Draft

The internet is now a shell of what it once was. The internet was originally

created as a network of computers that were designed to send bytes of information to

each other, mainly for research and academic purposes. From that point in history, the Commented [1]: Some evidence or specific claim would
be nice here
internet has evolved into something unrecognizable. The internet wasn’t concerned with

just transferring bytes anymore, it was a multidisciplinary tool that allowed people to

create multimedia content. Personal stories are now public and local issues are now Commented [2]: Present tense

global, giving us a sort of globalization never seen before. Although the internet helps Commented [3]: Beautiful

connect everyone together, it also boxes everyone into groups of similar ideologies. For

example, before the internet, people would be somewhat forced to fit in with the people

around them. However, with the internet the same person could join an online

community where they further affirm their beliefs. This leads to radicalized groups of

people who further polarize the rest of the population from their strong online presence.

This in turn leads to great privacy and security risks. Commented [4]: Use comma here, should be same
sentence

In internet culture, the idea of trolling and “trolls” is heavily prevalent. In “A brief Commented [5]: Improve transition here

history of trolls”, the reasoning behind the creation of and the use of the word today is

explored. Through this, the main problem behind using the word “troll” is seen in the

grouping of various different people into one. For example, someone who is simply

trying to make jokes and have a little fun is grouped into people who take action with

genuine malice. This means that the word ends up having a negative connotation and

voids itself of any meaning. Moreover, “using the term as a stand-in for everything

terrible online is imprecise, unhelpful, and—most importantly—tends to obscure the

underlying problem of offline bigotry and aggression.” To remedy this, the article

proposes a term with less hidden meaning in it such as online aggression, something

that can’t be generalized to everyone and needs descriptive words. This shows how Commented [6]: More commentary and analysis here

problems related to internet culture can be potentially changed for the better. Commented [7]: Tie the meaning behind "troll" more
into the rest of your paper
In “A Brief History of Internet Culture and How Everything Became Absurd”,

Nathan Allebach writes about how internet culture came about. Allebach talks about

how online billboards and blogs started the move towards the creation of social media.

Furthermore, he talks about how viral software helped create culture by creating tight-

knit communities. In addition, he talks about how a divide was created between Commented [8]: Repetitive sentence structure and word
choice, diversify it a bit!
generations as technology changed incredibly fast. This divide was further widened as

more software and platforms emerged, leading to rapid polarization and disconnects

between people. Commented [9]: Another piece of evidence would be

nice here

In “Reddit Is Finally Facing Its Legacy of Racism”, Kaityln talks about Reddit’s

huge problem with content moderation. Moreover, Kaitlyn talks about how this idea of

“free” dialogue on the platform is leading to increased hate speech against certain

groups on the platform. Without any moderation, people are able to anonymously voice

their opinions; although this sounds somewhat like a good thing, Reddit has become a

breeding ground for white supremacy. To change the policies of the entire community,

the majority needs to be united to help pressure the company into better moderation.

This is exactly what the article shows can be achieved with big subreddits banding

together to form change. This shows that although Reddit has the potential to be a

negative influence on the internet, things can be changed around with the help of the
people.
Commented [10]: More analysis/evidence, how has
change already been made? What steps have been
taken in the right direction? Maybe also some
historical/contextual information, what are Reddit's
current policies?
 In “Is It Strange to Say I Miss the Bodies of Strangers?”, the effect of COVID on

digitalization and distancing of humans is shown. In contrast to the “The Age of

Instagram Face”, Leslie talks about how before COVID, people enjoyed authentic Commented [11]: More context

connections, appreciating the human body in its true form. Leslie talks about her

experiences with the Turkish bath houses before COVID, talking about how much of an

uplifting experience it is; people were comfortable in their own skin, joined with a diverse

group of people. Post-COVID everything changes and people are now afraid to be

around each other and there’s no more comfort around people. In addition to this,

technology allows for communication without people physically connecting, diminishing

the need for genuine physical connections. This shows how technology is making us

distanced from our own bodies and less comfortable in who we are.

