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MicahMekbibFirstEssay 4 - 23 May 2025 - Main.MicahMekbib
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< | Convenience | >
> | The Generational Place
I have no place to go but Here. | | | -- By MicahMekbib - 20 Feb 2025 | |
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< | Convenience
Sometimes, I find it comforting to go online and read opinions on Twitter because it “inspires” my perspective. If I was honest with myself, I would say I like it because then I don’t have to think of my own opinions and convictions. I can be made up of the hundreds of tweets I read weekly. Though disingenuous, life is a bit more convenient this way. | >
> | Anxiety & Avoidance
The third place has always been crucial to human connection. In America, the influx of suburbia and high-priced businesses have decayed its ability to meet our social needs. The Internet seemed to fix this by creating a new space filled with pockets of niche communities that anyone could find a sense of belonging within. Simultaneously, it created an unparalleled avenue for self-determination–never before could one so easily control what, from whom, and when they consumed information. | | | | |
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< | Our Shared Internet Experience
The rise of the Internet created an unparalleled avenue for self-determination–never before could one so easily control what, from whom, and when they consumed information. Private technology companies–Big Tech–were angelic, creative producers of avenues for mass global communication that made information circulation instantaneous and highly accessible. This isn’t just wishful thinking–Google’s mission in 1998 was simply to organize the world’s information in an accessible way. And then they realized they could manipulate the range of content and digital landscape that each Internet user experiences. | >
> | The Internet as just another third space felt like a healthy relationship until everything started feeling like war out in the real world. I’m not tending to my familial relationships, participating in school feels dissonant, I wince when I buy groceries that I need to live (that are shit quality, mind you), we’re down to four years on that damn Climate Clock, and I feel like I’m wasting my time. 18-year-old me would scoff at being called an anxious person. Yet here I stand. And I know I’m not alone in this. | | | | |
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< | In today’s age, all social media platforms rely on algorithms that feed users whatever they are designed to. Big Tech utilizes surveillance to extract behavioral data and support such algorithms. When private companies have control over what and how information is disseminated, the practice of shaping information environments exacerbates our constant epistemic battle by endangering the procurement of knowledge and promoting disinformation. How much of your Internet exploration is powered by your free will, and how much of it is that of those above you? Surveillance gnaws at our free will by exploiting one of the desires we are most susceptible to compromising our moral values for: convenience. Surveillance nourishes our desire for convenience by (1) commodifying online users’ experiences, and (2) manipulating users’ information context to erode their right to self-determination. | >
> | My generation often turns to the Internet to escape our real world discomfort and develop a sense of control over our identities. A crutch to support our battered minds. At our best, we can enjoy endless information and a community to shape who we are. At our worst, we can at least deliver our anxieties to the Internet to hold while we doom scroll. But, therein lies the issue. | | | | |
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< | Scroll, Buy, Don't Think, Repeat
At its best, Internet surveillance simply affects our consumerism (of course, “at best” is a euphemism–these implications are still worrisome). You get bombarded with the same advertisements enough and you begin to fall for them. TikTok? Shop? Really? Heatless curls, ooouu the newest Stanley cup to add to my collection!, haul after haul after haul, 46,000 people killed in Palestine but wait I just found the BEST DUPE EVER!!1111! on Amazon (link to my storefront!), these are the best makeup products to achieve the Sofia Richie clean girl aesthetic, scroll some more, scroll some more, don’t be shy just scroll some more - | >
> | Engineering Aggravation
Today, all social media platforms rely on algorithms that feed users whatever they’re designed to. Big Tech companies are incentivized to support these algorithms because they’re profitable. Algorithms collect raw behavioral data from user activity, which is sold to third parties who use it to inform marketing. This mechanism is known as surveillance capitalism. | | | | |
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< | Are you feeling doomed yet? Your average screen time this week was 13 hours. If it’s any relief–it’s not completely your fault. | >
> | Since Big Tech companies benefit from user data, their algorithms are also designed to keep users generating it. An algorithm will latch onto any post you linger on for a few extra seconds. It will fixate on the desires you may not even realize you exhibit, gnawing at your free will until you acquiesce. Ultimately, the manipulation of our information context online strangles our self-determination and autonomy. I mean, how do you know you’re making the right decision if you only see one? By controlling what and how information is disseminated, private companies have created an epistemic battle promoting whatever kind of reality that keeps users logged on. | | | | |
