The Internet and some Sage Wisdom from Nish

Interestingly enough I've never gone in depth on this blog about sites that I enjoy on the Internet. So in honor of this seemingly ultimate blog post I decided that I would include a list of some of my favorite sites beyond the typical staples like my Gmail, Netflix, Facebook, etc.

Agar.io and Run 3 - These two games deserve a special shout out and a warning that they are productivity killers. These games have consumed majority of the time that I spend on my laptop.

imgur.com - a collection of the Internet's memes and gifs all conveniently located and ranked by popularity. But beware the dark depths of User Submitted.

soundcloud.com - Online music streaming has never been easier than with Sound Cloud (https://soundcloud.com/nishanth-asokan - if you're interested in what I've been bumping lately).

Kanyetothe.com - An music forum site that loves Kanye West. What more could I ever need?

stumbleupon.com - A great way to get lost and find someplace new on the Internet.

foreignpolicy.com - My go to site on every and any international story.

So those a couple cool websites that I thought I would share. The same way that you could assemble a pretty good idea of who a person is by looking at the contents of their bag or purse I think that you can find out even more about a person from their browser history.

With this blog I keep trying to find some sage parting words of wisdom. Yet all I can really speak about is my own experience. However, I think that the experience of blogging is invaluable and something that I suggest to everyone. As someone obsessed with the Internet, as so many of us are, having your own carved out space is a pretty cool thing. It becomes a way for you to express your thoughts and if you are actually interesting then maybe someone other than your mom will read what you have to say. Blogging is also therapeutic. This sounds cliche and it is but it is also true. Being able to write without the constraints of academic writing that you usually deal with in school is a liberating opportunity. Blogging forces you to think on your own rather than following some sort of prompt. But being able to write in any capacity is a wonderful skill and I know that this experience is something that I will keep with me.

I started this blog along side my classmates in the Glenbrook Academy for our Senior year English class and now at the end of the year we all have pages of our writing online. Reading the blogs of my friends and peers is also something I thoroughly enjoy. I get to see what's on their mind as well as draw on their blogs for ideas or inspiration regarding mine. This is so ironic because when I was first introduced to blogging I didn't think it would be something that would interest me. What I have come to realize is if you are ever feeling uninspired then keep and open mind and take an interest in the interests of others. Exposing yourself to new ideas or even challenges is how we grow as individuals. It is also important to remember that behind everything on the Internet is a person who created it. So take a minute to appreciate that person. Now, take a moment to find someone IRL (that means in real life) to talk with because there isn't anything quite like a face to face conversation.

Internet Poetry by Nish

Nobody knows where the Internet goes.
Constantly expanding; forever it grows.

No body, but endless appendages.

A Constant stream of texts and messages.

And if the World Wide Web was compiled in my hand,

It would weigh as much as a single grain of sand.

That is every electron added in weight,

Five million terabytes , a number too great

To appreciate or comprehend the scope of the Internet.

The Internet has made thousands of millionaires,

And created more than two dozen billionaires.

Because an idea here is just so worth it.

So if you think of the next biggest thing, birth it. 

And soon Facebook will be the world's largest nation,

A testament to global communication.

The speed of it all is unimaginable,

It is our great answer to fiction's ansible. 

But that is the scope of the Internet. 

"Carmen" by Stromae - A Critical Song about Twitter

Meet Stromae, the Belgian pop star that is changing the music game. While Stromae hasn't quite reached mainstream audiences or recognizable popularity in the United States he is still a rising star throughout the rest of the world. On Youtube Stromae has songs with tens and hundreds of millions of views. Additionally a rousing performance at Coachella this past weekend will be sure to raise Stromae's star factor here.

But his popularity isn't what sets Stromae apart from other artists; it is his ability to make meaningful but still catchy pop music. Meaningful pop music is something that is rare like a brief and passing shooting star but hopefully Stromae is here to stay because his music is redefining pop.

The video above is the music video to Stromae's song "Carmen" which released at the beginning of the month. It immediately caught my attention with its awesome visuals and interesting commentary on Twitter. Yes, Twitter as in the social networking platform. I really had never encountered music that directly challenged or addressed social media until "Carmen" and Stromae accomplishes it in breathtaking fashion.

The video begins with a chirping, oddly familiar looking, blue bird that approaches cartoon Stromae's windowsill. As it reaches the windowsill however the chirping transforms into a sort of distorted blaring alarm that begins our song. Stromae equates love to Twitter as it is only blue skies for a little while before the trouble begins.