In “The Age of Instagram Face”, Jia talks about how the emergence of an Commented [12]: This paragraph should be before the
one preceding it
idealistic face for women that’s perpetuated by social media. The emergence of this

standard comes from the reflexive need to tune images posted on social media. This is

evident due to the existence of many apps such as facetune. Due to these apps and
social media platforms, the need to change one’s body to fit ideal standards is enforced
for a wide majority of women. With this, the definition of beauty changes, becoming
Commented [13]: Can also use another example of how
standards of men in the gym and around body building
have changed as well. As another example, people
have been showing off their wealth like never before,
setting unrealistic goals and expectations for the
average man.

something artificial, treated as a commodity. This change in perception is a tragic

journey for people who are drawn into this, making their outlook on life more

superficial.The idea that self-worth is dependent on how close you look to a fake

standard drains the meaning out of true beauty. Technology has made us lose the

meaning of beauty and set us on a meaningless path for superficial validation. Commented [14]: Very nice
 In “What It’s Like to Date in the Metaverse”, Madeleine goes into detail about

how VR has created opportunities for dating. With VR, people are able to connect with

one another virtually and potentially experience something completely unique. Looking

at the situation in a similar way to dating apps, VR could be considered just another

method to connect people together and find the right matches. However, with VR things

aren’t as simple as a dating site. As VR is a highly immersive experience, the act of

matching with someone through it is involved enough to detract from actually meeting

someone in real life. Therefore, VR can be seen as more of a replacement for traditional

dating. Although there is some anecdotal evidence talking about the benefits of VR

dating, in the end a real-world connection is completely different from something virtual.

A VR experience is truly just for entertainment whereas a relationship in real-life is often

complex in ways only present in the real-world. Although VR is an exciting technology

with many uses, replacing the real world is something that can’t and probably shouldn’t

be achieved. Commented [15]: Better connection to overall paper.

Add another piece of evidence maybe for some
compare and contrast
In “JPG File Sells for $69 Million, as ‘NFT Mania’ Gathers Pace”, Scott Reyburn

talks about the ballooning of the NFT marketplace, particularly with digital art setting

records in terms of monetary value. This surging of value completely changes the

burgeoning field of NFT. Although this explosion in value might seem to be good for

digital art and art in general, many aspects of this boom can be detrimental to art and

digital culture as a whole. Eventually “art is no longer about a relationship with an

object”, “it’s about making money.” Due to the fast-paced transactional nature of digital

art, the art isn’t as emphasized as the value of the art. Furthermore, with computer-

generated art, countless works can be generated in a second. Worse still, these works
of art can be generated to mimic human artists, stealing artist’s originality and depriving

them of their talents. Commented [16]: Tie more to copyright issues and
whatnot, to make better connection to your paper's
overall goal
In “Is copyright ‘fundamentally incompatible with the internet’?”, Christopher Wink

goes over the negative effects of copyright law. Over the past century, copyright laws

have evolved to supposedly further protect the creator’s interests in an increasingly

digital world. However, in reality, the creator ends up with the shorter end of the bargain

with middle-men taking most of the cut. The middle-men in question are large

corporations controlling large swaths of the digital landscape such as TikTok, Spotify,

and Instagram. These companies pay very little money to creators while taking the

gargantuan profit from the numerous “creators”. In the end the article concludes that

“the relationship between the artist and the fan is crucial but copyright is a barrier”, and

leaves a solution up to innovators and entrepreneurs.

