RSA ANIMATE: The Internet in Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens?
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- Опубликовано: 13 мар 2011
- Does the internet actually inhibit, rather than encourage democracy? In this RSA Animate adapted from a talk given in 2009, Evgeny Morozov presents an alternative take on 'cyber-utopianism' - the seductive idea that the internet plays a largely emancipatory role in global politics.
This RSA Animate was taken from a lecture given as part of the RSA's free public events programme. The RSA is a 258 year-old charity dedicated to driving social progress and spreading world-changing ideas.
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This audio has been edited from the original event by Becca Pyne, series produced by Abi Stephenson.
Animation by Cognitive Media. Andrew Park, the mastermind behind the Animate series and everyone's favourite hairy hand, discusses their appeal and success in his blog post, 'Talk to the hand': www.thersa.org/talk-to-the-hand/.
I enjoyed how the mouse on the computer was a human! Also, it was a good talk.
Loving the art as always and great view on this. Thanks!
Wow! This validates what I've long suspected. Thank you for such a clear (and visually-compelling) articulation of inter/action between the Internet and society.
The artist is amazing! very original way of drawing out these thoughts. Keep up the great work guys, i really enjoy these videos.
Now I know that I'm more of a visual learner. And this helps greatly.
I always find these RSA animate videos amusing , even tho they convey serious messages people learn things easier with a visual aid then just some random guy talking toa huge crowd.
keep up the good work RSA.
Magnificent! Congrats for the effort :)
Great analysis.
Thank you for sharing.
That effect appeared in the 2011 Egyptian revolution, where the non official networks (mainly e-social networks) were the leading communication chain, where immediate pictures, tweets and status updates were one of the main sources of uncensored real-time information, making a mass movement of population in demonstrations and set ins, leading to the removal of the old regime.
@theRSAorg app for android ("unable to fetch videos"): are the vids NOT available in germany?
i wonder if i can get a copy of the whole sketch...
I love these animations.
This needs to be updated in light of what has happened in the Middle East over the last few months !!
Channeling Spiegelman. Fascinating.
This is awesome. We talked a little about this is class (just before this is posted). :)
To say that the internet is "destroying" the nation is a little(or really) harsh.
It won't be the harbinger of ultimate democracy either, but it is an extremely useful tool in helping our global society and economy progress via instant easy communication and shopping as well as a new level of accountability in all areas of government.
Another amazing animation!
do you guys sell these posters? i really really want to get these!
this is just amazing.
I always wish I could see these in posters! They are so .... GREAT! haha...
Love this video, and what I take from it is that Cyber Utopia isn't automagical. People still have to want and work for it.
Internet is just a medium, and threw it we can see human nature as it really is. Individualism, consumerism, egocentrism, it's just so sad, we could do so much together.
Hey there! Have you seen related to the "Phantom Cash System"? I came across it on Google Search and found out amazing stuff about it. Some of my colleague also strongly recommend me to look into it
Haha, I love that this was posted right before Arab Spring.
Very insightful presentation which raises some important issues about the utilitarian qualities of internet technologies and the political process. I especially agree on the point that the current power holders could make and are making as good (if sometimes not better) use of those technologies than the politically marginalised. Although that is invariably true it is nevertheless hard to argue against the fact that internet and the (relatively) accessible mobile devices have had an unprecedented liberating effect on many disengaged and disenfranchised people all types of existing political systems. In that sense, taking into consideration the inevitable setbacks which such a method of organisation might have; internet technology has presented us (humanity) with the best means (thus far) for democratising and the liberalising the political process.
very interesting....certainly food for thought!
never thought of it that way. thanks rsa
I agree with some point, for example if you had million people blogging/ signing an online petition protesting over a certain issue, it does simply does not have the same impact as a million people marching/protesting in the street because it is easier to ignore/ censor an online protest than a physical one. Plus the internet method seems to lack a certain sincerity and passion needed to truly drive change because people can easily hide behind online identies/ hide behind a screen.
His reasoning is EXACTLY why we need to ensure our anonymity online.
I love the Momar Gadafi cat at 4:15 :)
Excellent & Brilliant => Thanks !!
A humbling video for me to watch, as I have always been a 'Cyber-utopian', and need a reminder of the harsh facts of reality.
this is just an insight into the big paradox we are facing. We must be able to look beyond our cultural values and beliefs and become more tolerant and less arrogant to face these challenges.
