Cyber-utopianism

Cyber-utopianism as a concept was first coined by Evgeny Morozov in his book The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, this utopianism is a belief that online communication is in itself emancipatory and that the Internet favors the oppressed rather than the oppressor. Morosov calls this belief naive and stubborn for its refusal to acknowledge its downside. ^[1] He goes on to blame the "former hippies" in the 1990's, for causing this utopian belief.

"Cyber-utopians ambitiously set out to build a new and improved United Nations, only to end up with a digital Cirque du Soleil" ^[1]

Origins

Californian ideology

The Californian Ideology is a set of beliefs combining bohemian and anti-authoritarian attitudes from the counterculture of the 1960s with techno-utopianism and support for neoliberal economic policies. These beliefs are thought by some to have been characteristic of the culture of the IT industry in Silicon Valley and the West Coast of the United States during the dot-com bubble of the 1990s.[citation needed] Adam Curtis connects it to Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophies. This ideology fuelled the first the generation of Internet pioneers.

Similar critisim

Although these critical thoughts about popular positivistic readings of the Internet predate Morosovs work, they share a similar critical angle:

• In 2006, Andrew Keen wrote that Web 2.0 is a "grand utopian movement" similar to "communist society" as described by Karl Marx.
• In an article from The New Yorker from 2010, Malcolm Gladwell argues his doubts about the emancipatory and empowering qualities of social media in general. In the article he criticizes Clay Shirky for propagating and over estimating the revolutionary potential of social media. In the conclusion he says: "Shirky considers this model of activism an upgrade. But it is simply a form of organizing which favors the weak-tie connections that give us access to information over the strong-tie connections that help us persevere in the face of danger." ^[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Morozov, Evgeny (2011). The Net Delusion. London: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-1-846-14353-3. 
2. ^ Gladwell, Malcolm (10-04-2010). "Small Change". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell. Retrieved 26 September 2011.