In “Algorithms Can Now Mimic Any Artist. Some Artists Hate It”, the idea of

stealing from or replacing an artist is expanded upon. With modern-day technology, A.I Commented [17]: Better connection

can be instructed to mimic the art-style of an artist. This poses many challenges, as

should the generated art be considered stealing. Should there be protections in

copyright law for human artists? “When they're feeding work from living, working artists

who are, you know, struggling as it is”, how are artists protected.The main problem with

AI art is it can’t generate something with a style that hasn’t been done before. With AI

art, the market is saturated with so much art that human art becomes less valuable.
This will end the careers of many artists, killing what art is truly about.
Internet history has become intertwined with modern day ideologies and politics.
Commented [18]: This is good, add more analysis of
maybe case studies of how AI has impacted artists
Commented [19]: You can also add some multimodal
evidence here of maybe two pictures side-by-side of a
human drawn art piece and an AI generated one

For example, big tech companies now have the lion’s share of control when it comes to
spreading information. For example, social media companies have the ability to

influence our lives, from our political beliefs to the way we look at the world. Moreover,

companies like Facebook and Twitter tend to spread misinformation like wildfire. With

misinformation being rampant, the need for a filtering system is present. This need was

met with broad censorship on social media, something that didn’t work and was too little

and too late. This type of censorship was used as strategies for controlling groups of

people and targeting certain users. This ultimately leads to polarization with leaders of

these companies being the sole authority on censorship. This ends up creating an

environment of digital authoritarianism, where the outlooks of people are controlled by

large technology companies. Some real world examples of this include Elon Musk

buying Twitter. This acquisition of a social media platform by a wealthy individual allows

for one person to have sole control over how censorship is implemented. In this case,

Elon has chosen to unban questionable authorities and essentially instate his own

criteria for censorship.

The internet is akin to a double-edged sword in which on one hand there is a

great benefit to society while on the other hand there is a great danger posed. For

example, in the way internet culture interacts with our mental health there are strong

factors in both directions. Social media paints a false view of life and separates us,

making us feel isolated and depressed while also providing us with a way to feel

togetherness and keep in contact with friends and family. This phenomenon provides a

very polarizing experience for users. Further, the research article talks about how this

causes a lot of mental distress as something that is used to connect with friends also

causes you to feel alone and miserable. This duality could result in mental imbalances
and periods of stronger highs and lows, making your mental health a roller coaster ride.

This lack of balance in your mentality can lead to a multitude of problems and to

legitimate clinical diagnoses.

In “Meet Elizabeth Ann, the First Cloned Black-Footed Ferret”, Sabrina talks

about how new genetic technology allowed for a black-footed ferret to be cloned. The

ferret in question was cloned from a genetic sample of a ferret banked in 1988. The

success in this cloning is important as it shows that there exists a way to save genetic

diversity in populations that are in danger of extinction, therefore saving species’ from

extinction. Furthermore, the cloning of this ferret leads the way for more extreme

aspirations, such as bringing back the passenger pigeon and the wooly mammoth.

Although these advancements are really groundbreaking, the effects of cloning need to

be fully researched before more steps can be taken.

In “Pandemic’s Cleaner Air Could Reshape What We Know About the

Atmosphere”, Coral discusses the effect the pandemic had on the pollution level and the

power of data collection tools to make informed decisions about policy. Moreover, she

discusses how new data collected during the wake of the pandemic helped support the

existing narrative to help combat climate change whereas the current government in the

US has tried to stray from this apparent fake “science”. This situation shows us that

despite technological breakthroughs and new data, people have to be willing to accept

this science. As real data is being put on by new tech, fake news and data are also

being generated by tech, striking a delicate balance. Commented [20]: Not tied in yet
 As A.I is getting more intertwined in our lives, the effects of the technology present

themselves more. For example, in Veloso’s article, “Humanity and AI Will Be Inseparable”, she

talks about how artificial intelligence is being used to automate and innovate in many fields.

Furthermore, she details how progress in A.I technologies has been on an increasingly steeper

trajectory due to information becoming digital. This all shows that artificial intelligence might

become more of a double edged sword; the better A.I gets at mimicking us, the more it can help

us. At the same time though, A.I would get better at feeding us misinformation. Tackling this

duality of artificial intelligence would be the best step humanity could take to make A.I one of
Commented [21]: tie in
our most greatest tools.