liz_marcs | When the Revolution Comes, It Will Be Blogged...

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When the Revolution Comes, It Will Be Blogged...

An old college friend of mine once made a joke about the World Wide Web:

"When they told us they were going to network the world with an information superhighway, they left out the part that there was going to be the world's most junky flea market on one end, and the world's most terrifying porn shop at the other."

I've lost touch with the old college friend, but I still remember that stupid joke. Hell, it makes me laugh even now, mostly because it's true.

Yet, as true as it is, it's false in the details.

In a lot of ways, the World Wide Web is a lot like education: it's all in what you make of it.

If all you want is the world's biggest flea market and the world's most esoteric porn shop, then that's exactly what you're gonna get.

But if you look at the World Wide Web as a window onto other parts of the world, then you're gonna get yourself one hell of an education.

Here's the thing: Whenever I scan my FList here on LJ or on IJ, whenever I snoop out blogs written by eyewitnesses to whatever is happening in their corner of the globe, whenever I read or watch or listen to the record someone is keeping of his or her everyday life, I'm constantly reminded of three things:

The more I learn about other people who do not live in my backyard, the more keenly I'm aware of the things I don't know
There are people out there who don't think they are extraordinary who leave me humbled every day by their wit and insight
That people are people...no matter where they live, what primary language they speak, god they worship (assuming they worship any), or government they live under

All fairly trite clichés, I grant you. But like my college friend's joke, it's also very true.

The truth of this once more hits home, mostly because I've been sniffing out Burmese/Myanmar blogs to get a handle on what the people on the ground are saying about the Saffron Revolution as the Monks face down one of the most oppressive military regimes on earth.

Most of the time, I'm reduced to looking at pictures, primarily because Firefox won't render the Burmese written word into anything more than a series of repeated question marks. But even if it could be rendered, I'd be no more enlightened than before simply because I'm hopelessly ignorant about the language.

Yet, for ex-pats and people outside the country, those images, those words (I assume they have the proper software to render the written word properly) may be the only lifeline they've got into the country. And the people who are writing, taking pictures, uploading videos to YouTube...they may be risking their lives to set the information loose on the Web, where from there it can leap from blog to blog, journal to journal, email to email so people outside can at long last see what they see.

And once more I am humbled, and strangely elated. I see, I learn, and I lose my ignorance just a tiny bit as I once more recognize the basic humanity that is there.

This World Wide Web is a tool. Tools can be misused, mislaid, and even abused. But in the right hands, when used with the right mindset, eyes can be opened and minds can be made to think.

Yet, for all the grand and great things that can be conveyed, I find myself greedily scanning those posts about everyday life. When I'm freezing in Boston during the winter, it still gives me a giggle to read that someone in Sydney is planning to enjoy a nice summer day by going to the beach. Hell, I know the seasons in Australia are opposite to the seasons in the U.S., but nothing quite brings it home more than reading about someone chatting about the beach crowds while I turn up the thermostat.

I find myself endlessly fascinated by Europeans talking about taking their holidays, or going to university, or complaining about political issues in their backyard.

Or reading about people in the Philippines going to work and battling traffic and dealing with the family or excitedly talking about the big headlines capturing local attention.

And, hell, when some Candian friends on my FList went to Cuba for vacation, I studied every single picture as if I could somehow walk through the screen and go see Cuba for myself.

The fact is, these little bits of life, these inconsequential moments when viewed together reveal the multi-layered, mutli-colored, multi-varied wonder that is humanity. It's an electronic quilt laid out across the earth that is both wonderful and terrifying to behold once its hidden beauty is recognized for what it is.

As for feeling ignorant...well, I suppose that's okay. Ignorance goes both ways. The real question is, "Well, what are you gonna do about it?"

I choose to learn. And maybe, before I die, I'll be marginally less ignorant than I was when I was 8 standing on Cape Cod shore and understood in a blinding flash of light that there were people just like me on the other side of the Atlantic. And the feeling of elation that realization gave.

But here's the great secret about the World Wide Web: By sheer dint of the number of people wandering around, you learn very quickly that you are not the center of the universe. You are, however, a member of one great, big, bloody chorus.

And every once in a while when someone out there is trying to figure out how you live day-to-day, how you are dealing with your big questions, and how you see the Big Thing that's going on in your backyard, you get to have a solo.

It's not a bad deal for all that, even if there's a flea market at one end and a porn shop at the other.

I'll take it.

So, c'mon. Spread the World Wide Web love. Bring yourself. Bring your friends. Bring complete strangers. Tell me in comments what you have learned about the world because you were able to "meet" someone you otherwise would never know existed.

