I thought that the readings gave a great look into the way people thought about and used the internet back at the time they were written, but they also gave pieces of insight that evolved into things that are still very relevant to the way we use the internet today. In Chapter 1 of the reading, the part that I thought was still most relevant was the “internet intoxication”, which is basically a person’s obsession with another person, usually a celebrity. Due to this, they almost try to imitate them in such a way that they become almost mentally attached to the person they are obsessed with. It is stated in the article that “it is not at all unusual on the Web for someone to ‘try on’ a personality and to switch personalities”, which still has a huge impact today, as they find new platforms on the web to share interests, learn about new things, and debate with fellow users. Additionally, since it is so easy to share news and other things with followers, many fans of celebrities gain almost a sense of attachment with the creator, as if they personally know them.
Also, in the preface, it was stated that the internet is just lots of individual pieces that are all connected in some way, which grows more and more true every day. My artifact that I want to use is not just one site or app, but social media as a whole. Social media represents almost perfectly the individual pieces that are all connected as well as the ability to theoretically interact with anybody at any time. For example, a journalist can publish an article to their website, then, a Twitter user can post it to their own account for discussion. Next, someone can post that link from the Twitter post to another platform like Reddit or Facebook to spark a completely new discussion on the topic, which the original author of the article can then read to find criticism and new information to use in their next article.
Additionally with social media and “internet intoxication”, there are lots of negatives to come out of the combination of the two. For example, many people take so many of the same kind of picture and spend so much time just to find one or two of the pictures that they deem worthy of being posted on their Instagram page, so that they can have the perfect online image for the people who are viewing their page. It has become such a big part of the lives of so many users that they have some sort of image they have to uphold instead of just sharing whatever they want, which can have a pretty negative impact on the user’s mind.
