The past decade have seen such a growth in political free-speech. Actually, the more I think about it, the Internet has brought on a new information-seeking society. People today don’t take news for more than what it’s worth today.
From what I’ve seen in society, especially my peer group, the Internet has cultured many people on a plethora of things. This is, in part, thanks to sites like Wikipedia, which hold a wealth of information. It’s not as simple as finding the sites and the information, though.
With the advent of the Internet came societies that dwelled in all corners of the net. These societies bred specific sets of people, who specialized in specific sets of information. As the Internet grew over time, so did these information sources. They nurtured forums and became a wealth of information regarding specific topics.
As the Internet became more advanced, spouting many new complex languages to support new ideas and a growing database, these cultures started to make themselves known. Many of these cultures centered around conspiracies and political ideologies. While some cultures pushed to make their “agenda” (for lack of a better word) known, others tried to stay hidden.
A mass upheaval of these “societies” has occurred recently. The group “Anonymous” is one of those groups that was forced into the light. Without going into specifics, since there is a lot of stigma associated with the discussion of such things, Anonymous itself existed outside of political prowess at some point in time, but with the past few years harboring uprisings all over the world, Anonymous has reached a unified “voice” of sorts, representing a decade’s worth of morphed ideologies and agendas.
The funny thing is, before, 2008 or so, Anonymous was known as a “prankster” of sorts. Their call-to-arms wasn’t for change, but for “trolling” incessantly, be it harmless of harmful.
What does this all mean in the grand scheme of things? These cultures have harbored a sense of hunger. A sense of clarity. A sense of wonder. Societies absorb this readily available information and begin asking questions. Why are things the way they are? Why can’t we change them? We haven’t seen the last of these uprisings, and if you think information has reached every corner of the globe, just wait another few years.