Aaron Swartz- computer genius and activist
“Internet’s Own Boy” is a film revealing the short but fulfilling life of Aaron Swartz, an amazing computer programmer, internet hacker, online political organizer and activist, whose work focused on bettering the world and having open access to the internet.
From a young age, Aaron was involved in numerous projects, such as the development of RSS, creative commons, and Reddit. Aaron started off very small and people did not know too much regarding his skills and what he had done, but it was not until he began going through legal issues, that him and his work became more popularized and known. When watching the documentary on his life, there were various emotions going through my head, and anyone would feel these same feelings to some extent because it was so tragic in the end. Overall, the film was able to capture all positive and negative moments pertaining to Aaron and it was very intense, not sugarcoating anything that happened, from his arrest and all. Likewise, I felt as though the film was also trying to critique the criminal justice system in regards to the internet. Although Aaron did download millions of scholarly articles and whatnot, he felt it was all for the greater good and to benefit others, which I commended. Aaron’s actions, although very bold, led to his suicide which was shocking considering the impact he was making.
