The internet is a prime example of several of the things we've been talking about in class in regards to Foucault, but specifically, in terms of government control and intervention.
It is the nature of government to seek to control, or to moderate the existence of anything that lacks a form of authority or oversight. Thats what its there to do, for better or worse. However, a concerning trend has emerged in terms of internet regulation and surveillance that allows us to explore the Foucaultian conceptions of power and force.
We are being faced with several regulation bills that will not only make free information much more hard to access, but will also allow government agencies to monitor all of your browsing history. This plays into the idea of our "new" system of correctional punishment.
By creating an extra form of control, an extra law that punishes those for arbitrary actions on a neutral ground such as the internet, it exposes the true nature of governmental control that is so prevalent in society today.
With these laws, we find ourselves constantly worrying about whether the information we're viewing online is "safe" to see, or if something we're saying on the internet will cause us to be monitored for the rest of our online lives. It kills the notion of true anonymity on the internet, and replaces it with the same reality that exists in our physical lives. You're either "us", or "them", and generally speaking, to be "them" is to be an outlier, an undesirable, and one worthy of "correction".
I think government regulation if the Internet is the perfect example of a panopticon. Part of it's twisted success comes from the element of unverifiable surveillance. How would you ever know when or what the Feds were looking at?
ReplyDeleteI could see some sick sort of new software from anti-virus companies that alerts you as to when you're being monitored.
ReplyDelete"Norton Panopticon-Aware: So you know who's watching you. Available for a nominal annual fee of $99.99!"