Taylor's response to Cynthia Selfe's "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution"

The Internet. One of the only mediums that people of today can instantly connect to people all over the world with one click of a button. With that one click we can talk to people worldwide, explore ancient ruins, travel over the African jungles, along with other endless possibilities. The internet literarily gives us the world at our fingertips. We like to think of the internet as “The Global Village” where everyone all over the world can be connected and come together in one place. Some think that the internet can bring everyone together in a sort of melting pot, where all peoples of the world can coexist despite the barriers of racial and cultural differences and political boarders. Cynthia L. Self, author of “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution”, thinks otherwise. In “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution”, Selfe discusses a few of the popular narratives, what people like to think, versus the revised narratives of the popular narratives, the reality rather than fantasy. In Selfe’s book, one of the popular narratives she talks about is the idea of the internet being a “Global Village” that brings everyone together. Selfe then introduces the revised narrative, which is that the internet is an “Electronic Colony” rather than the utopian ideal that is the “Global Village”. Selfe herself writes that “the global village retains its reach, but it becomes a world in which different cultures, different peoples, exist to be discovered, explored, marveled at-in a sense, known and claimed by-those who, can design and use technology. Inhabitants of this electronic global village, in turn, become foreigners, exotics, savages, objects to study and sometimes, to control”. With this quote, Selfe is discussing the fact that many countries, such as the United States, feel superior to other countries and can therefore have the access and privilege to just use them as a sort of entertainment. Selfe also discusses that not all places have the same equal access to technology as others making the ideal of equality and the “global village” near impossible for some to be a part of merely because of inability to access computers because of area or poverty. Because of this, the internet has naturally become an “electronic colony” where more fortunate places and people can, as Selfe puts it, marvel at others who are looked at as “foreigners, exotics, and savages”.

I agree with Selfe’s idea that the internet is an “electronic colony” rather than a “global village.” I feel that although the internet in a sense puts the world at your fingertips, it is a kind of experience that is not as unique and firsthand. Selfe advocates the fact that “Americans use technology to become would travelers, to learn about- and acquire knowledge of- other cultures, while remaining comfortably situated within their own living rooms and thus, comfortably separated from the other inhabitants of the global village”. Selfe’s point is that by seeing the world through a screen on a desk or in your own lap in the comfort of your own home, people cannot thoroughly comprehend what it is they are seeing or reading about. The internet makes us feel included but the reality is that we are really comfortably removed from the situation, overlooking the fact we’re in the comfort of our own homes in our own comfortable living rooms sitting in a warn nice chair. I can agree with Selfe’s claim because my life experiences with the internet confirm the feeling of being a part of something when really I’m simply just watching from a comfortable distance. This “electronic colony” is not a new idea that came with the internet and new technology; it is now just more accessible to the populous. This idea is all around of everywhere, not only the internet, but in the news media on the television and on the radio as well as in books and magazines. Sure I can see poverty on a screen and feel bad and feel this motivation to try to help and make a difference but I’m not there experiencing it right among them. Although I personally in no way feel inferior to other people because of my race or where I live, there is no way I can fathom or feel what they are feeling and they struggles they go through. I’m not living there, I’m not immersed in the poverty itself, I can’t smell the air or feel the hunger or sadness they are feeling. I am just simply sympathizing with them through what I’m seeing through a screen. Though I concede Selfe’s theory on the “Electronic Colony” ruling the internet and media rather than the “Global Village”, I still insist that the internet is a start and step towards the idea of the “Global Village”. Although we are just seeing things through a screen, this could inspire some to do more and actually make a difference.