@susansayler The most useful point that is made in this video; and one that must be understood by individuals engaging in this conversation is this: The internet, despite its 'ability' to be a tool for democratic production, is used more often than not as a distractor from democratic participation. Individuals spend their time infront of a screen reading about the atrocities happening and sharing opinions about them but rarely leave the house to participate in democracy.
FYI, your lower third ad has a bad link on it...
Love the videos though! thanks!
@Vayton the animals were a great use, mouse for the civilians and cats for the government, what a great way to represent the relationship. I found it very creative. Also, i prefer massive text when someone with a thick accident is speaking, so I can read what he is saying too. I guess we all have our preferences.
Well in light of what happened in Egypt I think we can clearly see that technology and social media, when used correctly, can have significant impact in leading to change.
The final reference to Maslow pyramid was quite good. Depressing, by the way....
Very interesting critique of net activism. Well worth watching!
v insightful will recommend to my fellow friends!! 10/10!!!
I had suggested a wide area network in the late 80's network for the benefit of remote Indian reserves in Canada. I believed that it would have a transformative effect on education and politics for the region. One thing I did reflect upon is analog to digital monitoring: such a conversion would facilitate government monitoring of communication. I believed that this was the way to sell it to the institutions while at the same time provide communication & sharing of information to average people.
best one yet!
@PokerJoey888 I think it is exactly what this video is about. There are people, who want to know more, who want to be active. There is unfortunately just more people who want just get enterteiment, or want to stay active only on the Internet.
It's always worth thinking about the negative impacts of technology, if only so you can account for, and devise solutions for them.
The march of technology isn't smoothly linear - typically technology solves a bunch of problems while creating a bunch of other issues. It's just the nature of something that has wide ranging impact - it's bound to create positive and negative externalities beyond the initial naieve intention.
Well said. Technology is a medium and information is not necessarily equated to thought - its what you bring to the table in terms of research skills and creative searching that allows you to get value out of the internet. Education and reading have to be primary drivers here, and people wont read outside their comfort zone unless they have a reason to do so.
Excellent.
Most of the things he mentioned as being negative were actually very positive
The Internet is a an unpredictable catalyst of the society's reaction. Evgeny Morozov's view of the internet before could been changed right now... two years after this talk.
cool presentation with the mice as people
The fundamental point is that new technologies are not inherently good or bad, but are simply tools. As such, its tendency to amplify and extend existing behaviors will be far greater than its tendency to create entirely new behaviors.
It's a commonsensical argument, but boils down to "the more things change, the more they stay the same".
@AirelonTrading - Exactly! Inactivity, and 'captivity' through the social media applications and technologies. *thumbs up*
Who's the illustrate? He's absolutely great and hilarious.
Very interesting concept.
This RSAanimate bleeds awesomeness.
The visuals are everything that teachers tell us to avoid in a powerpoint presentation.
@Oyaji291 - This is the trouble with most everything else being 'instant' about the internet. Assuming trend will continue is not such a folly, in most instances, that's the pattern finding portion of your brain functioning properly.
You make a fair point, seems logical to me, I hope it pans out to be for the betterment of human rights.
And I agree, he did sort of nudge at one of the troubles with democracy. It can very much be used to cause a tyranny of the majority type problem.
I LOVE the Lech Wałęsa mouse!!! That is too funny
I LOL'd at the blind mice, took me a while to get it though
@stevo8782 I didn't get this at all from the video. The talk seemed to say that the internet will encourage negative as well as positive things, as well as oppressive governments being able to use it to subvert any attempts at political change.
Really great talk.
Since the Web started changing business and economics it has changed politics too. It's not about traditional democracy or autocaracy, it's about changing the whole social relations paradigm.
Great work tks a lot.
this might be the cleverest of the drawings so far
awesome
Well Said!
I think Eugeny Morozov has valid points that Western technology does not lead to democracy by default, and that the same Internet technologies used to empower citizens can be used to empower regimes. What he does not acknowledge is that sometimes Internet technology *does* facilitate democracy, as evidenced in Egypt and the Middle East.
Ultimately the end result of a tool is entirely based on how it is used.
Doesn't this video and the free access to it, contradict any outside influence stopping anyone from sharing knowledge?
Anyway, great content.
If girls spend enough time together their menstrual cycles will sync. If humanity communicates enough our views will find common ground. Communication dissolves extreme polar views. Our 7,000,000,000 opinions are chaos. The internet speeds our determination of our strange attractor. I vote 'LOVE>FEAR'
When did he do the speech? Libya and egypt were pretty recent
well said.
