Internet's four keystones

According to Bob Spaulding, aka Teacher Bob, there are four main ideas that structure Internet :

• Transparency :

Internet is all about it, it's its strength, and it's its weakness as well. Transparency mean that you can see, you can read everything that anybody does on the web ( whether it is on a forum, in a comment, in a post) and this " anybody" can see what you're doing too. This implies that Internet, unless you're very careful and you know how to handle privacy parameters, can be very tricky for anyone ! It can be a great opportunity to advertise oneself publically, showing good sides of one's personnality, with facebook status or cheerful tweets, or facebook photo which advantages you, thos overexposure can be intentional...Luckily, privacy policies tend to be more and more sophisticated so that anyone can feel free on the web and not under surveillance.

Moreover, real life is no longer synonymous of being "offline": anything you do or say, it might be stupid, it might be cruel, can be posted by someone else on myspace, on facebook page of on his own. Even politicians have been trapped : shocking terms have been broadcasted by Youtube and Dailymotion. If someone leaves a racist comment, or promotes any form of hatred or illegal activities on a website, it is to be found quite easily.
Internet maintains a certain myth of anonymity, confidentiality, but this is only a legend : any police department can track an internaut misusing this media thanks to his IP adress for instance. This transparency forbids impunity.

• Breaking habits :

Internet is all about it: it's the most recent media, and it has completely change our everyday lives : people have even become "cyberaddicts" incapable of non spending a day on facebook, hotmail or on a online newspaper editions. Part of the 20-25 have chosen to only posess a computer ( and not a TV) in their new homes. It's a media thats defines itself as "multimedia" : viedo, text, images are present on the web, so it tends to reunite every media addictions ! As as teenage girl I use to spend hours in front of my TV screen, now I hardly spend a day without watching a program thanks to catch-up TV, or enjoying a TV series in streaming on sidereel for example.

Social networks have also, in many ways, revolutionized the way we communicate : 5 years ago we had to phone someone on his home phone, then it was on his mobile, now it's on facebook or twitter ! This way, we have the illusion that this communication if for free, as it is included on the illimited options of an Internet subscription. And people react, as we are more connected than ever, the reliability of a facebook wall is almost the same as a mobile answering machine.

• Precious opportunity :

For many artists, writers, illustrators Internet is the media that was the keystone of their sucess...Many sucess stories are hancing the fact that Internet can represent a great way to expose your work, your opinion, to get to know more people and therefore, to build a network that can be useful in your professional and in your personal life.
For instance, one of the great sucess of the french web in 2007 was the one of Penelope Bagieu, a young illustrator from Paris that exposed her drawings in a blog with the structure of a diary. From the status of a unkown young women, she became a real star and a model for many bloggers seeking recognition and fame.

With its accessibility, its visibility, Internet is the place to be if you want to be a active member of a community. It can be the artistic community, the political community... Internet enlightens the fact that many people are ready to offer something in this world, and have a profund desire to interact. And what media can demonstrate such a possibility to interact more than Internet?

• Impermanence :

Every media seems to be supplanted by another. Sometimes, it almost feels like every media has a peremption date, as radio seems nowadays rather old fashioned to me, and newspaper a bit obsolete when information can be found in the minute on the web. But what is truely interesting is that each media doesn't totally disapear within a day, erased by another : they are progressivily becoming complementary !Every newpaper has its online edition, Television shows are dedicated to cinema, you can watch TV programs on catch-up TV on the web like M6replay.

As the medias melt together, information and communication are going faster than ever, new contents are popping out every single minute, everything seems new, fresh, updated, and anyone can react at the very sametime just as the content is being published. It is impossible for anyone to have a global, momentaneous vision of the web : its goes much too fast, and is much too global. Internet is the only media that can gather so much information, so many medias, in the same time.