The creation of the INTERNET. Like the time when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon; uttering the famous quote: "that's one step for man, one giant leap for mankind", the creation of the Internet has since transform the world into a bustling wealth of information that's constantly passed around with the click of your mouse. Huh... talk about having information at the tip of your fingers.
Firstly, a brief description of the Internet. Yes I know, we all know how to use the Internet ever since it was created, proof from the fact that the majority of our time now is spent serving the net!!! But do we really know how it first came about? With a bit of this knowledge, you'll probably grasp the momentousness of this single creation of mankind, and the part that it plays in our everyday lives. The Internet is basically composed of billions of networks; all interlinked by a broad array of networking technologies, both optical and electronic. And, that's it. I can bet that this is probably the briefest description anyone can conceive. Now just from that description sentence alone, I'm sure everybody can understand, why without the Internet, our lives would basically slow down and attempts in any advancement in any fields would basically slow to a sluggish stutter. E.G. MEDIEVAL TIMES!!!!!!!
Now why am I interested in the Internet? Let me give you an example, let's say you're an obsessive facebooker, youtuber, or twitterer. Then suddenly, one day, someone destroys your access to all these face sites of yours. Wouldn't you be extremely pissed? I know I would. Which brings me to the main topic of the day. China. Recently I read in the news that this uprising superpower has INCREASED its control over the Internet so that their people will not be influenced by "the impure minds of the world outside". But you're talking about a nation that has the largest population in the world! If they can't communicate on the Internet, they're definitely going to find some way to get to information and/or speak their minds! Yes, understandable, not all the content posted on the web are exactly ideal like pornography for example, so if China wants to crack down on that, then sure go ahead, by all means.
BUT, we're talking about forums, facebook, youtube and other informative sites! You ask why? Well I'll tell you the answer, it's because they want to protect the their own communist government, because what they're scared of is the essence of communication; the art of persuasion. Sure, China is doing much better than the States these days, and USA is a democratic with very little or no censorship. I'm not saying that communism is the way to go (that will be totally going off-topic) and that China doesn't need to follow the American way of doing things, because hey; they're an imperfect bunch as well. ALL I'm asking is that they just ease up a little and not be so wounded up in protecting their a**. It’s ALWAYS healthy to have a debate over everything in life, no matter how small or large. Its what keeps people going and its how ideas flourish.
But hey that's my opinion. What's yours?
I agree with u that it is always healthy to have a debate over everything in life! But however, at times, people do not give their opinions for the sole intentions of debating, but merely for mockery, expressing their hatred or whatso. This happens especially on the internet, where comment boxes are like graffiti walls. There is no law stating that whoever who provides nonsensical or illogical comments with unhealthy intentions of any sort will be dealt with blah blah. So i guess China does have her reason for the censorship. But yeah, i totally agree with u that they are indeed being overly cautious with internet content that it portrays to us that the authorities in china do not trust their own people in being able to think for themselves and not be easily influenced by the media.
ReplyDeleteThe Cheong believes that China is almost as fragile as the former Soviet Union due to its overly diverse racial composition. Many of the non-Han people are determined to break away and form their own nations. So it is important to keep the 'unwanted news' away from the masses so as to not to encourage such sentiments.
ReplyDeleteThink about it, even in this country, the masses are also told exactly what they are supposed to know only.
Think about it again. In Ancient Greece, philosophers like Aristotle and many other great thinkers were always debating and conveying ideas through communication. But Greece were never in united due to the differences in views. They had temporary alliances and co-operations to fight off external threats but they would fragment again once the threats were dealth with.
Greeks had to meet up in the agoras to discuss philosophy and ideas because they didn't have TV. But I digress.
ReplyDeleteI agree with The Cheong about China being a very diverse country composing of many different races, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. But I disagree with The Cheong on the comparison between China and Ancient Greece.
Ancient Greece were never united not solely on the fact that they could never be united in their views. That was only part of the reason. The other reason was that Ancient Greece were composed of independent city-states ruled by sovereign governments. That was the reason why Ancient Greece were not united because the city-states could not or would not give up their independence to be ruled by others. An example would be the war between Sparta and Athens.
The only thing that united the Greece was that they came from the same ethnic and cultural background and most worshipped the same pantheon of gods.
China is a different matter. It is a country united by a single political party and ruled by a sovereign government. A melting pot of people from different ethnic and cultures are ruled by the same government and follow the same rules. Of course, many groups in China are attempting to break away from China and form their own nations. However, they can't because they are already under a sovereign rule. The Greeks could break up constantly because the individual city-states were already sovereign independent "nations".
from what i know,China is praticing something called CULTURAL IMPERIALISM.basically they are trying to stop the influx of western ideas and cultures into China via the internet.
ReplyDeleteas you would know,facebook,twitter and google are created by americans.and China being a former communist country,i personally feel the Chinese government still practises a subtle form of communism in its country's policy, which the restriction of the exchange of ideas via the internet.
Others may say that China is opening up and needs to have time to fully open up to western cultures and ideas, but i still feel that the opening up of China is more of a economical motive,yet refusing to accept ideas that may jeopardise the thinking of the younger Chinese.
Internet, something that we cant live without. When is the last time you go to a library to search for information? Why do we need to do that when we can simply google it. As for countries that are going to bring in censorship for some site, the reason might because they don't want to "corrupt" their people. However, I think that if you allow your people to stay ignorant, they will still commit mistakes even they are not being "Corrupted" by informations from the net.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kenny Chong. The internet has grown to be such a staple in our lives. Much like our mobile phones, we cannot live without them.
ReplyDeleteSome of us have given up the newspaper, and instead, choose to receive our daily news update through twitter or facebook - absolutely virtually.
Sure, fast and efficient it sure is, but we are getting a little too addicted to such convenience? I am afraid to admit it, but I think I am. I am addicted to the ease of making friends with absolute strangers over the net. I understand that face-to-face interaction is the best and obviously, the most sincere; but with the internet, time and distance aren't barriers anymore.