'We, The Web Kids': Manifesto For An Anti-ACTA Generation
from the future-in-safe-hands dept
One of the striking features of the demonstrations against ACTA that took place across Europe over the last few weeks was the youth of the participants. That's not to say that only young people are concerned about ACTA, but it's an indication that they take its assault on the Internet very personally -- unlike, perhaps, older and more dispassionate critics.
As sometimes happens, a text has been floating around that captures rather well the spirit of that generation. It was originally written in Polish, and released under a liberal cc-by license; there are now a number of translations. As its author, Piotr Czerski, wrote in an email to Techdirt, its origins were quite humble:
I was asked by the journalist from local newspaper to write a text explaining difference between "analog" and "digital" generations. I thought that I should write something more: text, which can offer some kind of self-identity for all this different people protesting against ACTA. So I used the poetics of manifesto.
The whole piece is really well-written and perceptive. Here's the key self-definition of those "Web kids" in the English translation by Marta Szreder:
We grew up with the Internet and on the Internet. This is what makes us different; this is what makes the crucial, although surprising from your point of view, difference: we do not ‘surf’ and the internet to us is not a ‘place’ or ‘virtual space’. The Internet to us is not something external to reality but a part of it: an invisible yet constantly present layer intertwined with the physical environment. We do not use the Internet, we live on the Internet and along it. If we were to tell our bildnungsroman to you, the analog, we could say there was a natural Internet aspect to every single experience that has shaped us. We made friends and enemies online, we prepared cribs for tests online, we planned parties and studying sessions online, we fell in love and broke up online. The Web to us is not a technology which we had to learn and which we managed to get a grip of. The Web is a process, happening continuously and continuously transforming before our eyes; with us and through us. Technologies appear and then dissolve in the peripheries, websites are built, they bloom and then pass away, but the Web continues, because we are the Web; we, communicating with one another in a way that comes naturally to us, more intense and more efficient than ever before in the history of mankind.
Because of this, the Web kids depend on the ability to access a vast range of content online:
Participating in cultural life is not something out of ordinary to us: global culture is the fundamental building block of our identity, more important for defining ourselves than traditions, historical narratives, social status, ancestry, or even the language that we use. From the ocean of cultural events we pick the ones that suit us the most; we interact with them, we review them, we save our reviews on websites created for that purpose, which also give us suggestions of other albums, films or games that we might like. Some films, series or videos we watch together with colleagues or with friends from around the world; our appreciation of some is only shared by a small group of people that perhaps we will never meet face to face. This is why we feel that culture is becoming simultaneously global and individual. This is why we need free access to it.
But they are not naive: they know that artists need to earn money to live, and even have practical suggestions about how that can be done in a world of digital abundance:
This does not mean that we demand that all products of culture be available to us without charge, although when we create something, we usually just give it back for circulation. We understand that, despite the increasing accessibility of technologies which make the quality of movie or sound files so far reserved for professionals available to everyone, creativity requires effort and investment. We are prepared to pay, but the giant commission that distributors ask for seems to us to be obviously overestimated. Why should we pay for the distribution of information that can be easily and perfectly copied without any loss of the original quality? If we are only getting the information alone, we want the price to be proportional to it. We are willing to pay more, but then we expect to receive some added value: an interesting packaging, a gadget, a higher quality, the option of watching here and now, without waiting for the file to download. We are capable of showing appreciation and we do want to reward the artist (since money stopped being paper notes and became a string of numbers on the screen, paying has become a somewhat symbolic act of exchange that is supposed to benefit both parties), but the sales goals of corporations are of no interest to us whatsoever. It is not our fault that their business has ceased to make sense in its traditional form, and that instead of accepting the challenge and trying to reach us with something more than we can get for free they have decided to defend their obsolete ways.
The text makes lots of other interesting comments, and I urge you to read it. It goes some way to explaining why so many young people were prepared to brave sub-zero temperatures across Europe to march against what is, after all, just a trade agreement -- not something that normally brings people onto the streets. It also suggests that the European Commission's tactic of referring ACTA to the European Court of Justice, in the hope that people will forget about it and move on to other concerns by the time the decision is handed down, is doomed to failure. As the Web kids manifesto explains:
To us, the Web is a sort of shared external memory. We do not have to remember unnecessary details: dates, sums, formulas, clauses, street names, detailed definitions. It is enough for us to have an abstract, the essence that is needed to process the information and relate it to others. Should we need the details, we can look them up within seconds.
