Imagining the internet world without free music, movies, books, and writing would not make sense to most of us. In fact, I believe that many people would have little reason to be on the internet at all. The PIPA and SOPA acts have triggered a lot of conflict and protest amongst people, and major corporations such as Mozilla and Google. After reading a couple of articles about the two acts, I grew a better understanding of what the internet and life in general would be like if these acts were passed. For example, much of Youtube’s content, like people singing and posting their favorite songs, would violate the act and therefore would have to be removed. The internet would not be as interesting as it is now. Google and all other search engines would be forced to remove sites that would lead us to watching movies, downloading music, and reading books. Youtube probably would not exist and everyone would be worried about what they are posting on Facebook and all other social networks. There were many protestors against the act. In one case, Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, wrote on Twitter, “Thanks for all the calls, e-mails, and tweets. I will be opposing #SOPA and #PIPA.” Merkley was actually one the senators who helped write the bill (NYTimes). Overall, if these bills were passed our lives would be incredibly altered. Thankfully, there are many people, including myself, that are against these acts and are pushing to stop them from being passed.
I was very interested in the “Century of Self” documentary we saw in class. It is incredible how one man, Edward Bernays, can influence an entire world that something is important or accepted. I took a lot of important information from this video. The big example that struck me was the women’s smoking example, where Bernays paid a group of good looking girls to pull out a cigarette and start smoking during a huge parade. The way Bernays organizes this one, simple idea and creates a world change is the coolest thing I have ever seen. Another interesting idea is how people desire stuff; that everything we want are things we really do not need and how we were manipulated into thinking that we need all these things. It made me wonder, “Can I do something like this? Can I organize an idea and instill it in people’s brains so that it remains permanently?” And of course, I have seen this technique in much of our culture today; especially fashion trends. If the celebrities are wearing it, then the people are wearing it. It’s a matter of wanting to fit in and so everyone decides to accept the idea even if they, personally, did not agree with it in the first place. I feel a little more aware of this way of manipulating and now I realize that I am a victim of it.