This moment of fuzzy-headed liberal thinking is brought to you by the coming of fall and the realization that I am a hopeless optimist at heart.

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Oddly enough, most real superhighways have a porn shop and a flea market somewhere along them, with the rest of the landscape changing as you go along. But then I have a habit of getting caught up in metaphor - I think it's an occupational hazard.

And I, too love reading the thoughts of people in different places and finding out how their places are different from and similar to Peoria. Though I have to admit to avoiding revolutions and, generally, most badness lately. I have issues enough without getting overcome with empathetic outrage - I'm grateful, though, for the people (like you) out there that speak out in a responsible way.

The thing about the web that I find most compelling is being able to, in just a few steps, find things I didn't know--and to learn all about them. I like being able to see our news reported from other countries (and to see what is being censored here...) I love the pictures, the art that's available to see. I love making friends that I might never meet--and still feel like they're family. I love finding classics, music, poetry, anytime I'm in the mood. (burble, burble, burble...)

I'm going to have to gather my thoughts on your question, but I want you to know, that I am often educated, enlightened, and humbled by you on a regular basis. You have a way of putting things just so, and making them so interesting. I grinned happily as I read this. So thanks for being you. There's a little love for ya. :)

Oh Liz. Dear Lady. Yours was the first blog I ever followed, not long after I learned about the existence of fan fiction. I learned so much about writing, and why, or how, we humans are like we are. And you still manage to educate me on an appallingly regular basis. Appalling because I really should know about, or care to find out, about all these things for myself. You keep me from developing the tunnel vision of the single mom.

I'm developing that literally at the moment, I'm so tired. Been working on the continuation of that story you liked. I'll comment more later. But I wanted you to know now, that I am so blessed to have friends like you out here, challenging me, and enlightening me, and giving me some company as I hitchhike to the flea market, or, er-- the other place.

Hob

And every once in a while when someone out there is trying to figure out how you live day-to-day, how you are dealing with your big questions, and how you see the Big Thing that's going on in your backyard, you get to have a solo.

Aw, I really like this whole thing. I'm saving it for later.

Talk about a revelavent topic!
I am a bit stunned at the moment. Here's why (eventually).I promise there is a point to this story, but I am a rambler by nature.

Recently my brother moved home. Two weeks before that my teenaged daughter and I had done the same. (my parents are actually surprisingly happy about this lol)
My brother and I were losing our minds b/c only dial up was available at our parent's house.
On top of that the old computer room became my daughter's bedroom.

After Mom's desktop was moved to the diningroom we set up a rather elaborately primitive system. Involving a *very* long phone cord that went straight through the kitchen to plug into the nearest phone jack. There was also a pushpin and our carkey's rack's involvement.

The actual point of the story lol:

My father is in his 60's (not saying that's an excuse), his 88 y.o. aunt has finally given up on emailing him since he never goes online.

He doesn't have any interest in the internet and in fact is quite suspicious of it.
Dateline: To Catch a Predator isn't helping. He is certain that his teenage granddaughter is being exposed to things too horrible to imagine.

When there was only Mom on her computer, in the former office he never thought about the world wide web.

He was content until all the commotion, tripping over wires and the search for decent internet service in a rural area led "we who care" (me especially) to almost lose our minds after a 2 month search. God is merciful, DSL just became available 2 weeks ago. I will be in church this Sunday. I'm serious.

Today, Dad asked me what was so great about the internet? Wasn't it a horrible dangerous place? How did *I* know who I was talking to? Maybe an undercover cop? I explained that if I needed to be monitored by the police then yes there was a serious problem. With *me*.

I summed it up as best I could. The internet is like many things in our lives. It is both dangerous and amazingly wonderful.

We must guard ourselves and most importantly my daughter from the dangerous parts. Just as unfortunately she cannot walk to the bus stop alone or *just* be dropped off at the mall or take candy from strangers.

She has been taught to avoid undesirable websites, not to put information about herself "out there", chat with people she doesn't personally know.Plus, I have to know them, too. Or computer rights go bye-bye.

Dad understood that and I think it helped him fear this THING less.
I told him I'd show him sites on topics he's interested in that would be so cool it'd make him love the net. The WWW is an awesome place, a wonderful tool for learning and I love it dearly.
Libe

P.S. thanks for your post it really spoke to me and I'm going to give my dad a copy (I'll even leave in the porno shop parts lol)

A+ entry!

