12: The Permanence of the Internet

There is a TED Talk that focuses on the permanence of the Internet. It begins by connecting 4 words: Big Data, Tattoos, Immortality, and the Greeks. It was definitely an interesting way to begin the talk, but also a confusing one. I was curious from that point on.

The man speaking makes an analogy that calls your online presence an electronic tattoo. Tattoos tells a story and convey a message. They are part of our personality and communicate something about us. Our online presence does the same, but it makes the message even clearer and we do not know every single person that is seeing it.

The speaker continues on to say that these electronic tattoos that we all have are going to live much longer than we will. While we may not live forever, the online profile that we build is immortal. He draws on some stories from Greek mythology as well. He mentions Narcissus, which I think is the most relatable story for today's society. Everyone is always looking at their own image through all of their social media accounts. They may not exactly be in love with their own image, but they are constantly checking it and trying to improve the way they are portrayed through their online profile.

Narcissus looking at his reflection

Another good point he made is that immortality is not a good thing, but rather it is a threat. We may not care about the immortality of the internet when something good happens for us. However, an embarrassing video or post that we make can be devastating when thinking about how it will live forever online.

All in all, this video is a cautionary speech about how powerful the internet is and how we should think before putting so much of our lives on it. Our electronic tattoos will never disappear, whether we like it or not.

11: Echo Chamber

An echo chamber is defined as "an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered." This idea relates to my last blog post because media consolidation can create an echo chamber. When one company owns a bunch of television stations, those stations can become an echo chamber that are all sharing the same news and opinions.

According to an article from the Guardian, the early days of the internet promised a space for new ideas to be exchanged freely and people to share their points of view.  It was an optimistic view that most held, but there were also some who saw the possibility that it was too good to be true.  A lot of revelations came in the year 2017 as far as cyberbullying, fake news, and misinformation.  While all of these are problematic topics, they become intensified by an echo chamber.  One bad story could be disproven by other more extensively researched articles.  The problem is that people tend to blindly believe things that align with their own views.  This leads to them only seeing their own perspective in the things they see online.  Whether what they read is true or not, they believe it because it seems correct.  By not seeing other options or perspectives, they do not give themselves the opportunity to figure out the truth.

It is very important to see different perspectives and stories that disagree with our own views.  It opens us up to more truth.  By seeking the truth instead of believing the first thing we see or that agrees with our beliefs, we get out of the echo chamber and actually learn the truth.  After you get out of your echo chamber, it becomes a habit to find true stories rather than immediately believing whatever you see.

10: Media Consolidation

Media Consolidation is defined as the "concentration of media ownership."  This means that fewer people and organizations are starting to control increasing shares of the mass media.  A recent study coauthored by Gregory J. Martin at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Joshua McCrain at Emory University analyzed the Sinclair Broadcast Group.  This company owns 191 television stations, which reach roughly 40% of Americans.  They noticed that as the company bought more stations, their news began to focus more on national news rather than local stories.  They saw that "a corporate take over also made stations slant more to the right politically."

Most people see television news as a reliable source, and this allows these media channels to set an agenda whether they purposely do it or not.  Having their stories skewed by a large company to only read certain stories or support a political candidate with their stories over another is a big deal.  This also creates an echo chamber because if one company owns 191 stations, they are all saying the same thing.  It makes it hard to find news sources with different perspectives to develop an opinion based on well-rounded reports.

Another example of media consolidation is Disney.  They are a large organization that owns many different companies.  They own ABC, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and many more companies.  Along with these companies, they own Disney World and Disneyland.  They do not necessarily advertise all of the companies they own as Disney, but they control a lot of them and many of them are significantly large companies.