Is the Internet good?

Many people who are studying or used to study cyber culture already know that the Internet has created a new way of communication that nobody has experienced before. This new way has changed the face of communication that the world used to know. That is many to many communication.

So why many to many communication is that significant? Because for the first time in the history of human, everybody now can be both audience and publisher. People are now free to raise their voice and access to the information. For the first time, everybody is equal to each other, no matter who they are, how much money they have. They are free to raise their voice and they have chance to be listened, heard and recognized. They have the power that they had not had before, the power which before, is only limited in the hand of few people, the power of information, communication and community. However, as I mentioned in the previous blog, human is not created to be equal. Two basic characteristic of human being is dominant and desire to be right. Therefore, is power should be in the hand of everybody who does not how to use it? It is like you give terrorists a nuclear bomb and the consequence is really predictable.

Somewhere in my mind, there is always an argument about should this power be only in the hand of people who have expert in that, such as newspaper reporters, who are trained to use this power (Obviously that those reporters have to be fair and put under the control of the whole community not only the government.

In the country with a low education level and people really like to follow the crowd like Vietnam, bad people can use the Internet to take granted from people for bad purpose.

Internet is good because it has created an equal and perfect world which only existed in the prehistory

Internet is good because it has created an equal world for human who does not want to be equal

Internet is good until people start to respect the differences between each other and only by that, the Internet can exist with its true meaning as in the beginning: an equal platform for everybody.

How online media can be misleading to young people

Yesterday, when I finished teaching my English class, there was one thing that has made me think of it so much.

During my teaching time, we were doing a topic about famous people and students needed to use their digital devices and go online to search for information about that topic. Everything was good in the beginning and students seemed to be really interested in the topic because most of them tended to like things about entertainment areas. I started working around and supported my students in their research and I saw there was one boy is reading news about a singer who spent 2 billion VND to buy a watch and use it only once. I was reading the news with him and he said to me: “I want to be like her”. I said: “Then you should work hard and study hard”. “Is there anything can make a lot of money but does not need to work hard because I see this singer she does not need to work hard too” – he asked. I said “In everything you need to work hard to make money, she also needs to work hard to be that rich, just because nobody mentions about it”. The boy replied “She only creates scandals to be that famous, she does not work hard”. After that sentence, I have to stop talking with him because there was another student was asking support from me and the time for researching was also running out. However, I have to say that that conversation had made me think a lot. Is it young people nowadays, under the effects of online media, think that being rich and successful that easy?

It reminds me the case of Flappy Bird. It is the first ever mobile game of Vietnam that goes famous worldwide. However, Vietnamese people criticized instead of welcoming it. Flappy Bird even was claimed on the copyright of Mario by Vietnamese people and Nitendo who is the owner of Mario game, had no idea where that claim came from.  It has resulted as the removing of Flappy Bird from the store. Is it the consequence of losing belief in hard working? When read about famous people who spend a large amount of money, young people think that there are many people who do not need to work hard but still make big money. And obviously, when they realized that it is not that easy and they feel unfair, they will be jealous and whenever they hear a person who is making a lot of money, they will hate and criticize it. Flappy Bird is an example when people know the owner earn 1 billion per day by advertising and they may think, he is not that good, he is successful because he is cheating. Therefore, their reaction after that is predictable.

Internet, website have been becoming an easy way for young people to access to the information. However, it seems to be that entertainment is the area that attracts young people the most and the Internet and website are being used by online media to deliver a very surface of a problem and it is misleading young people to a very negative thinking.

Keyboard hero, under the view of cyberculture study.

People are living in a world that is constantly changing. The Internet, one of the biggest innovations of human being, has been changing the entire of the way people communicate to each other. Vietnam, in the opening process to the world, has adapted this new innovation really fast and it is easy to see how the Internet is changing the Vietnamese society, especially young people. According to Internet World Statistic (2012), the number of Internet users in Vietnam has been sharply increasing, from 200,000 in 2000 to over 30,000,000 in 2012, about 150 times in 12 years and it is 34% of the whole population. The most interesting thing is 42% of Vietnamese Internet users are from 15 to 24 years old. This young viral community is growing bigger and generating its own cultures and values. However, if people read news, go to forums and social network every day, they can realize one culture and characteristics of this community when they look at a discussion created by young people about any topic and issue on the news, forum or social network. They maybe surprised that the way young Internet users on that site argue with each other really aggressively and in a criticizing way. From that problem, the term “anh hung ban phim” or “keyboard hero” is created. So why young people like to criticize and aggressive argue with others? What is an explanation for this, anyway?