Down here, where I live now, the word used to echo a profound idea... is AMEN! and it works very well here for me now after reading your post... :)

I oft times find myself needing to defend my ~online life~ to well, just all sorts of people, friends, family, acquaintances... I describe a community that's just a degree separated from the real world... but often times more real because of the connections that take me to worlds of news, education, music, art & awareness but most importantly a new kind of friendship... with people, on the opposite side of the globe, that I may never meet... but often have met... and found them to be just as engaging in real life as they were in our virtual community...

What I hope for is a more independent interweb that will be able to escape the control of businesses/governments that would control/lock it down... I don't know what that technology will look like, I just hope that I have enough marbles to be able to take advantage of it when it does get here because I do believe it will... this medium is the closest to true freedom so far as I can see it!

A songwriter comes to mind in writing all this... Paul Brady... are you familiar with him?... http://www.paulbrady.com/ the site has a radio option so you can listen... I owe you so much music for all you've shared so I hope you like him...

My first experiences with just what the web could be in terms of a window into someone else's life came just prior to the Iraq War. That was when I discovered blogs. I don't remember how I discovered them, I just remember stumbling onto Winds of Change, and from there discovering Salam Pax, LT Smash, The Instapundit, Chief Wiggles, The Mudville Gazette, Sgt. Hook, and Michele. Chief Wiggles and Michele aren't blogging anymore (or if they are I've lost track of their new internet homes), LT Smash is now known as Citizen Smash, and Salam Pax hasn't updated in several years. In January 2003, my husband had just deployed for what would eventually become a 9 month deployment known as GuessPac for its ever changing return date and it would still be more than 2 years before I discovered Live Journal. As a terrified military wife knowing that we were on the brink of a war that my husband would be in the middle of I read news reports obsessively. Unfortunately, the news reports weren't providing the information that I wanted to read about. Stumbling onto these blogs, provided all of the information I wasn't able to get from the more typical news agencies. I was able to hear from Salam Pax, what it was like to be an Iraqi citizen in the days leading up to war. From LT Smash, Sgt. Hook, The Mudville Gazette and Chief Wiggles, I learned what it was like on the ground in the early days of war. And Michele's blog provided not only biting political commentary, but slices of her own every day life that were sometimes poignant, often humorous, and always real. I realize that I came late to the party, but up until then I had never heard of blogs. I used the internet to play games, check email, and read news reports. So not only did my discovery of blogs open up a window into the lives and experiences of people I would never otherwise have "known", it also opened up the very internet to me. I began to constantly follow links from blog to blog to blog. I discovered that Google could be a source of education as great as any university's if you looked hard enough and wanted it badly enough. And when my son was diagnosed with Autism in 2005, I put those discoveries to good use by seeking out more people whose lives I could take a peek at in an effort to discover how to best help my little guy.

And while yes, I will absolutely agree with the fleamarket/porn analogy (and have certainly experienced and enjoyed both ends during my time on the net), in many ways the initial contacts that I made through my discovery of using the web as a window into the lives of others has proven to be the single most important factor in improving the quality of life of my family and my son.

Sorry for the extremely long ramble here. Your posts often find me incapable of making short and sweet comments, and this one was no different.

~Lisa

Back in my pre-lj days I mostly used the net for reading webcomics and random forums. One day the two collided in the form of Boy Meets Boy's forum, which was at least six times more useful than my PD classes at school at the time. I met my first FTM there, got to hear a lot about his issues and situation. I met my first and thus far only MPD person on livejournal. Just the idea of how many different kinds of real people there are out there is amazing, especially for a fairly sheltered and bookish kid like me. It's so much harder to feel alone when there's this melting pot just outside your vision.

This is a really great post - very interesting. Thank you :-)

You have a tendency to reduce me to wordless awe with posts like these. I wish I could be more articulate in my admiration but words are failing me.

You are completely correct, this is what the internet really is all about - connecting with people, learning from people, railing against injustices with people, celebrating with people. I always considered myself fairly knowledgable about world events, but after becoming more entrenched in blogging sites I have had my eyes opened in ways I didn't even know could be possible.

Not to sound like a suck up, but you personally are a big part of that.

Thank you, just for being you.

(I hope you don't mind but I've linked to this post from my own journal.)

I met my wife over the Internet (in a chat room at Compuserve of all places) and we're now 9 years married with two great kids and a third cooking on simmer to appear in April. If I hadn't met her, my life would be very different from what it is right now, although I would still have left Scotland. Instead of coming to America, running my own business, then going through some major life changes and heading towards teaching/instruction of science, I'd have ended up in Japan teaching English and probably ending up settled down over there.

