#smc-s15

[kellyfleming96-blog]

Week 14: Anonymity and Transparency - Collective Action

Authority can only succeed if it has created for itself the illusion of perfection- a sense of impenetrable “truth” that we come to accept. I believe that the “true” truth, however, speaks for itself in the most organic and uncorrupted ways. To outsmart authority is not to seek the truth through some coming-of-age narrative, or some secret knowledge we must gain. The clarity that you deserve, that you are often (falsely) told you don’t deserve, is only a matter of tuning yourself to hear the truth that has already given its testimony in all things that man has not yet corrupted, not yet capitalized on.

If the truth speaks for itself in nature, and not through the artificially crafted nature of authority, then I have found that the way to truth begins in understanding the nature of man. I happen to believe that man is inherently good, that man’s sense of creativity, community, and sense of humor are the last bits of uncorrupted nature through which “true” truth resonates.

We have an obligation to think creatively, independently, an obligation to engage with our peers, and to laugh with them about the absurdities of the false “truths” that have been sold to us (notions about how we “ought” to live, what we “ought to do” with ourselves, with our bodies, with our lives – are all really quite funny when we choose to chew them up and spit them back in the face of authority).

As Underwood and Welser describe in “The Internet is Here”, the protests against the Church of Scientology, or “Project Chanology” is revolutionary in its combination of information, activism, social media, and humor. This is exactly why the movement is reason to hope that social change is in the midst. As I previously stated, the last bits of humanity that remain in our control - community, creativity, humor, are exactly the traits that we need to exercise, and the group Anonymous (along with others who actively engage in the online community) seem to fully understand this.

In “Come for the Revolution, Stay for the lulz”, Beyer discusses the birth of the Anonymous movement on 4-Chan, and the role activism has played in Syria. I think that as we finish the transition into this digital age, we need to understand the importance (and coming importance) of social media in social change. While the social media-victory in Syria is worthy of being studied at a very personal level, this generation of future cyber-activists would benefit to see it as a case-study of revolution to come.

[jennamast-blog]

Week 13/14 Part 2

With the continuing theme of Anonymity this week, I find it very ironic due to the fact that Rutgers University wifi was hacked earlier this week and since then it has been a struggle to return back to normal. The hacker has made it clear that he is not a super advanced hacker, but that the university has low quality security for a server that holds all of the students’ information. The hacker has been taunting the university while making a point to have higher security. Perhaps, the hacker is doing the students’ a favor by making Rutgers realize there is a strong need for improved internet security. I wonder, “What is such a large school that relies greatly on the internet to perform daily scholastic tasks? Who are they going to call?” Anonymous. These high level hackers (which we shouldn’t even call them that because they are much more skilled and sophisticated than that) can enter almost any server without leaving a trace. With finals coming up and scheduling currently happening the need for internet is stronger than ever. Messages like the one below suggest that perhaps it is an inside job. Maybe it is a student, or even a professor. Perhaps this “genius” is one that we walk by everyday not even realizing he or she is having a huge impact on all of our daily lives.

[e-tran-blog]

Week 14

Underwood and Welser’s article demonstrate the extent to which protests have radically changed my means of the Internet. As a result of society’s fascination with the Internet and social media, today’s means of protests incorporate a mix of online and offline cultures. Social media has become the new outlet of protests--a combination of memetic information, humor, and real world activism. Likewise mentioned in the article, I thought it was amazing to see that the Church of Scientology could be under scrutiny by a group of anonymous people, and it really comes to show how threatening a group of hackers can be through the kind of resistance they put forth. From what I recall, Occupy Wall Street was heavily spread by Anons who hacked into websites like the New York Stock Exchange. Word of these protests rapidly circulated from New York City to Boston, prompting for more social movements to take place there. It didn't stop there, for Anons also helped to organize protests outside of the London Stock Exchange.

