JoJo's Blog- Peek into my Life

Privacy...? What's that?

Week 8
It was actually a relief to read chapters 5 and 6 since they were not technical and I could relate to what was being explained because of the whole political orientation. I always think it is interesting when I hear about any place that I am directly associated with discussed in books or on TV so the part about Case’s involvement with the Cleveland Freenet was cool even though it happened the year I was born so I guess the notion of having a direct connection is stretching it a bit since I knew nothing of Case until the latter have of my senior year in high school. A political science professor of mine went out of state over fall break, I can not recall where exactly but Maryland comes to mind for some reason and she now appreciates the wireless network here much more since she felt disconnected from the world because she could not go online even though she had her laptop with her the whole time. I got off on a tangent so retuning back to “Internet Galaxy” as usual I am going to bring up a topic addressed in this book that is also been addressed in other courses I have taken and this time it is the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas, Mexico. I find it worth mentioning because it came up in a reading for one of my Spanish classes and it has come up before in other classes and I am proud of myself when I actually remember events since history a weakness of mine; way too many dates and names.
For the most part the chapters were very informative because I was glad when noopolitik was defined because it was mentioned early on and did not no exactly what it encompassed. Many observations were made that I agree with such as there not being political secrets in the Internet Age once they are told to a small group. The war crimes that the US army committed against their captives was all over the news and people could see the photos online. Even the clips of soldiers being beheaded were available online. Although it is not as important as the examples I have already mentioned but situations that occur with celebrities like R. Kelly and Paris Hilton are accessed by the public via the net. Basically with the internet and how quickly information is spread by it makes it so that secrets are rare in more than just the political arena. Privacy does seem like it was a right of the past that is put aside more frequently as times go by. The Patriot Act ignored privacy as does the freedom of expression when people use it to disburse photos and media clips online. Do not get me wrong I am not trying to say that some of the reasons are legitimate or undermine the Patriot Act but am simply trying to illustrate that in the book when it said people should get over the loss of privacy it has a point but of course I am also not saying that privacy is a lost cause because certain aspects of it should always be protected ofcourse.