As we know from Chapter 4 of McChesney's "Digital Disconnect," the world was "uniformly optimistic" about the potential of the Internet before coming to fruition. People hoped it would create a democratization of communication; a place where there would be access to a "treasure trove of uncensored knowledge." But even more so, people thought that it would prevent corporations from snaking in customers and crushing all of their competitors in search of a monopolistic and powerful endgame.
It is unfortunate to be alive today and realize that none of these aspirations, now lofty in retrospect, ever came into being the truth. When reading chapters 4 and 5, what really caught my attention was the idea of these big companies which emerged upon the conception of the Internet to became the monopolizers of the entire medium. The exact opposite occurred in comparison to what people had hoped the Internet's future would hold.
I particularly enjoyed the section in which McChesney lists the household names of the companies that dominate the digital age because I had never thought about just how much power these companies hold: Apple's iTunes dominating 87% of digital music downloads; Amazon selling 70-80% of all physical and digital books; Google--holding 70 percent of the search engine market (which McChesney notes is approaching the monopolistic status that Rockefeller's Standard Oil had at it's peak."
And then there is Facebook. The book quotes Mark Zuckerberg as saying that Facebook "was not originally created to be a company... it was built to accomplish a social mission--to make the world more open and connected." Unfortunately, though, somewhere along the line commercial success took the foreground of Facebook's mission to which they now neglect.
Here is a link to all of the companies that Facebook has eaten up in it's effort to dominate the social realm of the internet. Some big ones that many of you will probably recognize are Instagram and, recently, WhatsApp. It is interesting how all of these companies were birthed with good intentions to provide a service to all Internet users. But, eventually, they decide that it is not good enough to be successful at providing a good service--it's better to dominate at providing a service.
Keith, I thought your response was really well written! The link you shared about the companies that Facebook has eaten up was really interesting because of the quote you used from the book. Facebook isn't focused on the social mission anymore and it's a noticeable and important thing to point out. Conglomerates are really taking over our society.
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