While people always see that Twitter can quickly report on what is happening around the world, it’s not necessarily mainstream media that quickly reports on these incidents. While events like Occupy Wall Street were widely publicized for a long course of time, it is also important to acknowledge the fact that information wouldn't have been spread that fast had it not been for the anonymous hackers who started the resistance in the first place. Their ability to collectively gather on the Internet speaks volumes and propels for the large influx of information that other mainstream media companies would later seek out.

[ashlee-nolan-blog-blog]

Week 12

While social media holds a lot of ability to create social change, our freedom of speech is often infringed upon when it comes to media topics the government does not want circulating. In light of recent events with Freddie Gray and the riots in Baltimore, social media has been exploding with images and messages advocating for social justice, but many sites are censoring these images for being too violent and graphic. In “The internet is the best place for dissent to start” by Cory Doctorow he writes that “you can't make a system that prevents spying by secret police and allows spying by media giants.” By this he means that we cannot allow the government to spy on our content and remove it as they deem necessary because this opens up doors for anyone else to do the same. A fantastic example of this at Rutgers is how our internet can get shut down from a distributed denial of service attack because we leave ourselves vulnerable in order to control how people use the internet. Someone can knock our Internet out campus-wide in a matter of hours, just so the school can make sure we aren’t torrenting movies or misusing internet in other ways. In a country that is supposedly free, and we are protected by the first amendment to speak in any manner we choose, it seems ridiculous that police brutality is being swept under the rug and we are being kept in the dark. The media continues to try to portray the victims of this brutality as thugs who had little to look forward to in life besides prison, meanwhile many were children, and others were men with families and wives and jobs who were unexpectedly removed from the lives of those they loved. By doing this, many Americans living in parts of the country far removed from these situations do not understand the severity of them, and end up blaming the victims and continuing the vicious cycle of institutional racism. The news does not show young children being tear gassed by police in Baltimore and begging for food because schools were closed down, but instead shows people looting supermarkets. They pick and choose when censorship should be allowed in order to tell stories the way they want them to be told, and present it as if they are protecting us from harmful content. 

[ashlee-nolan-blog-blog]

Week 11

Social media holds power that our culture has not yet come to understand, which is illustrated in Making Monsters: Lady Gaga, Fan Identification, and Social Media. Lady Gaga has formed a relationship with her fans, whom she fondly calls her “little monsters” and encourages them to “use me as an escape...I am the excuse to explore your identity. To be exactly who you are and feel unafraid. To not judge yourself, to not hate yourself.” She provides her fans with a sense of self that is unique to fan-celebrity relationships, and functions as sort of online branding. Being a Lady Gaga fan means more than just liking her music, and conversely her love for her fans, whether it be legitimate or for fame, gains her more popularity than her talent alone. She plays on the cultural preoccupation with the monstrous by helping her fans work through their “monstrosities,” or personal afflictions. Imaginary monsters are often metaphorical representations of negative human qualities, and much of the fascination with Gaga stems from her willingness to label herself and others as monsters with positive connotations. 

In “Open Sourcing Horror: The Slender Man, Marble Hornet, and genre negotiations, Sira Chess explains that the communal construction of monsters and other internet born horror villains has started a trend of open-sourcing horror. People become unified through boards and chat rooms in which individuals compete as to who can create something more terrifying with Photoshop and other tools. The internet harbors an obsession for the supernatural, weird, creepy, and monstrous, which stems from the way fear is intriguing to humans on a psychological level. It is particularly enjoyable when others cannot handle the same amount of fear, for example going to a movie with someone who is covering their eyes on the verge of tears the whole night is entertaining to someone who loves blood and gore. The cult like aspect of all things scary and monstrous make people who can withstand it, and people who even call themselves monsters, feel included in a special community that many others are happy staying away from. 

