“…nothing went wrong. But things did change.”
Before, Internet is just merely a technological leap for me. It’s just all about techie thing, a hybridization of all the creative and “naughty” thoughts of its proponents. A change, indeed! But I never thought of its connection to the heart of communication. I never gave a damn to their link for I was the king of “don’t care” person. (Though I think I’m still a bit of that.)
And here’s Internet Apocalypso by Christopher Locke, unlocking the connection of net not only to one person but also to businesses and to communication. While reading the text, I remembered the social networks that I developed through net, specifically through friendster, multiply, facebook, and yahoo. Before, I thought that all these stuffs are just for fun, but I started to understand their purpose through the said reading.
Everything is just not about my self. I write because I want someone to read. I post shout outs and thoughts because I want someone to react. I upload pictures and videos to get comments. And all is not because I do want attention from my self, but because I want attention and reaction from others. I am inviting participation and engagement from other people of different places, with different perspectives. I am seeking for conversation.
Internet is like a place where these things can be done, where different thoughts can meet. This is a new social media that can cater this kind of interaction. I think this is something that we have to use in a more meaningful way than in a selfish act. (I’m not pertaining to those businessmen whose only thoughts are profit, those who think of us as merely consumers of their goods. I am really not, or maybe I am.)
Things will go wrong if we opt to be wrong. I think we should know how to use these changes that happening around us for our betterment. I love to say that Internet is ours. And let us all explore and use it as who we are and not as somebody else’s representation.
I am not seeking for revolution and bloodlust here. To revolt is not what Locke’s idea, I guess. J It’s all about teaching us how to free ourselves from passiveness, and from the monotonous routine that the market created for us (another guess).
And you! Yes, you! Voice out and be heard. Internet has a lot of offers for us to have genuine conversation. We are in the right place and in the right time. Let us not be powerless with the things that we understand more than the others. It’s up to you to decide.
React!
Now!
i’m reacting! XD great post btw. nice take of locke’s article. and i agree, change should be taken advantage of. we don’t have any excuse not to. the internet is free (well, aside from pc rentals. but, you get the picture), and no one’s stopping us.
For all its statements for organizations to embrace new social media, the Internet Apocalypso is also for us, consumers. So you are right in pointing out that the article is also calling on us to actively break free from the traditional set-up and leverage new social media to engage in genuine conversations again.
and i like how you realized that the internet is not soley for fun, or for personal use. that there’s a far bigger benefit from it. i would have wanted you to explore this realization further and take it from an OrCom perspective.
I agree with you that Chris Locke’s objective is to get everyone going and not revolting. We can always do many things other than revolting to contribute for the advancement of everyone