"What is the Internet and What Will It Become?"

Well, readers, here it is: my last blog post of the semester…

Today was our final seminar meeting, and as assigned by Professor Waldo and Dean Smith, we chose the topics of conversation and readings for our discussion. We chose to talk about the impact of the internet on this past election, and the internet in developing countries. On the whole, I thought we did a pretty good job and that we had more than enough to talk about for the two hours. Hopefully we’ll all get a pass for the semester…

Anyway: the internet and the election. I thought the question of whether or not Donald Trump is a twitter genius was a really interesting one. My take is that no he is not…and that’s exactly what made him a twitter genius in this election cycle. The fact of the matter is that people were not looking for someone who is a genius in any field whatsoever so much as they were looking for someone who was original, unapologetic, and seemingly successful. Donald Trump’s twitter might have been the epitome of his identity as exactly that. While he may not have made use of systematic targeting on social media like the Obama campaign, Trump was startlingly original and unapologetic on his twitter account. He was by no means trying to be a genius or to manipulate people ingeniously, and this strategy was itself quite ingenious because it allowed him to maintain an identity as a genuine candidate (in contrast to the rigid and seemingly manipulative Hilary Clinton). Twitter was also the perfect channel for Trump because it was a non-alternative channel for a presidential candidate to communicate serious opinions to the general public, and Trump was a seriously non-traditional candidate. Twitter allowed him to cement his status as non-washington, non elite. Finally, Trump made convenient use of twitter because many of his opinions and policy suggestions were based on “twitter facts” – a one sided fact that could be fit in under 140 characters and likely has no substantiation or evidence. He was able to paint a picture of a country being suffocated by liberal policy with broad, short attacks and jibes. Indeed, even much of his debate performance was twitter-esque; he rarely responded with lengthy, detailed, multifaceted answers, and he often said the same thing over and over again.

As for the internet in developing countries, it was quite interesting just how different government policy on the internet and technology is in other places. The US could learn a lot from developing countries about utilizing the internet for everyday events and emergencies, and about integrating internet apps into government. Specifically, the use of WhatsApp for government services was interesting and surprising to me.

Well, that’s it folks. The final Blog post is complete. Maybe I’ll be back. Maybe not. We’ll see. For now….Wishing I had come up with a signing off phrase that I could use dramatically for a final time…see you later.