Assignment 4: Thoughts on Network Neutrality

Net Neutrality is the right we have to access anything on the Internet. We are given the right to do what we want on the Internet without it being blocked or hidden. Free and equal access to all sites. However, as of January 2014 net neutrality has faced some problems.

The Pros:

•    Non-discrimination is one of the most important pros. This means that every website and web searcher is treated the same way no matter what content is displayed on the webpage. Everyone has equal opportunity to access every webpage and web browser without restrictions.
•   Creativity is another pro because it allows people to be who they really are without being judged for what they search or say on their website/blog. This allows for creation of new products and services.
•  Everyone has equal opportunity to be heard online no matter how rich or poor you are. You don’t have to pay money to be heard so you have an equal chance in telling how you feel about a subject as a person with a million dollars does.
• Net neutrality allows for our Internet access not to be limited by our ISPs. If we didn’t have net neutrality our ISPs would be allowed to limit what we were able to view based on what they think is right/wrong.

The Cons:

•  According to the article companies are missing out on possible income because everyone has the same advantages. Bigger companies would be able to charge more to use their sites if net neutrality didn’t exist.
• If laws were created to monitor the web then there would be loopholes for unethical exploits would only cause more harm.

Net neutrality has recently been in the news because the FCC tried making new rules against net neutrality but the federal appeals court rules that the FCC doesn’t have the right to enforce those rules. The FCC appealed the ruling. The FCC was trying to make it so that a site like YouTube would be able to pay your ISP money to allow you to access YouTube faster and slow down your access to competing sites like Netflix. The ISP could also have power to slow down all access and charge you certain amounts to access sites faster. Netflix stock dropped 3.4% the day after this was announced.

Net neutrality is like freedom of speech. If someone has an idea he or she wants to share everyone should have equal access to that information without having to pay, just as the person stating their opinion shouldn’t have to pay ISPs money so their voice is heard by everyone. Everyone has the right to start a blog or website about whatever they want and net neutrality helps keep our freedom of speech possible on the Internet.

The recent news about net neutrality has affected the way I may use the Internet in the future. As a college student I am online constantly and a lot of my homework is submitted online. If this were to go into effect then my education would be drastically effected. Since I am a college student I don’t have a lot of extra money. I can’t pay to access the Internet to be in the “fast lane.” My tuition would also increase because we would have to pay for the computers the school provides to allow access to the “fast lane.” This would also affect my use of the Internet negatively because I would not use it nearly as much if it were a lot slower on certain sites that don’t pay ISPs. I strongly believe in net neutrality. Everyone should have equal access to all websites without having to pay money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/business/fcc-to-propose-new-rules-on-open-internet.html?_r=0

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/open-internet

  

I thought these sites are valid because New York Times is a huge news source and FCC.gov is a government website. Many people rely on New York Times to provide accurate information so I figured it was a credible source. Both sites also provided accurate information based on the articles we read from CNN.

Social Media and Privacy

Before social networks and media if someone was raped not many people knew about it. Now everyone knows. News travels so quickly in todays world that even if you don't know someone on a personal level, you have probably heard an embarrassing story about them or at least know some of the huge life events. At first social media was created to share life events with friends that you don't see or talk to daily. Now people use social media to bring other down and ruin their lives. Its disgusting how low some people will go to truly hurt someone because it gives them satisfaction. It's also a shame that people end up taking their lives because of these things. Maybe if we didn't have social media to post pictures about a rape to the world then less people would hurt themselves and they would be able to deal with what happened to them instead of getting teased for it. They didn't asked to be raped, and they didn't ask for it to be known across the country. However, social media allows rape situations to go viral which only end up hurting the victim more.

I Have Nothing to Hide

When some people are asked about how private they keep their life on social media they respond with "I have nothing to hide." This is very untrue with all of the technology that we have now a days. Everyone should be concerned with how private they keep things on the Internet because once it is there, it is there forever. I recently learned that even if you "delete" something that it is still there forever and can be dug up with a little bit of work. People also don't understand that the government has access to everything. After finding that out in the video we watched in class, I went back and looked at my privacy settings to make sure I was keeping all my personal information hidden from people I didn't want seeing it. The government has all the technology to save almost everything you've done on social media which is wrong. The government going through our personal lives on social media and tracing what we search on google is also a violation of the fourth amendment. The government doesn't get permission to go through our lives on social media and trace everything we have done and everywhere we have been. I keep a lot of my personal information, such as bank and other personal numbers on my phone. The fact the government and other hackers can hack into our system even though they are private is unfair. We didn't give anyone permission to look through our personal lives, thus violating the fourth amendment.

This course seems very interesting so far. We have only been in it a couple of weeks and I've already learned so much about how the Internet and social media can effect us negatively. I am finally starting to realize how much multitasking we do daily and that we might not be as good at it as we think we are. I hope to learn how to use the Internet to my benefit instead of harming the way I learn.