The Web certainly won't forget about ACTA, and neither will the Web kids.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, generation, internet, manifesto, the web kids
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Or use the Google Translate API or one of the many TTS(Text To Speech) for Chrome or Firefox.
Then you don't need to imagine, I use Chrome-Speak It!(but can't recommend this one since it sends all the data to Google Translate to read it).
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/tts?hl=en
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo x/search/?q=text+to+speech
http://www.xenocafe.com/tutorials/php/festival_text_to_speech/index.php
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The next generation needs to determine how high their own sky is, and if it surpasses ours, all the better.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
I just wish everyone would learn that you can't take it with you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It elegantly sums up the internet culture - although it misses 'for the lulz'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
i could be wrong, mind you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Content creation is a mere pebble.
The internet/web is the medium through which it's effects ripple. Ever expanding in all directions...
You can try to stop it, but more and more people are throwing their own 'pebbles' into the 'water' and creating a tsunami you won't be able to stop.
But you can surf it...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
It recognizes what is most important, the freedom the Web has given us all, mere surfers, old internet technologies like IRC which is where I met my partner.
In many ways it's a manifesto. Perhaps not intended but then the best manifestos are the ones that are unintentional.
I can and do understand what the writer is talking about after being, for all practical purposes being a shut in in the three years since I broke my back. What the writer looks for and does on the web is what I look for and do now. For example I no longer find the need by some professions and governments to use paper and snail mail rather than secure web connections and email.
These are the people that will remake our world. I hope they do a better job than we Boomers did.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Its amazing that the safety of anonymity, at a distance relationships, and the ability to quickly move away from relationships that do not work, could cause such a fundamental change. A change towards consensus based social structures as opposed to hierarchical based ones.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What strikes me is how some people don't realize how the internet changed the world, not just business. It literally has become so ingrained into our personal lives, not having it is almost a loss of a right.
Years ago, businesses would ask for our phone number or mailing address. Now it's our hash and email.
Many of us don't write checks anymore, cross-checking with a monthly mailing statement and spending the next 6 fighting the bank as it took two cents.
TV guides were once a treasured mailbox delivery, but now is considered wasteful (take a hint, Yellow Pages).
It just strikes me as terrifying a few old bastards want to shut it all down because we're tired of buying plastic disks which we can't even sell for more than $1 in garage sales.
What's worse: their businesses were all founded on illegal business practices on top of it. To see them claim we're breaking their laws is utter stupidity.
Just once, I wish Congress and the governments around the world look into these businesses and start arresting them for their illegal practices.
Start with the makers of Omega watches to "send a message".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
FTFY
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Didn't even read the article, but...
that mentioned they actually bought dvds/bluerays mentioned that either they would only watch first before purchasing, they would wait for it in the 3 dollar bargin bin, or they would go pirate it in disgust. This is yahoo news where infantile trolls run rampant, and not one person was trolling. It was amazing how deaf hollywood is.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Didn't even read the article, but...
Just as bad as the banks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Didn't even read the article, but...
hollywood executive? And I have to capitalize hollywood? NEVER!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Didn't even read the article, but...
If you preview a list of URLs you will noticed that it inserts some spaces where it shouldn't.
Also some characters seem to trigger.
What have you been typing?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Didn't even read the article, but...
What am I typing?
You are seeing it?
I was simply lining my paragraphs together without spaces.
Which seemed to trigger some kind of bug which does not trigger when I put a space line in between sentences.
See what I mean?
No bug here now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Now it's going...
"We are, we are, the youth of the internet."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Google it, people :-).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mostly this reminds me of standard generational issues. You know the dreaded 1%? Most of them are the hippies from the 60s, who grew up and figure it out.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Two sides to every battle.
Very few people make it through with their ideals entirely intact. Getting life experience on the other side of the deal often opens people's eyes up and makes them realize that the idealistic view of youth is often just not right.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
It's easier to conform to the ideals of society as a whole and a lot of people do. They just kind of give up on making that better world. This just doesn't mean they were not right as children just that they don't have the willpower and tenacity to spend their whole life pushing against the grain. I don't fault anyone for this but it doesn't mean they were wrong to want the world to be better.
I mean like you said, Romney never changed ;)
Of course mileage varies for ideals but believing we should all love each other a little more, share with those that need help and generally be a little kinder and not allow our personal advancement to impede the happiness of others, as the hippies did, is not wrong per se. It's just hard to keep that attitude without becoming jaded or cynical or just saying fuck it everyone is trying to shit on me why should I be nice to strangers or people I'll never meet.