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< | Decades in, Big Tech companies have transformed into pioneers of surveillance capitalism, a burgeoning economic market that is founded upon the extraction of behavioral data in the digital world. Their algorithms have perfected systems to store user data, apply it to predict users' future behaviors, and inform their marketing. This sort of capitalism relies on the private expropriation of the human production of online activity. It becomes profitable when Big Tech sells raw data collected from Internet activity on their platforms to other companies, who subsequently use such data to make profitable marketing decisions. An algorithm will latch onto any post you linger on for a few extra seconds and cater to it. It will fixate on the desires you may not even realize you are displaying and gnaw gnaw gnaw at you until you acquiesce. | >
> | Maybe it’s the kind of reality that targets users with their insecurities. It will certainly make you feel worse to fixate on something so demoralizing, but it’s either in Here or out There…and out There is terrifying. And I’ll have to do some serious work to fix myself out There, but why do that when I can remake myself Here by tweeting in this kind of way and keeping my Instagram theme to this specific style? Maybe it’s the kind of reality that allows you to pretend there is no war raging outside your window–a way to avoid confronting your truth. | | | | |
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< | If that sounds scary to you, that's probably a good sign. It's quite easy to submit your will to the ease of the Internet providing you with exactly the products you were just thinking of the other day. | >
> | So what’s the fuss about? Obsessing Here feels better than obsessing There, and even if we’re conscious of its harm…well, isn’t life about enjoying the ride? The world is going to shit, anyway. | | | | |
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< | Engineering Identities
At its worst, surveillance is an attack on our unique identities and self-determination. In the same way that Big Tech commodifies behavioral data for capitalist purposes, Big Tech uses behavioral data to manipulate information context online, strangling users’ self-determination and individual autonomy. Social media platforms will prioritize posts based on users’ engagement with them, amplifying content that they find already popular and influential. This primarily has two effects. | >
> | You’re Losing Everything You Came Here For
Well, yes! The world might be going to shit…so you came Here for control that you lacked out There. You thought you might be able to find inspiration for the kind of life you want by seeing how others across the world live, or you thought you might find a sense of belonging by joining a Reddit community. You wanted to be able to consume a reality of your choosing. I mean if you wanted to live in a reality that made you anxious and avoidant…you would’ve just stayed out There! But surely, reader, you know by now that you’ve lost all control. You do not control the media you consume. The little man tinkering behind your screen, spying on your every move and hammering each into the algorithm, does. And the more time you spend engaging with his reality, the less time you spend on doing the things that actually matter: fixing your relationships with those you love, making your body healthier, and engaging with a world that cannot disappear in a digital crash (yea the Internet wouldn’t go down so simply, but just buy into it for one second, will you?). | | | | |
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< | The first is driving people further away from each other. If a company wants to increase polarization, it will push extreme political viewpoints that will divide people. Polarization online has increased in recent years, creating divisions between people that differ in genders, social class, racial group, and education level. This radical division clouds our prioritizations. Disinformation is engineered to divide us so we cannot unite to fight true enemies of fascism, dictatorship, and our exploitation that is used to preserve the top 1%. | >
> | No one is asking you to “save THE world,” but you can always save YOUR world. And that’s the only one that should matter to You. You can regularly sit with friends you’ve collected over the years and discuss all it is you enjoy discussing online. You can connect with your classmates–you’re pursuing the same degree, so surely you have something in common. You can learn from strangers and libraries. Community is out There if you look for it, like that community garden you walk past on your way to work, or that mutual aid organization that posts tear-off flyers on the lamppost on 2nd. You’d be surprised what the joy of creating instead of consuming will do for your health. And what more being There will teach you about the kind of life you want to live. | | | | |
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< | The second effect is the creation of echo chambers where users primarily see content aligning with already existing views. As users continue to interact the most with posts that align with their existing interests, they become highly susceptible to further radicalization towards their own thoughts. Our thoughts, positive or negative, are reinforced with more content that Big Tech knows we want to hear. While this may seem innocent–here we are shaping our own Internet experiences!--this information environment has the dangerous effect of disabling healthy discourse that promotes character development and social progression. | >
> | So You can choose your reality out There. It will just require a bit of consistent work and faith–as all good things do. You should probably do things that feel like You. You should probably be around people that are also interested in You being You. You should probably be in community with people that you can ensure are also being themselves, which you can’t do when everyone’s hiding behind screens. And most importantly, You can have control without submitting your will to technology that wants to preserve a reality that benefits them more than it does You. | | | | |
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< | In a world where the Internet breeds disinformation, critical thinking and discernment are of the utmost importance. This sort of cognitive isolation can create groupthink that prevents critical thinking. How do you know you’re making the right decision if you only see one?
