The ability to acknowledge and float between the contradictions inherent in almost any sphere of life is possibly a uniquely contemporary state of mind: dualism is outdated. Embrace and acknowledge the contradictions, and rebuild- that’s, in part, the Internets beauty, and even more, its what the constant shifting of history, science, inner life and social consciousness is all about. The more people use it, the more secure and anonymous it is.Īs Jessica acknowledges, say: to both conduct hashtag analytics to track social movements, while advocating technology that protects anonymity, of course there’s a contradiction in there. I’ve been looking at the Darknet and TOR, and very often it seems not to be acknowledged that it was first developed and is used by US government agencies, is advocated by political dissidents, public libraries, and whistleblowers: it is invaluable to Wikileaks. The freedom that these networks can afford, the huge and constantly evolving universe of knowledge and information, and the means of control that arise from aggregating and using the data: in a lot of ways these are the same thing.Īll phenomena carry with them some kind of internal contradiction. Taking the Internet as both is surely the only way to acknowledge that duality – what it empowers and disempowers or whom. (As a side note, I’ll be presenting about data mining/hashtag analytics through Twitter using NodeXL for academic purposes at the upcoming conference.
It is both, and it is up to us to realize the implications of what we do and how to use it in order to best decide how we’d like to proceed in terms of what companies we wish to support or reject. It would be nonsensical to say the internet is exclusively a new communal space for shared knowledge or that it is only the best tool the surveillance state has ever dreamed of. We can spend time reading and understanding why this matters. We can support open-sourced coding, we can use TOR for anonymous browsing, we can use Privacy Badger to see what 3 rd party sites are tracking us, we can encrypt our e-mails, we can experiment with the deep web. For these reasons, for those who care to keep their private data private, and I think this should be everyone, there are tools at our disposal. Read Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier if you really want extensive knowledge about corporate and government surveillance, it’s actually quite alarming. In that case, it becomes up to the computer user to make an effort to understand what their internet use means, how their data is being used (and by whom), and how self-censorship might arise as a result. Of course this would be the case, of course spy agencies and marketing firms will get as much information about you as they can. It can also be (and is) an ominous space for corporate entities and government surveillance to collect data through unethical means. It can be an incredible space for community involvement, the spreading of new ideas, gaming, protest, politics, and fostering unfathomable connections both frivolous and deeply meaningful. It becomes whatever you as a user want it to be.
The internet, along with the spaces, cultures, and practices it fosters, are created and used by humans who (it goes without saying) are complex, and who obviously will come up with a wide variety of ways to utilize this technology as they see fit. evil dichotomy digital technology is a double edged sword.
Join us on Facebook for more information: įollow us on Twitter as well don’t personally like to succumb to this good vs. N etwork neutrality and algorithmic media are two crucial components of the digital world which each have massive political and social implications.įollowing this there will be two round-table panels composed of graduate students from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, moderated by Dr. McKelvey will be presenting ‘Media Daemons: Internet Routing Algorithms and Network Neutrality’. Fenwick McKelvey, an associate professor in Internet Research from Concordia’s Department of Communication Studies. We’re especially excited to have as our keynote speaker Dr. We’re happy to invite you to the Brave New Worlds Conference on Friday, October 30th 2015.This is a graduate-led event, which aims to explore some of the changes and challenges that the Internet and technological evolution poses for the social sciences. Hall Building – 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West).
‘Brave New Worlds’: Conference on the Sociology and Anthropology of Digital Culturesįriday, 30 October 2015, 1pm-6pm Room H-1220 (Twelfth floor – Henry F.