Then again I am sure some kid thinks the world would be better if we all just drank a little more human blood or if Britney Spears was ruler of the world, hopefully stuff like that does get grown out of.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Actually eveyone stay in doors. Roads will be clear
:D
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not Just The Youngins
From my first exposure to personal computing and programming (can you say TRS-80?) in my early teens all the way through watching the internet develop into what it is today, I have always felt we were building the greatest tool mankind has ever known.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not Just The Youngins
Yup, and that tool is named Masnick.
:)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Not Just The Youngins
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Not Just The Youngins
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Not Just The Youngins
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not Just The Youngins
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not Just The Youngins
I also worked as a technician the past 35 years at a telco and watched not only the immense changes in technology that have made the Internet and the Web so widely available. It wouldn't be far from lying if I said the Web feels like it's a part of my right arm. Probably the source of a lot of my opposition to ACTA/SOPA/PIPA and other actions that would end up censoring and restricting the Web or the Internet as a whole.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Not Just The Youngins
I'm full grown adult, I can't deny it at this point, and the Internet has been a part of me for almost 2 decades now... I know I'm not alone in this. Young people seem completely unable to comprehend that personal computers have been a part of mainstream society for over 35 years, and that people have been obsessing over them almost from day one.
Everything that we know today grew out of the tiny kernels of imagination planted before I was even born, and nurtured when I was a child in the '70s. This digital world belongs to everyone, young and old, the 'web kids' are just a little late to the party.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Connected
We know that there are terrible things happening, in other countries and our own, thanks to the Internet. We used myspace to stage concerts whose proceeds would go to helping the poor people of Darfur. We tweeted ourselves wearing green to support the Iranians who wanted freedom from their oppressive government. When tragedy happens, there is no "us" and "them"; there is only "we", human beings, struggling to survive.
We are connected in a way that no generation before us has ever been, and it is fundamentally changing the nature of humanity. In ten or twenty years, there will be no debate on gay marriage. Muslims' fourth amendment rights will not be violated by the NYPD. It won't be utopia; we may not love each other...we may not even like each other...but we will not hate each other.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Connected
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
bildnungsroman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildungsroman
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
though apparently not this particular example. seems weird to talk about the physical as 'analog' because to my mind analog is related to analogy, one thing is representative of the other... and the physical world, as a rule, isn't, if you get my meaning. on the other hand i somehow have no problem with the non-physical (virtual? or is that also misapplied?) being termed 'digital'... perhaps because it is built rather directly out of numbers? then again, so is the physical world if you break it down far enough. i dunno.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A possible companion piece?
The $100bn Facebook question: Will capitalism survive 'value abundance'?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A possible companion piece?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: A possible companion piece?
The very nature of work will likely change as machines can do more and more things. Theoretically, this should give us more free time, but what we currently see are some groups working excessive hours and others unemployed. Youth unemployment in Europe will be an on-going issue. And US young adults who are living with parents in order to pay off college loans is also changing consumption dynamics. Overall, the issue of income inequality.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: A possible companion piece?
What do we all do with ourselves then? How does the government get funded? Do we even need government, or just a set of rules and agreements? The list is to large to discuss here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: A possible companion piece?
Yes, that's the world I'm focused on.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A possible companion piece?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A possible companion piece?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A possible companion piece?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A possible companion piece?
in the last 5 or so decades the price has skyrocketed.
Some of that is from more uses for it being found.
most is from financial dicking around crashing the value of various currencies.
(it's actually got to the point where, if you buy silver and wait five to ten years, you'll actually come out Ahead on the whole inflation thing... depending on the tax structure in your locality, of course. on the other hand there's Very little point in long term saving with banks, as unless you're already earning enough as to render it irrelevant your savings get eaten by inflation as well. investing, maybe, or buying a safe and some silver, but not saving cash at banks. (also, a lot of setups where you buy various valuable things don't actually give you the thing, just a theoretical share of ownership of the quantity Supposedly sitting in a bank vault somewhere)
and it only gets more complicated from there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: A possible companion piece?
Both of those are likely going to be transported to you in some way or another for quite a while longer yet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: A possible companion piece?
also food.
there's also a fair bit of ....err.... occupation? to be had .... occupying... the masses. heh.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This, This, a million times this!
