Critically evaluate this statement: the Internet offers a space where people may
resist oppression on a daily basis; it overturns traditional structures of power and
control.
Internet has played a revolutionary role in breaking the economic barriers of technology and
knowledge between the developed and the developing countries of the world. Also the political
scenario has changed a great deal with the advent of the internet. People now feel that they have
the power to dethrone a corrupt or a dictator government by coming together and creating an
internet revolution that can snowball into a real thing (Nagourney, 2009). This can be evidenced
from the dethroning of the Mubarak government in Egypt in 2011. The same applies to the
religion and a few clerics or institutions don’t control as to how the religion would be perceived
by the people any more. People can take things up in their own hands and can question the
traditional religious beliefs. We now take up these individual cases of economy, power, politics
and religion to discuss them in detail and how they have changed because of the internet
(Rheingold, 1999).
Economy and Internet
Irrespective of how rich or poor the country is, they still have to use internet and technology as a
part of their overall business strategy. It provides a competitive edge to a nation and the
efficiency of business worldwide increases multiple folds. The workforce efficiency is the major
factor in the overall business enhancement of a country. Internet not only makes the workforce
highly effective but also gives them a lot of scope for innovation in the work practices as they
can now get access to the best practices from around the world and get knowledge at a very
dynamic pace to make quick business decisions (Flew, 2007). But because of such a high
availability and ease of use of the internet, it is up to the businesses of these countries now as to
how they can make use of the internet technology in the most efficient manner and thus better
themselves economically as compared to other countries.
Power and internet
Internet is a universally free medium, it is not controlled by any state or corporation .Any
individual using the internet has got equal amount of power and freedom to use the medium
according to his/her own wishes. It is also not dependent on what culture they follow or the
economic strata that they belong to (Baym, 1998). So Internet has to a large extent lead to a
great decentralization of power and has made an average individual very powerful. It has given
the power to an individual to take on the state as was the case in Egypt or to create his own
creative stuff like a movie or music and make the entire world watch it. It has also had a very
psychological effect on the mentality of the powerful people across the world, as they now know
that using the internet anybody would be able to get to them or expose them in case of any wrong
doings. So there is also a huge fear that is floating about in the governments and the religious
societies of the world (Goffman, 1969).
Politics
Barack Obama is a very good example of the use of internet as a medium in the spreading of the
political agenda of the candidate or a party. He has put himself up on all the platforms of the web
that are available for social media interaction be it Facebook, twitter, MySpace or anything else.
This give him a huge network to spread a new message or to give a political doctrine. The audio
messages and profiles of Obama on YouTube are also a new medium for people to discuss on the
ramifications of his speech or what he wanted to convey in his message. This creates a natural
community of followers who either praise or criticize the policies of the president in a very open
platform. This however gives him a strong base of people to bank upon in order to spread his
message (Baym, 1998). The Arab spring of 2011 that happened in Egypt is also an excellent
example that shows the power of the Internet in creating a political wave against a dictator and
helping them to free them from his rule. It all started of with a post on Facebook which then
snowballed into a huge movement both online and offline as well, with people from all strata of
the society coming together to dethrone their ruler. Something of these sorts would not have been
possible in the real life scenario, without the aid of the digital medium to instigate and support it.
Not only that, even the women also participated in the event in a full throttle manner and became
leaders in their own rights to guide and conduct the movement in the most efficient manner.
Nobody would have ever imagined that women from the Arab world, who are not even allowed
to move out of their houses, would ever become the path bearers of such a huge movement
(Butler, 1990). So the freedom of speech that the Internet medium very intrinsically provides is
something that can be very greatly used and channelized to get great political results. However
there are negative side effects of it as well, something that Kevin Ruud, the prime-minister of
Australia realized when e was caught swearing on the camera and had to later apologize for his
conduct. So the medium has given a kind of fear to the corrupt leaders and the dictators of the
world that the people can still rebel and get together to dethrone if they want to do so, and that
the divide and rule policies that had been implementing in the past can no longer be carried out
(Donath, 1996).
Religion
Commonly a religious community has been perceived as something that has got a common
interest, lives in the same geographical area, shares the same experiences and also works together
for a common cause. However internet disrupts this traditional model of religion entirely. The
reason for this is that the religious pundits are no longer bound to a specific geographical
location anymore and they can practically live anywhere in the world and still continue to do the
same kind of community service at a location which is the most suitable to them. They can even
practice their doctrines and cults online and can get knowledge through various different
networking sites that have been developed for this purpose (Butler, 1990). Previously a very
hierarchical structure was followed in practicing religion. The reason for this was the collection
of power in the hands of a few people because of the knowledge that they possessed because of
their greater accessibility to the religious scriptures and books. But now all these resources are
freely available on the internet for anybody to use and read. So there is an even distribution of
power now as there is no possible benefit available to these religious people as compared to a
common man. Hence the advent of the internet has disrupted the entire hierarchy of power that
previously existed in the society. The communities that were previously based around the
following of different churches or sects will now be based on the internet websites that an
individual is following (Baym, 1998). Also the hidden fears of the individuals of speaking
against the church that existed in the older scenario will also now diminish, because anybody can
reveal and talk about anything related to religion using a virtual identity on the internet. So
people will now come out openly and use the freedom of speech which the internet provides as a
measure to find out more about their religious beliefs and question them from every angle, and
not follow anything blindly which has traditionally been the case (Donath, 1996).
Gaming
Gaming was considered to be a social activity until the time computer games took over and
converted the entire gaming experience into a more personal one. But however with the advent
of the social networking sites on the lines of Facebook and other social gaming platforms,
gaming is once again becoming a very social exercise. Almost 1 % of the entire world’s
population is playing Farmville on Facebook. Also grown up people like games that have got
some kind of rules as compared to when they are small, they like to play abstract games that
don’t have any meaning. So as a result these kinds of games are becoming more popular on the
internet (Dyson, 1997). Also there is another factor of a feeling of a sense of achievement that
the people get by playing games, is something that encourages them to continue to keep playing
all the time. This satiates their ego of being able to achieve something in life and being a winner
in some kind of an activity. Hence in today’s real time when there is so much competition and
everybody doesn’t get a chance to prove themselves, playing games helps as a medium wherein
they can vent out their anger and frustration and be free for some time (Donath, 1996). Also
there are games available where in the users can select their environments and simulations and
can transform themselves into a virtual reality that they can never get in real life. They can set
their own rules and can get the power to break them. So this entire experience of playing games
gives a feeling of being powerful to the participants and they are in a position to dictate terms as
per their whims and fancies which they are unable to do in a real life scenario (Baym, 1998).
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