Our Shared Law School Experience
In the Internet age, life as we know it is–well, should be–a persistent fight against allowing algorithms to influence our everyday lives. The dynamics of law school mirror those discussed above about our online experience. So how do we resist? How do we distill the humming of everything around us to focus on curating our own law school experience?
The strength of the draft is its clarity about the technology you use; its weakness is the clarity about the technology, which makes it seem as though that's just they way it all works, which it most definitely isn't. Your software is connected to platforms that use other software to customize what you see. But mine isn't. My browser isn't leaking information to the webservers I talk to, and those webservers belong to publishers that show me the table of contents and don't recommend what I read (or if they do, their reommendations are turned completely off.) I never see ads, ever, anywhere. I don't use any platform services, and most of the services you use platforms for (email, messaging, videoconferencing, document-sharing, etc.) I provide to myself and others using servers of my own. I control all the software I use: it is free as in freedom as well as free as in beer, which means I can change it, share it, give it to other people, as well as study and understand it as fully as I care to do, which is plenty.
And all those other freedoms you describe, to learn, to read, to publish and to share at levels never before available to all but the most privileged of humanity, are still there, in full flower. So begin to imagine what that would mean, not just for me, or for you, but for anyone. Because the software is free. cost is not the limit. Knowledge is. When do you want to start to learn?
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> | Or you can scoff, maybe chuckle. Get off the little man's Internet? Yea, no way in Hell you’re doing that. | | |
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. |
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MicahMekbibFirstEssay 3 - 27 Apr 2025 - Main.EbenMoglen
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< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | Convenience | | | Our Shared Law School Experience
In the Internet age, life as we know it is–well, should be–a persistent fight against allowing algorithms to influence our everyday lives. The dynamics of law school mirror those discussed above about our online experience. So how do we resist? How do we distill the humming of everything around us to focus on curating our own law school experience? | |
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The strength of the draft is its clarity about the technology you use; its weakness is the clarity about the technology, which makes it seem as though that's just they way it all works, which it most definitely isn't. Your software is connected to platforms that use other software to customize what you see. But mine isn't. My browser isn't leaking information to the webservers I talk to, and those webservers belong to publishers that show me the table of contents and don't recommend what I read (or if they do, their reommendations are turned completely off.) I never see ads, ever, anywhere. I don't use any platform services, and most of the services you use platforms for (email, messaging, videoconferencing, document-sharing, etc.) I provide to myself and others using servers of my own. I control all the software I use: it is free as in freedom as well as free as in beer, which means I can change it, share it, give it to other people, as well as study and understand it as fully as I care to do, which is plenty.
And all those other freedoms you describe, to learn, to read, to publish and to share at levels never before available to all but the most privileged of humanity, are still there, in full flower. So begin to imagine what that would mean, not just for me, or for you, but for anyone. Because the software is free. cost is not the limit. Knowledge is. When do you want to start to learn?
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You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.
To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines: |
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MicahMekbibFirstEssay 2 - 21 Feb 2025 - Main.MicahMekbib
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstEssay" |
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | In a world where the Internet breeds disinformation, critical thinking and discernment are of the utmost importance. This sort of cognitive isolation can create groupthink that prevents critical thinking. How do you know you’re making the right decision if you only see one? | |
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< | Engineering Identities | >
> | Our Shared Law School Experience | | | In the Internet age, life as we know it is–well, should be–a persistent fight against allowing algorithms to influence our everyday lives. The dynamics of law school mirror those discussed above about our online experience. So how do we resist? How do we distill the humming of everything around us to focus on curating our own law school experience?
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MicahMekbibFirstEssay 1 - 20 Feb 2025 - Main.MicahMekbib
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
Convenience
-- By MicahMekbib - 20 Feb 2025
Convenience
Sometimes, I find it comforting to go online and read opinions on Twitter because it “inspires” my perspective. If I was honest with myself, I would say I like it because then I don’t have to think of my own opinions and convictions. I can be made up of the hundreds of tweets I read weekly. Though disingenuous, life is a bit more convenient this way.
