The Illusions Of The Cyberspace And Communication Technology

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: The Illusions of the Cyberspace In a world where communication technology is constantly evolving, there are elements of this growth that have to be taken with a grain of salt. More importantly, there are developments that should cause some worries among the communication technology users relative to the threats that they pose going into the future. It is not all merry when it comes to new developments as there are unforeseen elements that pose great dangers and as such are important to establish beforehand. With the recent developments within the communication technology realm, for most of the people, they only look at the possibilities of growth and connectivity. Advances in the ways that information can be shared without the limitation of borders and other geographical limits such as distance. Today, it is possible to send out an email or even a chat message to a contact halfway across the world and they will receive it in a matter of microseconds as it is relayed across several servers. Not so long ago telegrams were the fastest modes of communication. Today, sending out a tweet will reach millions of people and they can respond as first. However, with this conveniences also comes the threats both at the local level and internationally. As governments try to establish control internally and externally, the corporate world is also keen on the conveniences and the threats alike. From some two texts that embody the concepts of freedom at a cost, Naomi Klein and Ian Bremmer; these articles evaluates theelements of communication technologies and the concept of freedom as well as the possible developments in the future, subject to the present and the past. The focus of the paper is on the possible responses by Naomi Klein to the excerpt; “As a result, political borders, which the rise of information technology once seemed set to dissolve, are taking on a new importance: if greater openness creates new opportunities, it also creates new worries”. The responses are evaluated in tandem with an Ian Bremmer’s article, “Democracy in Cyberspace: What Technology Can and Cannot Do for Us”, going against Naomi’s article, “Fences of Enclosure, Windows of Possibility”. The pessimistic approach on how communication technology and cyberspace bring new freedom frontiers to information access is an illusion. There is an element of freedom that has been associated with the beauty of modern communication channel relative to the fact that it offers the users a chance to get their voices out to the public and more importantly the right people. It is crucial for example, to consider elements such as the demonstrations that are possible to organize relative to the use social media and instant messaging. These are actually tools that have been used in the past to bring down governments and regimes that are oppressive. More importantly, they have been used as tools to bring about social and political revolutions that would have taken much more time to establish let alone carry out. Using the power of communication, the users in various democracies are able to gather the support that they need to bring the changes to their countries (Bremmer). As such, communication technologies such as emails and messaging could b...