I consider the entire manifesto continued proof that while they can be often dumb or foolhardy, kids are in general just fine. Again, accusations that "those darn kids are going to ruin the world" are not only premature, but reflections from bitter adults who are too stubborn to either change with the times, or appreciate its unique beauty.
When the day comes that I can no longer keep up with youth culture, God bid me to judge them for what they do, and nothing else.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ACTA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l97P62-PY2s&feature=player_embedded
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thank you
As a member of the 'older generation' - ouch - I watched as the internet was created. I know how it works. To me it will always be a 'tool'. It is useful, entertaining, educational, and exciting, but still just a tool. I doubt it will ever engulf my world as it does these young people. Nor will I ever truly grasp their perspective in this any more then my grandparents could really grasp how integral electricity is to my world.
It really makes me realize how difficult this must be for the old boys who's corporate world is being torn apart by the change. That's not to say I have any sympathy for them - they don't deserve it - but it gives me a greater understanding of their idiocy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Thank you
Although there are some revolutionary forces, what I see are Internet entrepreneurs who are still locked into old systems and aren't prepared to be disrupted themselves. When companies are launched with VC money and then go public, they are constrained by the traditional forces of Wall Street. Decisions are made based on profitability and quarterly results. Our financial systems tend to reward activities that don't necessarily produce the kinds of changes that society can really use.
I see a Silicon Alley bubble that seems to me to be as myopic as what I see from Wall Street and from Hollywood. So I encourage people to think outside their own boxes, whatever those may be.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Oh for crying out loud. How convenient! "We're smart without having to be, you know, smart!"
I'm part of this generation and stuff like this makes me want to puke. I sincerely hope that one day these people won't be forced to learn the difference between being 'tech-savvy' and 'tech-dependent'.
"The web is not the truth! The web is a goddamned amusement park!"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Intelligence and memory are two very different things. Too often we see a dumb person with a good memory get the promotion while his more intelligent and creative coworkers get left behind. The problem is that a good memory can 'emulate' intelligence, while no amount of intelligence could overcome the basic limitations of a poor memory.
The internet is not an excuse to ignore proper learning (though many will use it as such) rather it is a tool to assist those smart enough to use it effectively. And as creativity becomes more important in day-to-day life the difference between actually being smart and just having a good memory becomes more visible then ever.
Remember we aren't just talking about using a calculator in math class here (a bad idea at the best of times), we are talking about being able to search the entire school library without leaving your desk.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
mark me down as one of those intelligent people with a terrible memory. (i have had untold tests at various points tell me the former and the latter is simply a fact of my life).
i have a whole host of other contributing issues, of course, but this one is one of the more noticeable reasons i never did end up going to university. (also, good luck getting anywhere in this country's education system if your learning style isn't geared towards lectures or text books. at least if you're more academically inclined. (also, level of education seems to have less and less to do with whether one can find a job or not as time goes on, though there are fields where this does not hold.))
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
The difference between pre and post Internet is that today, we can supplement what we know with what's been made available online. Once we've learned to complement what we've *trained* our brains to do, with what others have made available to us, we get to step into the next level of human development -- something that's been happening now for literally decades, and something that people of all ages are well aware of.
I get the impression that many young people are still not getting that the party started well before they even got here, and it makes me very sad.
Yes, it's f@cked up that we have to deal with things like ACTA and PIPA, but it's not the 'older generations' that are creating them, it's the people with money: people who want to keep their money.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Oh for crying out loud. How convenient! "We're smart without having to be, you know, smart!"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Oh for crying out loud. How convenient! "We're smart without having to be, you know, smart!"
it's exactly the same damn thing.
(save, perhaps, that writing alone may slightly encourage accepting the author as an authority, while the internet would tend to discourage this tendancy a bit. not enough to affect most people's natural inclination, but i think it's there for those few who fall into border zones on this sort of thing.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A Conscience for these times
That short essay/text was "The Hacker Manifesto" and this "We the Web Kids manifesto" did the exact same thing
Brilliantly written and conceived, and though a lot shorter than the first one it conveys everything that this generation, and I'd love to include myself in that too, is all about.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Another companion piece?
Advertising and the health of the internet – The New Inquiry: "But one might argue that the fact that it seems as though we can’t have an internet not fueled by advertising is a sign that the internet is already unhealthy, sick unto death."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A video to help spread the meme
contains the manifesto in animated form. Please share with friends and family to get the message across to more people.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]