Our Shared Internet Experience
The rise of the Internet created an unparalleled avenue for self-determination–never before could one so easily control what, from whom, and when they consumed information. Private technology companies–Big Tech–were angelic, creative producers of avenues for mass global communication that made information circulation instantaneous and highly accessible. This isn’t just wishful thinking–Google’s mission in 1998 was simply to organize the world’s information in an accessible way. And then they realized they could manipulate the range of content and digital landscape that each Internet user experiences.
In today’s age, all social media platforms rely on algorithms that feed users whatever they are designed to. Big Tech utilizes surveillance to extract behavioral data and support such algorithms. When private companies have control over what and how information is disseminated, the practice of shaping information environments exacerbates our constant epistemic battle by endangering the procurement of knowledge and promoting disinformation. How much of your Internet exploration is powered by your free will, and how much of it is that of those above you? Surveillance gnaws at our free will by exploiting one of the desires we are most susceptible to compromising our moral values for: convenience. Surveillance nourishes our desire for convenience by (1) commodifying online users’ experiences, and (2) manipulating users’ information context to erode their right to self-determination.
Scroll, Buy, Don't Think, Repeat
At its best, Internet surveillance simply affects our consumerism (of course, “at best” is a euphemism–these implications are still worrisome). You get bombarded with the same advertisements enough and you begin to fall for them. TikTok? Shop? Really? Heatless curls, ooouu the newest Stanley cup to add to my collection!, haul after haul after haul, 46,000 people killed in Palestine but wait I just found the BEST DUPE EVER!!1111! on Amazon (link to my storefront!), these are the best makeup products to achieve the Sofia Richie clean girl aesthetic, scroll some more, scroll some more, don’t be shy just scroll some more -
Are you feeling doomed yet? Your average screen time this week was 13 hours. If it’s any relief–it’s not completely your fault.
Decades in, Big Tech companies have transformed into pioneers of surveillance capitalism, a burgeoning economic market that is founded upon the extraction of behavioral data in the digital world. Their algorithms have perfected systems to store user data, apply it to predict users' future behaviors, and inform their marketing. This sort of capitalism relies on the private expropriation of the human production of online activity. It becomes profitable when Big Tech sells raw data collected from Internet activity on their platforms to other companies, who subsequently use such data to make profitable marketing decisions. An algorithm will latch onto any post you linger on for a few extra seconds and cater to it. It will fixate on the desires you may not even realize you are displaying and gnaw gnaw gnaw at you until you acquiesce.
If that sounds scary to you, that's probably a good sign. It's quite easy to submit your will to the ease of the Internet providing you with exactly the products you were just thinking of the other day.
Engineering Identities
At its worst, surveillance is an attack on our unique identities and self-determination. In the same way that Big Tech commodifies behavioral data for capitalist purposes, Big Tech uses behavioral data to manipulate information context online, strangling users’ self-determination and individual autonomy. Social media platforms will prioritize posts based on users’ engagement with them, amplifying content that they find already popular and influential. This primarily has two effects.
The first is driving people further away from each other. If a company wants to increase polarization, it will push extreme political viewpoints that will divide people. Polarization online has increased in recent years, creating divisions between people that differ in genders, social class, racial group, and education level. This radical division clouds our prioritizations. Disinformation is engineered to divide us so we cannot unite to fight true enemies of fascism, dictatorship, and our exploitation that is used to preserve the top 1%.
The second effect is the creation of echo chambers where users primarily see content aligning with already existing views. As users continue to interact the most with posts that align with their existing interests, they become highly susceptible to further radicalization towards their own thoughts. Our thoughts, positive or negative, are reinforced with more content that Big Tech knows we want to hear. While this may seem innocent–here we are shaping our own Internet experiences!--this information environment has the dangerous effect of disabling healthy discourse that promotes character development and social progression.
In a world where the Internet breeds disinformation, critical thinking and discernment are of the utmost importance. This sort of cognitive isolation can create groupthink that prevents critical thinking. How do you know you’re making the right decision if you only see one?
Engineering Identities
In the Internet age, life as we know it is–well, should be–a persistent fight against allowing algorithms to influence our everyday lives. The dynamics of law school mirror those discussed above about our online experience. So how do we resist? How do we distill the humming of everything around us to focus on curating our own law school experience?
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.
To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:
Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules for preference declarations. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of these lines. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated ALLOWTOPICVIEW list. |
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