Race and the Digital: Racial Formation and 21st Century Technologies

What the internet is for

The funny thing is that as I read the article, the website I thought of right away was change.org. I agree with the comments before me that online petitions are not a form of media but more of a political protest. Going back to Change.org, there motto is "change anything, anywhere, big or small" and describe the function of a petition as "people joining together and raise their voices about an issue they care about". The medias goal is to "inform" the audience of current issues and do their end in order to educate the public. However, online petitions instead make people become involved and active about issues they care or are passionate about. I know that when I hear or read something and I want to in fact change it, I sign online petitions. I've signed numerous petitions that concern education and certain aspects in my neighborhood.

To answer another question Michelle posed, I believe minorities tend to participate in "fun" because they are getting acquainted with the internet and what it has to offer. Unlike Anglos, minorities, for the most part, are "new" to the internet. I became aware of the Web when I was in the 3rd grade in school, and I did not learn about it at home. Also my parents recently learned about the web in the past 2 years. This may be due to the fact that they are from a ranch in Mexico and were "old fashioned" when it came to technology. However, are internet uses are different. As a college student, I tend to use the web for homework and social media. However, both my parents tend to use it for Youtube and browsing the web. From a perspective, it can be believed that my internet use is more beneficial than my parents, but I don't believe that. Internet use is unique and does not reflect the capabilities of a person. My parents are new to the web and are exploring everything that appeals to them. And me, as someone who has experience and years with the web, I tend to use it for more "important" reasons. But when I was younger, I used the internet for fun. So I think, as people become more accustomed to the web their internet use will expand and become more diverse.

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