The music video includes haunting visuals such as Stromae's blue twitter bird growing as his number of follows do too. It also includes the subtle inclusion of criticisms such as Stromae posting pictures of his food (a strange but common Internet practice) to only have his blue bird eat it. One of my personally favorite scenes was Stromae taking a selfie of him grinning at a party to post to the Internet. Yet moments later the shot pans out and the audience learns that Stromae is alone at his party with only his blue bird as company. In that moment Stromae draws the stark contrast between friends and followers.

Stromae depicts himself as a man isolated by his own celebrity. In real life Stromae's Twitter has close to two million followers, so perhaps Stromae truly does feel trapped in our world of social media and constant need for recognition. 

The Internet and The Environment

The Internet and the environment seemingly exist on two different planes. The Internet is the virtual wonderland, whose key we keep in our back pocket in a smartphone or on a computer. Meanwhile the environment is becoming a more distant thing in people's lives. Our modern lives are heavily disconnected with the environment. This is of course not to say that we don't care about the environment just that we as a society no longer engage it in the same way we engage the Internet.

An important issue to tackle is the relationship between the Internet and the environment. They may seem to exist on two different planes but they still manage impact one another. First and foremost, the electricity used to connect to the Internet around the world is often powered by fossil-fuel power generation. Thus such as in the info-graphic below it becomes possible to make calculations such as that a Google search equates to the same release of CO2 as driving a car three inches. Or that the trillions of spam email sent each year can be equated to the emissions of 1.6 million cars. These calculations are so unbelievable because you never think that there could ever be a direct connection between your life on the web and the environment.


(From Mashable.com)

Now it's not all bad because the Internet creates opportunities that would never exist before like in telecommuting which allows individuals to work without ever leaving the comfort of their own home. Additionally, there people working to address the issues with the energy consumption behind the Internet. What we have to realize is that as our Internet becomes faster and more advanced it also picks up better mileage. What I mean by this is that the same way that cars evolved to need fewer gallons of gas per mile the Internet has evolved to consume fewer joules of energy per bit of data. So perhaps our drive for speed is helping to create a more green Internet now.

Beyond the direct implications that the existence of the Internet itself has on the environment there is also its ability to connect people with the environment. If you were someone from a landlocked state in Midwest America there's a chance you've never seen an ocean or a jungle in your life, and yet anyone is only one Internet search away from countless articles and images about either. The Internet accelerates communication to near instantaneous speeds and has raised awareness about world around us. In previous posts we've marveled at the Internet's ability to disseminate information; this applies to the environment as well. While there may be some drawbacks to the Internet, ultimately whether it is good or bad for the environment is determined by how we choose to use it.

Hacktivism

The Internet constantly changes the ways in which society acts. Previously, we have discussed the Internet's relation to news, social media, and even individual rights. The age of the Internet has also brought forth a new form of activism or so-dubbed hacktivism. As the name tries to imply this is a form of activism based on hacking of computer networks. This idea remains something ambiguous and not very clearly defined but it is something real and a part of our society today. Most of the time this hacktivism revolves around the subversive uses of systems for political or social agendas. 

WikiLeaks is an example of Internet activism in action. Driven by their slogan, "we open governments" WikiLeaks has become an online, international, journalistic organization that publishes secret information and news leaks.  This was born by a desire to inform citizens of their governments' actions in a sort of reverse Big Brother sense. WikiLeaks also spurred a number of spin-offs with similar goals and ideas, highlighting the way in which Internet trends and movements become popularized and garner momentum. 

(WikiLeaks logo from their website)

While WikiLeaks is one example of hacktivism through the release of information the organization as a whole still takes a very passive stance. Anonymous is an Internet group that supports anti-censorship, anti-surveillance, and other forms of Internet activism. It a large very decentralized network of individuals that has been responsible for a number of hacks and public stunts over the years. The style behind their operations often convince some that their hacktivism is more of Internet vigilantism than it is activism. Furthering this notion is the fact that Anonymous sports stylized Guy Fawkes masks which represented a revolutionary struggle against a totalitarian government (see link for more info- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/).

 

Anonymous began on the on the website 4chan, an anonymous image board website. Soon Anons mobilized to act together as a loose-knit community. Over years, Anonymous evolved into an enormous hacktivist organization that over the years has targeted Chinese security firms, the Church of Scientology, the Westboro Baptist Church, terrorist organizations, and more. Anonymous aims to criticize, expose, and attack anyone who it deems to be at fault. It is not governed by any formal structure which is why it is so unique and distinct from anything in the past. The Internet has brought with it a new form of communication and organization. Anonymous is not restricted by geopolitics, sovereignty, the limitations of democracy, or any other barriers that inhibit the actions of state or non-state organizations. It is a fluid-like community with no concrete views on anything. 