Life has a habit of being interesting, if you just take the time to sit back and look at it. Most people forget that, and the Internet is a great way to see what's going on in life all over the planet -- the good and the bad, because without both, there's impotence in either state and little to strive for. For me, I got opened up to a whole world of experience beyond the UK by moving over here and taking part in a world wide movement and growth. It's been an interesting ride so far. I'm sure it'll stay interesting in the future.

This is such a very well written post that you have written here. (:

Sometimes I look at the World Wide Web like it's a two-edged sword. As far as the news goes sometimes I just get so overwhelmed, angry, sad, and depressed by it that I just have to back away for a little while. The things human beings do to each other just really breaks my heart at times, and also because I feel very powerless to do anything about it besides being very angry or sad. Sometimes it just really frustrates me. I do find yours and others posts on political views very interesting and informative. And I do learn quite a few things that I had no idea of before.

I love to surf the web to look at art, crafts, fanfiction, Nicholas Brendon, and other things that interest me. It never ceases to amaze my how creative and talented people are. I know society makes a big deal about celebrities and what not but I am a real fan of the things that everyday people on LJ all over the world, especially on my flist, create in their spare time. fanfiction, art, redoing a room in their house... I just love to be around creative people. I enjoy reading your stories, Nemo Gravis, Nwephcats, and countless other fanfiction writers out there. I enjoy seeing what new projects Nick Brendon is working on. I love to go look at handcrafted jewelry sites to see whats being made. I like to learn more about drawing, painting, sewing and running homebased business. Hell, I even like to go to recipe sites to get good cookie recipes. I like so many varied and unrelated things. So yes, I definately enjoy the education value of the World Wide Web.

I enjoy reading what people on my flist write about in their everyday lives. You know, things like work, school, the weather, a guy or girl that they like and what their part of the world is like. I don't always get to comment like I'd like to. Because sometimes I'm so busy here that I feel fortunate if I get to even look at my LJ but I do enjoy hearing about those things. I loved those fall pictures that you posted a while back. It got me thinking of Fall in Michigan cause right now and probably more so in October the leaves there will be looking brilliant. I even miss the nip in the air that I used to feel up there this time of year. I also really enjoyed those sites you posted of old cemetaries, cars, houses, and old plants and warehouses.

Your post here reminded me that I should probably post to my LJ more because I don't really talk about things around here that go on in my neck of the woods. I generally don't do it because I don't see those things as interesting. Actually, I don't see my life as all that interesting. I'm just your typical but happy housewife and I don't want to bore my flist or anything. The town I live in sort of makes me think that it's like Mayberry meets Desperate Housewives or something. There is this country music song Miranda Lambert did called "Everybody Dies Famous in a Smalltown" and I think it sums up where I live perfectly. Still, after reading your post today it made me think that maybe I should take a little trip on over to the Shiloh Battlefield and take some pictures and post them on my LJ or something.

So, anyway I'm sorry this reply was so long but yeah, I really agree with your post I enjoy coming here and feeling a connection with people who are states away from me or countries away from me. I enjoy reading whats going on with them and I enjoy and am engaged by the creativity and knowledge of other people that I meet here on LJ or see on the World Wide Web.

LMZ

I agree with you about what a wonderful thing the www is. I love being able to look things up and know so quickly. I can communicate with others in my field of work so easily too.

I love both the flea-market and the porn shop on some occasions, but the best thing I think is that insight into other people's lives, and an ability to see news etc. from such different sides.

I learnt about the Great Firewall of China, for example, from a quick farewell post from

yangchencen who is caught on the far side of it.

I love the insight into everyday things - two of those tiny things which I am so fascinated to know are that most Americans still use old-fashioned kettles, and that the American concept of biscuits with gravy on is slightly less horrific than it sounds to a European!

I also love all the pictures of everyday life, be it on individual journals here, or on specialist sites.

That fascinated me with the kettles as well as one of my American friends this year was getting a new kettle and had never had an electric kettle.

Why on earth would you want an electric kettle? The stovetop ones work better.

(Ummmm, an electic kettle is like a hot pot, right? Because hot pots are totally a stable of ~~college~~ university life.)

In the UK it's very rare now for someone to have only a stove top kettle, it's just to do with ease I suppose, though I do think that it tastes better coming from a stove top.

Well no - a stove top one doesn't work anywhere near as efficiently as the sort of electric kettles the rest of the world, outside the USA, use. A fairly standard, cheap kettle like mine will boil somewhere just over 3 US pints in under two minutes, so using much less electricity that putting on a ring on the hob and sitting a kettle on it for ages. It will also boil a cupful from room temp to boiling in about 30 seconds. Tefal do one that will do a single cupful in 5 seconds! Honestly. And, of course, I can boil the kettle whilst the dinner is cooking on the hob, even if I am using all four 'rings'.

