Jenkins, Ford & Green; and Smith Journal Response

The potential for circulation does two noteworthy things; the first being that it has the potential to censor the author for fear of backlash from the huge possible audience in today’s fast-paced world. As noted in the “Say Goodbye”… article, regardless of whether or not you agree with the censorship that is being proliferated, you can’t deny that it infringes upon the idea that anyone has a right to his or her own opinion according to the First Amendment.

For the record, I disagree with Smith’s opinion that Twitter’s news coverage is overrated. I think it’s incredible to witness the voice social media sites like Twitter gives to its audiences, regardless of what their audiences are saying. You can’t deny that these sites that originally started for personal use are now gaining an incredible amount of credibility. OWL Purdue’s MLA guide now has a “How to cite a Tweet” section under the “Electronic Sources” page. I also feel that Smith is overturning rocks that should be left alone. She ends this article by questioning society’s infatuation with democracy and equality, as if these intangibles aren’t rooted in the core of human rights. “People just turned out to be so much dumber than we had hoped. Dumber, angrier, more irrational, impulsive. People are just scary.” People aren’t becoming dumber because they have access to computers, they just have an outlet for each and every thought for the first time. Rather than going through traditional obstacles of getting something published (i.e. finding someone who actually deems it worth sharing with the world) and the speed of the web has streamlined the process of sharing every thought that fires through your synapses in the blink of an eye. So of course people are going to say dumber things. We all have quick snap judgments and sometimes everyone is dumb, angry, irrational, or impulsive. The difference is that the World Wide Web gives them an easy way to voice these dumb thoughts before they can think through how dumb they sound.

The potential for widespread circulation also has the ability to empower anyone to write. Although this is great, in theory, it often does result in some pretty horrendous words. If there is to be any censorship, I think it should be geared towards malicious comments towards minors. I know this is easier said than done, as minors have access to anything and everything on the internet, but if steps are to be taken I think they should be taken there.