Understanding the unique position that Internet hacktivism has created is important for when looking to the future. Policies designed to combat cyber-terrorism and to ensure cyber-security will have to also address the issue of hacktivism. Aside from being discussed a security issue, hacktivim also poses a new venue for protest and expression. 

The Internet Meme

The Internet meme is a mainstay of our current digital culture. It is a concept, phrase, or piece of media that popularizes and spreads across the Internet. Now the definition of a meme in general is, "an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture" (according to Merriam-Webster). You may notice that these two descriptions of the words are similar, yet when we think of an Internet meme we think of something extremely specific. We think of a GIF with some text layered on top of it. However, it is important to realize that even this seemingly simplistic idea of an Internet meme can often become a widely proliferated idea. Here are just a few examples of popular Internet memes, see if you recognize them.(Knowyourmeme.com)

It's funny because even these simple Internet Memes all have their own unique purpose. The first is the Forever Alone face. It's a basic yet funny picture used to convey this more complex emotion of solitude or loneliness. It is also just one part of a larger family of Internet memes called the Rage Faces that follow a similar pattern and design to our Forever Alone meme. The second Internet meme example is called Scumbag Steve. I don't actually know if Steve there is a scumbag from that single picture but it sure seems that the Internet thinks so. This meme is used to share anecdotes of people acting like a well...a scumbag. The third meme above is known as the Philosoraptor whose purpose seems pretty evident from its name. This Internet meme is also part of a larger family of advice animals that share anecdotes, advice, or stories.

Looking at these few examples may not grant us a complete understanding of what this word, meme, means in terms of the Internet but it does give us insight into the trends that emerge across the net. The three Internet memes above represent three typical varieties that are commonly used and found across the Internet. An advanced understanding of Internet memes allow individuals to communicate through them to convey emotions, stories, and more.

Internet memes are also distinct from other trends because there is a aura of permanence that surrounds the Internet. The Internet is this strange realm that defies common sense. The idea that what goes up must come down doesn't apply to the Internet. Once something is uploaded it may never come down. Beyoncé learned this lesson the hard way after her performance at the 2013 Super Bowl which spawned this picture.(link to the story about Beyonce's meme)
When her publicist requested BuzzFeed take down the unflattering photos the result was almost entirely the opposite. The photos of Beyoncé trended and spread across the Internet spawning dozens of hilarious memes.

Previously, the Internet meme was admonished as a strange, unimportant, or even ethereal component of the Internet. But this has never been true because memes by their definition are societal trends, and while these trends may change they always exist in some capacity. These days Internet memes seem like an integral part of our digital culture as they are the creations of the Internet as a community. Memes that are relatable, funny, or that draw from real life become popular as dictated by the millions of users on the Internet.

P.S. - great sites to find memes imgur.com, cheezburger.com  and knowyourmeme.com.

The Internet - A Modern Human Right?

David Rothkopf, editor for Foreign Policy magazine poses a new and challenging question for us as a society in his article titled: Is Unrestricted Internet Access a Modern Human Right?

Anyone familiar with my blog will come to know that I value the Internet as an extremely formative force of our modern society. It shapes the way we communicate, play, work, and everything in between. Based on this axiom I think that Rothkopf makes a number of striking points as to why Internet access should be a human right.

To me it seems that people perceive the Internet as a luxury. But as luxurious as it sounds there are already billions of people online today with an increasingly larger number of people logging in for the first time with each passing year. There honestly isn't a single day where I don't use the Internet in some way or another and at this point in my life it is essentially a need for me to live. 

For instance, in his article Rothkopf observes how mobile banking has become exceedingly common, thus diminishing the number of times that transactions require the physical passing of money. Every time I swipe my debit card at a restaurant I make a transaction without even realizing it. As such, the Internet has quite literally de-materialized money.

Actualizing universal Internet access as a goal though is as tricky as one would think. For one, it requires a source of electricity which begs the question that affordable, accessible energy should also be a human right (yes). It also requires governments giving its people a certain level of freedom that to some of the more repressive regimes in the world might be dangerous. For example in China, your Internet access would be screened, limited, and monitored by the state.

While there are obvious obstacles, I believe that these are changes that must and will be executed in the future. As the Internet becomes increasingly a part of more and more peoples lives it will become harder and harder to keep people disconnected. After all, technological advancements have been changing the world since the dawn of the printing press and the latest revolutionary technology is the Internet.