The other thing which struck me as incredibly old-fashioned and energy inefficient was your washing machines. And I was surprised to find, when I mentioned it in passing, that my fairly standard washer/dryer with self-draining condenser etc. is almost unheard of in the US too.

Before LJ I had always assumed that you would have more modern white goods than we did, and was amazed to find that you seem to be stuck in the 1960s in many areas when compared with Europe! It is fascinating things like that that I love about the internet.

Would you mind if I linked to this from my RL journal (

merrymaia)?

Public posts can always be linked. :-)

As a very WASP-y woman, who grew up in a *very* WASP-y town (I can *literally* count the number of non-white, non-Christian (nominally at least) people on one hand) I love that I interact with people of different races and religions on both a trivial and profound level. I learn new things about people every day, broaden my horizons every day, and I like to think it makes me a better person.

Beautiful post, fascinating comments. Thankyou!

The fact is, these little bits of life, these inconsequential moments when viewed together reveal the multi-layered, mutli-colored, multi-varied wonder that is humanity. It's an electronic quilt laid out across the earth that is both wonderful and terrifying to behold once its hidden beauty is recognized for what it is.
That is perhaps the most profoundly elegant explanation of what the Web provides for us. I don't think I could possibly improve on it.
I have been entertained, informed, challenged to make choices, taught new things about the world and the people in it, and had my eyes opened to the amazing possibilities of life, and met some truly wonderful people, all because of this little thing we call the internet. I can't imagine what the next few years will bring, but someone will blog about it!
I'm linking to this from my LJ.

That was a great post. Ta.

I'm here by way of

ngaio, and have added you to my friendslist; hope you don't mind. I come from a small Northern European country and yes, the Internet makes it much easier for me to learn about foreign life. And, I've grown up in a port town across the water from a foreign capital, so I understand but don't feel it in my bones how you must have felt standing at Cape Cod. That's one of the reasons why I'm so fascinated by my US f-listers; they're so alien. And they're still part of Western culture, so Asian and African and South American and Pacific and other cultures are even more fascinating. It's amazing when you think about it. Life.

I've learnt so very many things over the years I've been online that I couldn't possibly name -- or even remember -- them all. And I love it, even though I quite often feel outraged or disgusted or nonplussed by ideas or customs or eating habits.

One of my friends lives in Hong Kong, and often posts photos from around the city and her local vacations. I've been encouraging her to post more of the things that are pedestrian to her, but fascinating to me, and have been enjoying it as she does so!

The net, and my LJ friends have been so BROADENING and yet at the same time, err...am having trouble finding the right words - bringing it down to a micro level? Making the exotic seem more familiar, but in a good way, not in the "familiarity breeds contempt" way.

Hmm. I wonder, is there a community where international people post glimpses of their hometowns? I'd love that!

Lovely post and oh so true - having just scrolled and read numerous and quite dissimilar entries before it. Friends lists are nifty things, sometimes I think I stick around on lj because I enjoy reading my flist so much - they remind me that 1) I'm not alone, not as quirky and weird as I think, 2) that people see the world very differently, and 3) that however annoyed I get with the human race, there is good in people.

Regarding the World Wide Web? I told a friend recently it was "The Wild West" - or akin to the wild west. An untameable frontiere where just about anything goes. You find what you want to find on it. If you want porn? You'll find porn. If you want to buy stuff - you'll buy stuff. If you want to meet new people? You'll meet new people. If you want to get information? Well that too. It's not unlike anything that involves people - somewhat chaotic, a little disorganized, with a tendency to go to extremes at times. But also quite enlightening - sort of like what ham radios were like in the 1980s in flicks like Pump Up the Volumn - where you tell the world who you are and talk to people at the same time.

But much like the Wild West - there are people out there who yearn to tame it, control it. They see the extreems - the pornography, the spyware, the advertising, the spam...they don't see what lies in between.
Just like they look at space or the west - filled with unknown dangers as opposed to unknown wonders. Luckily, the internet is more like outer space than any place on earth - to date untameable and unlimited.

Great Post:)

I have always put down my penchant of reading the daily minutae of others' lives as pure nosiness, LOL.

I too am endlessly fascinated by the details of what others are doing and writing about. It is very much like a good gossip session with my favorite coffee klatch;>

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When the Revolution Comes, It Will Be Blogged...

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