“Anh hung ban phim” or “Keyboard hero” is a world Internet users use to describe other users who they believe cannot do anything in real life but only talk on the Internet.

Everything, as the consequence of the behavior, should start to be analyzed from the basic things: behavior and attitude. There are two factors that effect on human attitude and behavior which are personal factor and environmental factor. In this case, we have the personal factor as the Internet user and environmental factor as the Internet. Let’s look at the environment factor first, the Internet.

According to Nayar and Pramod (2010), the Internet was created in purpose to give people a freedom of speech. On the Internet, everybody is equal to each other, no matter how old you are, which job you are doing, how much money you are earning. It is a flat platform for all people. In addition, the Internet has created a new way of communication which human had never experienced before, many to many communication (Shirky 2009). As the result, for the first time in the history, people now can be both audience and publisher. They now can be seen, heard and listened from the community which is the thing that people could not do before. However, the nature of human is not to be equal.

“Men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love, but a powerful measure of desire for aggressiveness” – Bettmann/CORBIS

Texas A&M University states that two of the basic natures of human are: to dominant and the desire to be right. The second nature seems to be in its highest level when people were young, especially from 18 to 24 years old, interesting, right? Pham Hong Tung (2011) maintains that at this age, people have a high desire to be right. They have a high ego and they do not want to put themselves in perspective of others. They also do not want to be controlled and they want to try and experience new things. They want to be listened and recognized. And for some of them, they are the center of this universe and their “identification” is the most important thing in this world. Unfortunately, even with that high desire and ego, people at this age are still lack experience and in the developing state. Therefore, it is likely that most of them cannot do anything great to be listened and recognized (small number of people are still studying hard at this age and recognized by others but these people do not always participate in an online discussion). In addition, according to Anh (1998), a Vietnamese typical family has two of three generation living under the same house and children are dependent and controlled by their parent even when they go to the university. This statistic proves the fact that, students, at this age, are still usually told what to do from their parents and their ideas are not also listened. Those personal factors are where everything comes from.

According to Alzheimer’s Society (2014), when the basic need of human such as the freedom of speech, the desire of to be right and do things that people like to do is not fulfilled, when have chance aggressive behavior will be caused as the consequence. And in this case, the Internet, where everybody is equal to each other, where people are all publishers, where people are listened and recognized, has come as a chance for these people. With those powers that the Internet gives them, they now can practice their high ego and desire to be listened, to be right. It, finally, has turned into the thing that we call, online aggressive behavior, or “Keyboard hero – anh hung ban phim”. Actually, it is nobody’s false, it is just because the Internet has exaggerated the difference between people. The more the difference is, the more aggressive the online discussion will go because everyone want to protect their difference. Never before, the Internet has made right and wrong so difficult to define because it depends on the personal perspective to perceive it.

“Like most technologies, the web is not a cure for human nature but an amplifier of human nature – both the good and the bad” – The Virtual Revolution, “The Great Leveling”.

On the Internet, if it is good, it is really god, if it is bad, it is really bad. Everything is more extreme than it truly is.

The anonymous characteristic of the Internet is also a reason caused this culture because users can tell anything without afraid of people knowing their real identity. However, I believe the very basic reason of this culture comes from all the things that I have discussed above.

References:

Alzheimer’s Society 2014, ‘Dementia and aggressive behavior’, Alzheimer’s Society, viewed 21^st March 2013, < http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=96>

Anh, TS 1998, ‘Family size and children’s education in Vietnam’, Demography, February, vol. 35, issue 1, pp. 57-70.

Miniwatts Marketing Group 2012, ‘Vietnam Internet Usage and Marketing Report’, Internet World Stats, viewed 21^st March 2013, < http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/vn.htm>

Pham Hong Tung 2011, ‘Characteristics and major tendencies in the lifestyle of Vietnamese youth today’, Social Sciences Information Review , vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1624

Shirky, Clay. 2009. “How Social Media Can Make History,” TED.com

Texas A&M University 2011, ‘ Human Nature’, Department of Philosophy, viewed 21^st March 2013, < http://philosophy.tamu.edu/html/research.html>