According to Fred Turner, associate professor in the Communication Department at Stanford University, technology is more than a domain where cultural resistance can occur. Cyberculture is a form of counterculture (Rothstein, 2006). And no, I don't mean cyberculture is a counterculture in the sense that computer geeks lack basic social skills and tend to reject mainstream hygiene habits. I mean that cyberculture represents a movement against preexisting social orders.
When looking at the role of technology, compared to the aims of countercultural groups, Turner's argument makes more sense. Computer and internet users are freed from hierarchial structures of traditional forms of media. They rely on horizontal networks, rather than top-down structures, to transmit information. As a result, the individual user becomes empowered by how skillfully he can navigate that network. A lone technician can topple the biggest and most powerful companies; The New York Times, the LA public transit system, CitiBank and NASA have all been hacked into.
Recognizing the power technology offers through it's ability to "foster[. . .] dissent and question[ . . ] authority" (Roszak, qtd. in Rothstein), a new degree of social activism has emerged: hactivism. Cited as a form of "electronic civil disobedience," hactivists take advantage of their technical skill to make soial commentary. The Yes Men create parody websites to highlight the hypocrisies of the big businesses, and offer software that allows others to create their own parody "mirror-sites." The Trojan Cow Project has widely posted illegal code for DVD gaming technology. Hactivist groups use the unique nature of interet technology, namely, that
Of course, you need not know a great deal about computer programming to use media technology to make a statement. Even a simple blog post can get your message across:
Wow, great post about the internet as counterculture. It's so true. Although my lit. review is on social networking theory and how the internet is a new network society, I do view the internet as a form of counterculture, and agree that the internet allows people to operate outside of traditional hierarchal structures that exist with interpersonal communication.
ReplyDeleteDoes that make me an activist in the culture jammer sense if I dislike pop up ads that disrupt the Salon article I'm trying to read? I wonder? I don't know if I view advertisements as total propaganda in the way that a culture jammer would. Advertisements are annoying. Propaganda? Not sure. Maybe.