself. Looking at my Facebook page from the outside (if you are not Facebook “friends” with me) shows my profile picture and cover photo, as well as some of my interests and hobbies, along with where I worked this summer. Beyond that, there is no specific information about where I am from or other such details. My Twitter account, however, is completely unlocked and someone who happened to stumble upon the page would be able to see all of my tweets and photos, as well as a list of my followers and a list of who I follow. This is in addition to a photo of me and a background image as well as the fact that I am from Wisconsin. Using the information found here, someone could draw the conclusion that I am an average college student. Many of my interests are typical of someone my age and my photos and tweets often have to do with my activities around Madison with my friends.

                Continuing my search, I googled my name, Scott Bembenek. From this simple search, one can find individuals that have the same name as me, but the only result specifically about me on the first search page is my Twitter account. On Google Images, the only photo of me that appears is the old picture for my Twitter account. The results are the same by searching “Bembenek, Scott.” After searches for my gmail, wiscmail, and aol email addresses, there were no results at all concerning me. Looking up my phone number simply brings up databases of similar phone numbers.

                After searching myself in a variety of contexts, I have learned that anyone else doing the same would at most learn basic information about myself. They would probably gather that I am a normal college student who mainly uses social media like Twitter to connect with friends. Overall, the information that someone searching for details about me would gather is pretty standard and accurate. Even better, there’s nothing that would cause a negative outlook on me.