[smcmariam00-blog]

Week 14

I found Gabriella Coleman’s “Anonymous -- From Lulz to Collective Action” to be very intriguing and informative. Last week we touched on Anonymous and their goals, but this article really focused on the history of Anonymous -- how it started as internet pranks, memes and “lulz” but then how some wings of Anonymous also became political. Coleman writes, “[Anonymous] has become a political gateway for geeks (and others) to take action...you do feel like you are actually part of something larger”. What is interesting is that now when I think or hear about Anonymous, I think about political change and fighting for rights. This is because there have been recent events that I am aware of, where Anonymous has been a gateway for social change and fought against injustices. It was interesting seeing the origins of 4chan and how in certain respects, the dynamic has changed. According to the article, Anonymous was originally associated with trolling, such as telephone pranks and the exposure of personal information all over the Internet for “lulz”, which is a humorous reaction to jokes and trolling. Since I was not too familiar with the 4chan culture and it’s origins years ago, it was interesting to see the progression and to see where Anonymous really came from. 

Coleman sums up Anonymous as, “Cyber-lynch mobs that are organized via the Internet, who share the common meme of “Anonymous”, where a few people say ‘hey let’s do this’, and those of like mind go do it while the others sit it out and post lolcat pictures on 4chan.” While some members of Anonymous have moved on to political action, this is not the case for everyone. However despite the ongoing culture of “lulz”, it is their political wings that set them apart  from the troll culture. One quote that stood out to me in the article is by someone who Coleman interviewed who said, "I came for the lulz but stayed for the outrage”. From fighting against the Church of Scientology, many have gone on to more protests and more exposures of injustice. Despite the fact that some channels of Anonymous are devoted to social change, the culture of lulz still stands and is still prevalent. According to an interviewee in the article, the lulz “makes the hard and sometimes depressing work of political engagement more bearable”. 

What is great is that despite everything, Anonymous allows people to protest and be a part of something greater. It serves as a “political gateway” for many, a place where people can fight for what they believe to be wrong.

[themoistureman]

Week 13 - To /b/ or not to /b/

My first experiences with 4chan were much different than people had perceived them to be. Originally, I thought it was going to be all shock value; gore, sex, drugs and profanity sprawled all across an HTML hell. But I was wrong. In fact, there was a sense of community, a culture that existed amongst weirdos like myself. In fact the creator, Chris Poole, prided himself on ‘not selling out’ and letting the website kind of run itself...within reason.

Since the site is very much pro-free speech and anonymity, sometimes the lines can get blurred. You can come across anything from pictures of fluffy kittens in a basket, then next thing you know...blood. I think that kind of stands testimony to the nature of the site though, its different kinds of people. Sure, you may have gross-out material, but a lot isn’t like that. In fact, most memes started on 4chan, everything from cats to rick rolling to duckroll. The forum-based site is a breeding ground, letting emerging ideas, memes and different perspectives and ideas within the realm of anonymity. This begs the question though, how much is too much? We’ll just have to see how far things can go.

[smcmariam00-blog]

Week 13

In “The Wikileaks Phenomenon and New Media Power” Alison Powell discusses  the implication of Wikileaks and what it means for the Internet, mass media, corporations and people. I first learnt about Wikileaks and the CEO Julian Assange last year in one of my media classes and I was very intrigued. From my little knowledge back at the time, I just I found it very interesting how a group of people were able to expose a multitude of secrets from the U.S. government to the public. After reading the article however, I gained even more knowledge about Wikileaks and I further understood their goals and what it really represents. The truth is that many organizations hides the truth from the public and Wikileaks was actually doing what I call a necessary evil by being an organization that  exposing lies and letting the American public know the truth. The term hacker can have a negative connotation -- I know that I used to see it as a negative thing when I didn’t know much about the term. However, while Wikileaks may be hackers, their goals are to help the public get the truth and to expose unjust organizations. 

The article “Crude, Inconsistent Threat: Understanding Anonymous” talks about Anonymous and their goals. I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I don’t fully understand Anonymous too much but only because I’ve never really been too familiar with the whole 4chan culture. What I have known about Anonymous is that they also reveal information due to hacking. One example that I was familiar with is that during the Steubenville, Ohio rape case, Anonymous came out saying that they “hate rapists” and came to expose the rapists names, addresses and more incriminating information. As I don’t understand the whole concept of Anonymous, situations like the Steubenville case allowed me to understand more what they are all about.