Internet=Utopia??

A place where there are only minds, is this a Utopia, and can it be found with in the Internet? Every morning I wake up and instantly turn on my music, load my e-mail, while checking my facebook all the same time. It is said that the virtual universe is a universe of anti racism, and no one cares about the ethnicity you are. But in fact, there are many hidden and subliminal messaging going on behind the scenes of our P.C’s.
In the document we read called Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet it explains that there is an anthem that commercials play repeatedly on the television. This anthem speaks of the Internet being a way to discover the world, or to expand society past gender, and race, and even the age factor. Their idea of discovering the world is simply logging on to their networks, and looking at a series of pictures from around the world. For example, it is said that they portray the scene with camels and pyramids having blue skies and bright sand surrounding it. But, where is the trash and the road kill, or airborne warning and control systems? It also goes to explain how the third world countries are portrayed as unspoiled, and truly different. Truly different? This shocked me that they would put this in an ad because it just goes to show how un-open people are today about other cultures. If there is a tribe in Africa where women are dominate, and they take their last names our society would say that it was weird, and try to change them instead of us taking a step back and looking around to see what is wrong in our culture.
When I first read over this article my first reaction was, “what!” But, after reevaluating and discussing it in class I have began to see the different stereotypes, and racial mocks that are posted all over the internet. For instance, the place called youtube in which movies are openly submitted are often times, racial and said to be funny because of the racial slurs with in it. Not only are the movies on the Internet portraying wrongful messages, but also just the pictures posted on things like facebook, and myspace. These are web pages that many teens use today, and don’t even realize the meanings behind the pictures they are looking at. All in all, the Internet is no utopia, but just another reality with the double meaning pictures, and the slurs that put other people down.