Author Archives: George Gordon

An example of trolling that comes to mind is someone that created a Facebook account called Customer Service and will go around and respond to people who leave complaints on real customer service accounts. They tend to respond in a rather humorous manner but one that is rather insulting or sarcastic towards the person who left the comment. However, the person who left the comment usually deserves the trolling as they have some rather ridiculous complaints. For example, one of the comments was asking for the removal of auto flushing toilets because it scares their child to which the troll replied that they will and they hope that the next time they take their child to the bathroom that the child won’t be afraid of whatever disgusting they find left by the a previous user.

At least, this troll is being rather playful as opposed to someone who is actively trying to cause harm to others. Reading through his troll comments can be rather funny since it is harmless, especially when the person who comments starts responding and they being to have a “conversation.”

For an imagined future, I decided to go with the video game, Mirror’s Edge. In this future, the city in which the game takes place is completely under a totalitarian rule. Within this city, all information is controlled by the government and this is accepted by the public. One of the main questions that game proposes is “How much of your privacy are willing to give up to be protected?”

With this, the protagonist works with a group of people called runners to spread certain information even though this is considered to be illegal and the government is after their group.  Information in this world isn’t easily accessible as it is for us.  Information in this world can be extremely dangerous and can cause chaos depending on what is spread.

Vaidhyanathan says “we trust google with our personal info and preferences and without access to knowledge because we trust technology that satisfies our prejudices” and I would say that I agree with his argument to a certain extent. Google has become synonymous with the internet as we, for the most part, will have it as our default search engine and if not, we change it so that it is, we even have an expression dedicated to Google, “Just Google it” which shows just much we have come to trust in Google. I know I am one who doesn’t like using other search engines because they aren’t as tailored to my preferences as I’ve grown accustomed to.

However, that is not to say that we should simply trust Google wholeheartedly. Even though, we know how Google will track and sell our information, save our data, create customized searches and advertisements of  their own and of other sites, this doesn’t mean they should get a free pass. If Google is compromised, then, millions of people’s data would be liable to be stolen. Plus, the fact they store and collect so much information could even be seen as an invasion of one’s privacy, especially, when you take into consideration how Google will “read” your emails.

While Google seems to be a mainstay when it comes to the internet, we need to remember at the end of the day, they are not always looking for our best interests.

The concept of “Questioning Authority” from the Mezaros article refers to how we view and accept authority. Within the confines of a school setting, we tend to view certain people in positions of authority as opposed to others. For example, we may believe that going to the professor would be more applicable in a situation as opposed to a classmate because the professor is the “authority” in the case. They have this authority when we are in the classroom because they have knowledge or experience we are trying to learn or gain. At the same time, we may listen to them because we know that, at the end of the semester, they are the ones who will be giving us our grades, that affect our GPA, and any potential eligibility for scholarships or future work.

However, there are people who do not adhere to the idea of authority. They believe that we are all the same or equal and nobody should be able to wield authority over others. Either way, everyone seems to have some sort of authority in different situations and we shouldn’t be locked in to believing that there is only a singular person in “authority” we can go to  for a problem or question.

Martin’s book is available in PDF format online due to the way he views information and knowledge.  He doesn’t want this type of information to be reserved for certain people or organizations, rather, it should be available to everyone so they can pursue their acquisition of knowledge. Through this, knowledge will be able to evolve and change based on our needs at the time; knowledge shouldn’t become stagnant and kept from the public.

Its availability online further exemplifies his ideals as it is being made available to all without the need to pay, which many people may not be able to do, or be a part of some type of organization which can obviously afford to pay the entry point.