Blog Post 3 - The Machine is Us/Using Us

Professor Wesch gave the name “Web 2.0…The Machine is Us/Using Us” to the video because there is a massive amount of data that is being added to the internet through Web 2.0 technologies by users. Courtney (2007) observes that Web 2.0 “is an attempt to conceptualize the dramatic changes that the web has brought to society,” (p. 1). Tim Berners-Lee, the creator the World Wide Web, disagrees with the term Web. 2.0, but he makes a relevant observation that Web 2.0 “is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people,” (as cited in Courtney, 2007, p. 3) Web 2.0 allows users to connect with each other virtually without using a publishing company to post content on the web. Individuals are tagging, labeling, and posting their own information. These individuals are organizing the web with their actions. Wesch shows a striking article near the end of the video that shows that the web or the Machine as being taught as users click on thousands of different links and web pages. Users are organizing and labeling the internet because the majority of the new content being added is being added by those individuals. As a result, individuals are all part of the internet. The Machine or the internet is made and organized by all of us, but at the same time, the internet is using the content that we post it to learn and grow. Therefore, the internet is also using us.