Capstone Progress 1

Connecting and Dividing Humanity

                In a political context, the internet can both connect and divide humanity.  Social media sites have completely transformed the world of politics.  Political leaders all over the world use the Web to communicate with the people.  It is important to people that they have a voice, and if higher powers try to take it away, the people will find a way around it.

A great example would be the Iranian riots by unhappy citizens after the election in June 2009.  The protestors turned to twitter to communicate with each other and share with the world what was happening.  A video of a young girl getting killed hit the web, and people all over the world were angered and wanted revenge.  Millions of tweets were sent out, and the state was not happy.  They responded with Riot police and a ban on media inside the country.  The power of twitter in this case was amazing, and exhibited just how incredible of a tool the Web can be.

                In politics there will always be a battle between authority and the people.  States feel threatened by the web, because it operates outside of their power and works against central control.  In Episode 2 of The Virtual Revolution, David Runciman of Cambridge University states, “The web is not going to rival the state, it’s not threatening to wipe the state out, but what it does possibly threaten to do is to make various forms of national politics irrelevant because people can bypass them.”  I agree with his point that the Government stands and the internet does not threaten what they do, but it could surely change politics and the way they work.

The internet in politics is truly a beautiful thing.  Before social networking, if you had something to say you couldn’t really say it unless you had a job in the media.  Now, anyone who wants to participate can.  All they have to do is go on their phone or computer and log on to the social media site of their choice.  With these tools, everyone has a voice and is like a journalist.  This is great because there are so many more people involved and so many more points of view to be considered.  The internet motivates people to come together to discuss key issues, and gives them the power to call out things that they think are wrong which is something they didn’t have before.  The internet is a great tool for communication and has a created a new sense of community.  You can be connected with people who share your views without even speaking or leaving your home.

                Though I think that the internet is mostly a good thing for politics, I do agree that it has its negatives and can divide people.  Episode 2 of The Virtual Revolution discussed different reasons why the Web can be a bad thing, like how it abandons tradition, can turn us against the world and each other, and can narrow identity.  So many people being politically involved online means there is so much more conflict than there would be otherwise.  The more we put online, the more vulnerable we are to the bad sides of internet politics.  An example of these downsides would be when Estonia was almost brought down by the Russians on the internet.  It was so easy for them to create such a disaster. Politically, the internet gives us so much opportunity, but it is also a great amount of responsibility that some would argue we can not handle.