Here Comes Everybody to Google

I remember back in the late 90's when my family finally got dialup internet. It was amazing to be able to connect to with so many people all across the world. Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody made a great point about how the internet has changed the whole dynamic of filtering and then publishing. In the chapter entitled "Publish, Then Filter", the point was made that how the internet is used today forces our society to publish and then filter what has been published. The quality of work that we find online varies from incompetently amateur to exceptionally professional. The filter that most internet users to find new information is through Google's search engine. When I have a question my first instinct is to do a Google search to see what comes up. By doing this we are allowing the supposed better material, whether amateur or professional, to permeate through Google's search engine and onto our computer screen. Quoting from Here Comes Everbody, "It's when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen" (p. 105). The technology of the internet has become so normal to us that doing a Google search has become commonplace and invisible. We need to be aware of the changes that are occurring around us as we continue to filter the massive amount of information that is available on the internet.