Being editor-in-chief of my high school’s literary magazine allowed me to get away at home with writing a lot more than was actually published in it. At that time, other than fiction, I wrote mostly about science and technology, and especially about their effects on culture. I hadn’t really analysed why at the time, but in retrospect what must have been my subconscious motivations have become a little bit more clear to me.
I am a member of the first generation in which the masses have easy access to the tools for creating mass media. When you think about it, it’s incredible how much has changed even in just one decade. At that time, if you wanted to disseminate your message on a shoestring budget, you’d type or print your pamphlet, bring it to the printshop or photocopier, make however many copies, and physically distribute them. (And if your audience was really illiterate, you’d speak into a cassette recorder and give out copies of the tape.) People with kooky or dangerous ideas were thus limited in the reach of their message or the amount of damage they could do.
But with the advent of the mass popularisation of the Internet, the dynamics have suddenly changed. Now anyone can easily broadcast any message whatsoever and have the potential to reach the entire world… » [Expand post] [Permalink]