It is a fundamental cartooning style used in political comics.
Great speech as usual.
"Technology does not make us better people, it just makes us better at being people. There is a significant difference." -Not sure where I heard that. Very relevant to this video, though.
I believe the internet has and will continue to have a net-positive effect towards revolutionary liberation and democracy.
haha!! at 8:55 the mouse of the computer is shapes like a human! clever :)
Ahem.
Has anyone noticed HOW CUTE these mice are?
Anyone could post the transcript for this speech. Thank you!
It’s out of control. I just want to make a videogame. Because I had the audacity of asking for services when I’m a young man in dept with no job, institutions refuse to believe this is my intention. This triggered a whole line of privacy invading protocols, media actions and discriminations. I have nowhere to go and they won’t let me work. They can’t stop paying attention to me. Petrifying.
Ad Hominem, the beautiful language.
It's so great to use such intellectual insults. Deliberately trying to make oneself better than others by constantly using words to intimidate with seemingly endless streams of hatred and violent tone in words.
May I ask, why are you mad?
Why should I pretend I don't care? I do care, who doesn't?
I like responding to people and know what they think.
So, give me more insight of what you think it should be?
*boisterous clapping*
@whatagainst I'm not sure if everything will go exactly the way I see it coming. After all it pretty much depends on how much the internet users self are aware of the possible threats for their freedom which are coming from behind the horizon.
@gatheringwithin That was not a 'dumb' video. What he is suggesting is that although all these perceived freedoms exist and are supposedly more accesible because of our heightened connectivity, there is also another side where people can get absorbed and made captive by the online community. People become engrossed in living online and fail to actually do. He is explaining that this form of captivation is often not addressed and may be a growing problem.
@PericlesGR Oh, absolutely. Everything has negative and positive sides. But the feeling I got from Morozov is that he believes the negative outweighs the positive, and this is where we disagree. Of course there is a substantial risk to using the internet, but in the end I think it's worth it.
9:13 I love the fact that the mouse uses a human to control its computer.
that was a great way to spell "Maslow" :D
I love how they plug "men" into their computers instead of "mice". 8:52
@BenzillaProductions I wouldn't say laziness, but rather "not-activism". Laziness is seeing a problem and doing nothing about it. If they don't see the problems, or don't recognize the problem as a problem, you can't really call them lazy.
what I'm saying is my speculation. I'm looking at many of the bads, there are good and I will not deny them either. 500 characters is rather tough in space constraints to formulate two sides of an argument.
@xtronom Oh it dies quite a lot of difference. I am quite awake and aware of things happening around me - and I'm quite aware how technology has changed the way people see just in a couple of decades.
While what you're saying is true, under very specific conditions - The right guy with the right mindset and intelligence, amount of time available and the right motivation - it's not feasible for an entire population. For that, we have to fight censorship straight on, broadside it and decimate it, rather than try to circumvent it.
@Nidarteh1337 Well, you've convinced me with your numerous valid counterpoints and flawless logic!
Two years later this guy would eat his own words.
@stevo8782 It's at 6:30. He mentions an example of people downvoting (and as is usually the case, false-flagging) a video en masse until RUclips removes it. I don't think he cites this as a good thing though.
these videos rock.
It’s out of control. I just want to make a videogame and because I was audacious in asking for services when I’m a young man in dept with no job, institutions refuse to believe this is my intention. This triggered a whole line of privacy invading protocols, media actions, discriminations and threats. I have nowhere to go and they won’t let me work. Most jobs are probing sections that drain me while they make money out of this situation somehow. They can’t stop paying attention to me. Petrifying.
with what program is this made?
The Human Talent program, it's all done by hand. ;)
Some countries don't fear the internet because they know that it's entertainment. They might want to control everything that doesn't deal with entertain though.
@Hopefulfilment at least you picked the right video to comment this on, where you're likely to get support for this link and get the thumbs to let more people see it
this cat mouse theme reminds me of the graphic novel "maus" by art spiegelman
@martinthew What is shown here is that there are potential downsides to internet access as well, and that technology is not the sole bearing for success or failure of of revolution and change, and that in taking this position of "iPod Liberalism," as he calls it, ignore the vast amounts of other influences upon these movements.
The point isn't to say that the internet has an inherently negative effect, but that it does not necessarily have a positive one is all cases.
Can you make an animated presentation of Edward Snowden's revelations and all the NSA and other government components involved? This may be very difficult for anyone to do.