Diffusion of Popular Culture and Ideas
The creation of the World Wide Web broke down many barriers regarding the spread of ideas and culture. Through the globalization system, the internet has created a new world order by means of homogenous popular culture and distributed information by breaking barriers that constricted society while simultaneously introducing new ones.
Social Media
As the internet popularized, the spread of information was split into groups, one of which being social media. In essence, social media is the means of which people receive information regarding aspects of one's social life or behavior. Social activism and environmental advocacy have grown as a result of spread ideas. Human rights and conditions have been called for improvement by activists on the internet, drawing more attention and causing change. Many modern oppressors are being shut down because of the World Wide Web.
Images of influential social media outlets
Advancements in Technology
As with social media, the internet has connected people and agencies across wide geographic areas to create many technological and medical advancements. Since the 1990s, network-centric interfaces have been a focus of large tech companies. The main contributions of the World Wide Web are centered around two factors: communication and speed. Communication and speed were the focus of ARPANET and later the World Wide Web. Technological advancement has sped up exponentially since the introduction of the internet.
"In fact, I feel that the web should be something which basically doesn’t try to coerce people into putting particular sorts of things on it but it’s… like a sheet of white paper and I feel that we need to individually work on putting good things on it and finding ways to protect ourselves from accidentally finding the bad.”
~ Tim Berners-Lee
 Steve Jobs unveiling the original iPhone. This advancement symbolized the rapid progression of technology.  A peoples' protest againt communist rule in China, 2014 | New BarriersIn the modern day, the internet has become more than an open information space. With no explicit set of rules or controlling operator, the internet has become a virtual world of its own. Because of this, new barriers are created that are unique to the internet, one of which is the Dark Web. The Dark Web is the portion of the internet that contains illegal activities and other illicit things. The Dark Web poses a challenge to the legal system as well as creates a barrier for the web to overcome. Censorship As technological advancements became more accessible, space-time compression in relation to information has become more dispersed among the people. Countries with typically oppressive governments have taken stands against freedom of information and thus against the freedom of the internet. Government censorship has only served as another barrier that the internet has broken. Technologies/softwares such as VPNs or personal Wi-Fi connections have successfully broken through government control over internet information.  News headline showing a real example of current censorship, Independent  A news headline that portrays the struggle between citizens and government, The New York Times |
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