Lo and Behold the Duck Face Selfie

Kaitlyn L
Kaitlyn L
Aug 31, 2018 · 7 min read

A look at the permanence of the digital age and how it has shaped my life.

The Internet, and technology in itself, has had a long and trying history; however, the perseverance of inventors behind this ever-changing beast has created a powerful network to connect people. While there are many interesting technologies that have been developed, none is more fluid and changing than the capabilities of the Internet. While I feel connected to the Internet just like any young adult who has grown up in the digital age, I was especially interested in learning about the Internet because Vint Cerf has been a household name for me my whole life. I think the best way to explain my interest in the Internet is to explain my past.

In the 1990s, just a few years before I was born, my dad was working with a technology company that made high performance communications equipment. His company had taken this new and upcoming “Internet technology” and used it to connect lots of different locations so people could exchange emails. These email exchanges were revolutionary.

Fast forward a few years later, and he created his own company called Acorn Packet Solutions. According to my dad, the Internet was becoming hyper exponentially large and companies in the government wanted to have a network that would be their own little Internet connected to the public Internet; however, the major problem was that most technology equipment was never designed to speak “Internet” language.

It turned out there was an opportunity to build a product in technology that would take this older equipment and allow it to connect and travel across the Internet. In the late 1980s he was looking at a computer going “wow that’s really neat”. Fast forward to 1998 and he was a part of a team that was shipping a billion dollars of equipment all over the world.

So what does this have to do with Vint Cerf? Well, my dad got to meet him many times through his work in connecting people to the Internet. He was a household name for my dad, and I was fortunate to learn a lot about the Internet when I was young. The work my dad did made me appreciate the steps it took to create the modern Internet we have today.

Fast-forward to today and the Internet has become the most important tool for me to connect to friends and family. While my dad remembers the first time watching television or using a cell phone, I remember my first time on Facebook and my first Instagram account. (Both of which would not be possible without the Internet.) Instagram seemed like a great tool for sharing pictures; however, looking back I cringe at what a posted… many pictures have since been deleted off both of my accounts.

Instagram and Facebook bring up a really interesting conversation about the permanence of the web. In many ways, living in the digital age is defined by each user’s long and traceable history. I can see embarrassing pictures of my friends and I from ten years ago… but that means anyone else can too. Even after burying years worth of awkward online pictures, I can still dredge them up in a matter of minutes.

Fortunately I have come far from the days of duck faces and peace sign selfies. Growing up and maturing in the digital world has taught me to be more thoughtful of what I post online. Whenever I post a photo or a status, a warning is going off in my mind, “would I want an employer to see this?”, “will I be embarrassed by this picture a year from now?”. I constantly remind myself “the Internet is forever”. I’ve learn from my posting mistakes and I try to keep those lessons in mind in the future.

I find my view of the digital age to be quite different that what the 1970’s predicted. While I agree with Orson Welles that we are still in the age of future shock and anxiety, he argues that technology has created a “world of impermanence”. In some ways, the Internet allows us to constantly upgrade and change our technology, but it can be argued that the actual content being posted online is actually very permanent.

The digital age of the Internet has given rise to the age of smartphones. In Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?, Jean Twenge discusses the influence that technology- specifically smartphones- has had on today’s teenagers. My iphone has significantly altered my place in the digital age. My smartphone started to have a huge influence on my high school experience. I was constantly connected to friends at the touch of a button in my pocket. I never again had to call a friend to hangout, I could simply text them. I no longer needed a computer to look up information because Google was in my pocket.

“The allure of independence, so powerful to previous generations, holds less sway over today’s teens.”

The article questions whether smartphones have created a decrease in individualism. I firmly believe its true. I am an only child and when I was young, my mom was constantly setting up play dates so I wouldn’t always be alone; however, I learned how to be independent and use my imagination when friends weren’t around. As technology has improved, I have noticed a severe shift in my independence. While I’m still happy to hangout on my own, I now prefer the feeling of connectedness through my smartphone. I may be alone in the real world, but in the digital world I’m texting a few friends and snap chatting a couple more. I’m constantly scrolling, liking, and sharing.

Living in the digital age has also created a huge market for games and game-like apps. Whether its dating apps that allow a person to swipe right or left or a fitness app that rewards a user with virtual trophies, the digital world has turned virtually every task into a game. I met my fiancé on tinder after swiping right, I track my steps each day and compare the results to my friends, and even my dad tracks his health on an app that sends confetti across his iphone screen when he reaches a goal.

Even the medical field is gaining valuable research results through games. As explained in Lo and Behold, Carnegie Mellon designed an Internet game for creating new molecules.

“Within Days hundreds of thousands of people joined in and they solved the puzzle”.

This game-like program produced real results using ordinary people with no expert knowledge in the field of molecular biology. According to the documentary, the molecules that were created in the game could actually be synthesized in a lab.

While living in the digital age has created many positive ways for people to stay connected, it has also has some negative impacts as well. The dark side of the Internet is the increased rate of depression and suicide. According to Twenge, “Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011”. I’ve seen friends get bullied online. I’ve seen embarrassing pictures circulated and people’s reputations soiled. Unfortunately, these problems seem to come with the territory of the digital age.

Lo and Behold features an interview with the Catsouras family. According to the interview, one of their daughter’s, Nikki, had taken the dad’s Porsche without his knowledge and fatally crashed the car. The coroner told the family that Nikki had died of head trauma, but in reality, Nikki had been decapitated in the accident. Nikki’s father began receiving emails with pictures of her body. The picture was taken by a first responder and leaked online from his email. One could only imagine how devastating it would be for a parent to see.

Another concern in the digital age is hacking. As the documentary points out, the line between one’s physical and digital identity is blurring and this makes it easier for hackers to steal someone’s identity. Even my parents have faced these problems. My dad has had his identity-stolen twice. First time someone got a drivers license in his name, and the other time someone submitted a tax return using his information. This concern has made me hyper aware of what sites I am visiting on the Internet or where I’m typing credit card information. As Kevin Mitnick says,

“People are the weakest link to security … not the technology.”

While there are clearly some negative attributes to living in the digital age, my experience has been generally positive. The ability to stay connected to friends and family through the digital world has helped me foster relationships and keep up to date on news. There are so many different facets of the digital age, its mind blowing to appreciate just how many ways technology has dug its hooks in us.

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