We. Children WEB | Give Me Solutions

We the Children website.
Piotr Czerski.

Probably no other word that is used in excess as in the discourse of the media as "generation." I once tried to count the 'generations' that have been proclaimed in the last ten years since the famous article on the "Generation Nothing "and I think were as many as twelve. They all had something in common: they only existed on paper. Reality has never given us a single pulse tangible, meaningful and memorable, a common experience that we always distinguish it from previous generations. We've been looking for, but instead came a substantial change and unnoticed, along with cable television, mobile phones, and, above all, access to the Internet. It is only today that we can fully understand that much has changed over the last fifteen years.

We the Children website, we who grew up with Internet and online, we are a generation that meets the criteria of this term in a somewhat subversive. We have not had a pulse of reality, but rather a metamorphosis of reality itself. What unites us is not a common cultural background and limited, but the belief that the context is defined by itself and is an effect of free choice.

As I write this, I am aware that I am abusing the word "us" because our "we" is fluctuating, discontinuous, blurred, according to the old categories: temporary. When I say "we", meaning "many of us" or "some of us." When I say "we are" means "often are." I say "we" just to be able to speak only of us.

1.

We grew up with the Internet and the Internet. This is what makes us different, what makes the crucial, although surprising from his point of view, difference: we do not "surfed" the Internet, to us it is a "place" or "virtual space". The Internet for us is not something outside of reality, but part of it: an invisible, but present constantly intertwined with the physical environment. We do not use the Internet, we live on the Internet and through. If we were to tell our bildnungsroman [1], the analog, you could say there was a natural look to the Internet in every experience we have formed. We became friends and enemies online, prepare for the home application online, plan parties and study sessions online, we fell in love and broke online. The website for us is not a technology that we had to learn and we managed to understand it. The Web is a process for us, that happens and is transformed before our eyes continuously with us and through us. The technologies appear and then dissolve in the suburbs, web sites are built, bloom and then leave, but the Web is because we are the Web; us, communicating with others in a way that is natural for us, more intense and more efficient than ever before in human history.

Being raised on the Web think differently. The ability to find information for us something as basic as the ability to find a train station or a post office in a city unknown to you. When we want to know something - the first symptoms of chickenpox, the reasons for the sinking of the 'Estonia', or if the water bill is not suspiciously high - take action with the certainty of a driver in a car equipped with satellite navigation. We know that we will find the information you need in a lot of places, we know how to get to those places, we know how to assess their credibility. We have learned to accept that instead of an answer we find many different, and all we can abstract to the most probable, and get rid of those that do not seem credible. We select, filter, we remember and are willing to share information when it obtained a newer and better.

For us, the Web is a kind of shared external memory. We have to remember unnecessary details: dates, numbers, formulas, sentences, names of streets, detailed definitions. It is enough for us summarize the essence of what it takes to process information and relate to others. In case we need the details, we can find them in seconds. Similarly, we do not have to be experts in everything, because we know where to find people who specialize in what we ourselves do not know, and trust. People who share their experience with us non-profit, they do because of our shared belief that the information exists in the movement that wants to be free, that we all benefit from the exchange of information. Every day: study, work, solve everyday problems, pursue our interests. We know how to compete and we like it, but our competence, our desire to be different, based on knowledge, the ability to interpret and process information, and not the monopoly of it.

2.

Participate in cultural life is not unusual for us: global culture is the cornerstone of our identity, the more important to define ourselves that the traditions, historical accounts, social status, ancestry, or even the language we use. From the ocean of cultural events that we choose to agree more, we relate to them, the review, we keep our comments on websites created for this purpose, we also give suggestions of other albums, movies or games after like. Some movies, or videos we see with our colleagues and friends around the world, our findings are shared only by a small group of people who may never meet face to face. For this reason we believe that culture is becoming simultaneously global and individual thing. That's why you need the free access to it.

This does not mean we demand that all cultural products available to us at no cost, but when we create something, usually we give it back to circulate. We understand that, despite the increased accessibility of the technologies that make the quality of video files or sound previously reserved for professionals are available to all, creativity requires effort and investment. We are willing to pay, but the commission ask distributors giant seems obviously overestimated. Why should we pay for the distribution of information that can be easily copied perfectly and without any loss of original quality, It only we are getting the information alone, we want the price is proportional to it. We are willing to pay more, but hope to receive something of value added, interesting packaging, a gadget, higher quality, the option of seeing it here and now, without waiting for the download file.

We are able to show appreciation and want to reward artists (since the money stopped being paper money and became a string of numbers on the screen, the payment has become a symbolic act of exchange that is supposed to benefit both sides), but the sales goals of the companies have no interest to us at all. not our fault that your business has lost its meaning in its traditional form and instead of accepting the challenge and try to come to us with something more than what we can get for free, have decided to defend their outdated ways.

One more thing: do not want to pay for our memories. Films that remind us our childhood, the music that accompanies us ten years ago on the net external memory are just memories. Remember, exchanging them and develop them for us as natural as the memories of 'Casablanca' are for you. Found online movies we saw when we were kids and show them to our children, as you told us the story of Little Red Riding Hood or Goldilocks Can you imagine that someone could be accused of violating the law in this way ? We do not, we can not.

3.

We're used to that invoices are paid automatically, as long as our account balance permits, we know that opening a bank account or changing your mobile phone to another network is only a matter of filling out an online form and sign agreement delivered by a courier, just a trip across Europe and a short visit to another town on the road can be arranged in two hours. Consequently, with users of the state, we are increasingly annoyed by his archaic interface. Do not understand why the tax law calls for as many ways to complete, the main one is over a hundred questions. I do not understand why we are forced to officially confirm a permanent address in order to move to another, as if the municipalities could not communicate with each other without our intervention (not to mention the need to have a permanent address in itself is absurd enough) .

There is no trace in us of the humble acceptance shown by our parents, who were convinced that administrative issues are paramount and those who consider the interaction with the state as something to celebrate. We do not believe in respect, rooted in the distance between the citizen and the majestic lonely heights where lies the ruling class, barely visible through the clouds. Our point of view of social structure is different from yours: society is a network, not a hierarchy. We are used to initiate a dialogue with anyone, either a teacher or a pop star, and we need no special requirements related to social status. The success of the interaction depends only on whether the content of our message is considered as important and worthy of response. And if, through cooperation, ongoing discussions and the defense of our arguments against criticism, we feel that our views on many issues are simply better, why should not expect a serious dialogue with the government?

We do not feel a religious respect for the "democratic institutions" in its current form does not believe in their role axiomatic, as do those who see the "democratic institutions" as a memorial to and for themselves. We do not need monuments. Need a system that falls short of our expectations, a system that is transparent and competent. And we have learned that change is possible, that every system that is not comfortable for us may be superseded and replaced by a new , one that is more efficient, more suited to our needs, more opportunities.

What we value most is freedom: freedom of expression, freedom of access to information and culture. We believe it is because of the freedom that the web is what it is, and it is our duty to protect that freedom. We owe it to future generations, like we owe it to protect the environment.

Perhaps we have not yet given a name, perhaps we are not aware of this, but I think we want real democracy, genuine. Democracy, perhaps, is what dreams his journalism.