Sunday, November 23, 2008
Entering a conversation
Earlier on the semester, we were exposed to Graff and Birkenstein’s idea about ‘They say/Isay’. They promote people to enter a 'conversation' through writings. A new way of 'They say/I say' is now happening in the Internet, see youtube for an example. People broadcast their opinion in the form of video, and other people see these videos and they’ll response either through written comments or video response. I am surprised to see that a single video can generate thousands of response. And they are not just crappy or 'unintellectual' responses, but a lot of people are actually thinking about the issue and put their effort to express their own thoughts about the matter being discussed. With the Internet, it is possible to add our own opinion, argue and interact not only with the person (who first came up with the idea), but also with anyone who would love to engage in this new this new type of conversation. Everyone benefit from this process. People who publish the idea learn to receive criticisms from people who saw the content. The readers can get insights from different perspective instead of limiting it to just one source. This eventually leads to a better understanding and being well-informed. And this can be achieved by being exposed to a wide variety of viewpoints. I think it is good when people do not see the differences among them as a threat. Instead of being frightened or paranoid, they try to learn about what makes people different and treat others with respect.
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2 comments:
The internet certainly has led to a greater volume of viewpoints being presented to a greater volume of people. Places like youtube allow literally anyone in the world to say what they want to say, and anyone can reply. While many of the comments one reads might not be the most intelligent things one has seen, there are cases where people do respond in a legible manner. While personally I have not seen many youtube comments that I find worthy of praise, I cannot say that there are absolutely no comments out there that are intellectually stimulating. We talked in class about a video concerning the religion of Islam that received many intellectual comments, and actually started up a genuine conversation full of nuance and philosophical arguments. The internet allows this kind of debate to take place with anyone, as opposed to limiting this kind of debate to intellectuals only. When people participate in an argument, they are both learning about what other people think and learning about what they themselves think. Sometimes, one can fully realize one's opinion on a subject when one puts it into writing. Thus, the internet allows people to grow intellectually.
Internet indeed makes the expression of ideas or opinions way easier than before. There are many places in the internet that you can express what you want to say in any form, either in writings, videos, music and so forth. Just like in Youtube.com, anyone could response to the videos uploaded by the users and add our own thoughts even though in a good way or bad way. As in the United States, there is a freedom of free speech as stated in the First Amendment. Therefore, every citizens of the U.S has the rights to say what crossed out in their mind. However, it is really different in my country where we could say anything we want, but we have some restriction that we could not talk about the issues such as the position of Malays, the Kings, the religion, and etc. There was a case that a Malaysian student who studying in Taiwan insulting our national anthem and posted it in Youtube.com. Therefore, he has been sued by our government as he violated what was written in our Constitution. Nevertheless, I agree that internet exposes us to a diversity of viewpoints and a better understanding of some issues.
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