The internet changed everyone’s life.

Whereas, opposed to watching television... people can now sit at home on their couch and watch, "people," and in many ways this past time is easier than it's ever been before via the information super highway. Furthermore, through-out this modern day Renaissance of social interactions through a keyboard... many social evolution’s have also occurred. Nevertheless, this tech trend has also spilled into the economy… whereby, in today’s job market people frequently submit their work with the click of a mouse.

According to Google around 40% of the world’s population has access to the internet, today. Yet, even more astounding is the fact that people are no longer just posting cat memes, whereby, according to Forbes.com, 1 in 5 Americans now work's from home, "online."

And do you remember the first time that you had a conversation online? Didn’t it feel a little bit awkward... particularly when bringing up things that you said online later on, in real life or, "IRL," as it's often called today. Perhaps that same conversation that you had online later on just wasn't, "the same," in real life or, "IRL," despite being the same subject matter and opinion? Maybe away from the keyboard the vibe was just, "different."

Image from a William Larsen IIIrd screen shot.

Social media has seen historic rises in consumption over the past decade on sites like; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. Furthermore, many companies now schedule everything they do, online. This is true of everything from appointments, to job interviews, to work schedules... and in this way many business' now greatly rely on the internet to connect directly with their consumers and their employee's.

This phenomenon is now known as, “the internet startup,” or, "webification," and it’s perhaps the most intriguing evolution of technology in recent history. Where with a little bit of tech savvy someone can literally build an entire website, generate traffic and create a small business right at home! Never before in human history was the pursuit of happiness so straight forward! However, “the internet startup,” has also created a cautionary tale both in America and abroad as this danger in many ways has AND WILL influence the way that people use the internet moving forward.

Historical Connection

In the early 1900’s, signs began to flood Times Square. Signs for; hotels, manicures, drinks, cola’s, legal services, farming and all sorts of commercial goods and services began springing up. In a dog eat dog economy... soon these signs became, “the new American marketing platform.” Shortly after 1900 these signs became billboards and those billboards began to cover every spec of ground that was visible to the human eye, clustering the foot traffic with messages and ideals that almost drown eachother out more and more with each passing year. But what happened in NYC with the advent of mainstream public advertising is very much the same phenomena that we are seeing online, today.

The Internet Startup

So, how does the internet, particularly; Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, and Twitter, decide who they recommend their viewers to consume? Because as more and more business’ take to the information super highway it has already become increasingly difficult to garner the audience needed to create any real profitability (*outside of the social engines and web entrepeneurs who sell ad space). Furthermore, imagine if Google or other search engines unfairly diverted web traffic to only a few select internet businesses? This could potentially create a great deal of future inequality and political corruption (*and it has).

What if Facebook or Google... only sent web traffic to their own personal friends? Or exclusively to their corporate clients? This is a very scary proposition… and this potentially dystopian future is kind of the direction that we’re currently headed towards! In fact, this trend could have a wide range of negative implications both for Civilians News and other small business’ around the world if the commercialization of the internet and democratization of cash collide!

For this reason; recently a fight in the Supreme Court took place regarding internet provider’s ability to adjust the speed of wireless service in favor of corporate clientele. This case fell on deaf ears for most Americans, probably because of the News giants who would rather avoid any subject matter pertaining to their own bottom lines... but this case represented a very historic turning point for internet businesses. Furthermore, this type of legislation is in many ways metaphorical of a turning point in the future of information and the consumption of data, as we know it.

The Future Of News

In conclusion, this paradigm of profits and culture, markets and startups, tech and grass roots conversations... is especially interesting when it comes to, “the future of news online. Whereby, ultimately some parameters have to be put into place to allow for a, “fairer,” internet and fairer elections which could essentially become molded by internet conjecture. Furthermore, recent court battles have marked a critical turning point for the development of the internet itself. Imagine what could happen if these major internet controlling companies, who are controlling the bulk of the web traffic and data that consumer's see today... became more concerned with profits than America itself? And what’s most important to remember during this evolution is how the internet develops for consumers moving forward. How internet businesses evolve to help clients in the future, which companies favor which people and how we divide online wages! Whereby, the profits from advertising online itself... may very well shape the future of the world economy because of the potential biases of; internet provider's, social networks and search engines. Furthermore, many of these decisions have not yet been made and not only that but many of these decisions will depend upon our voices to determine the outcome of this new era of information, communication, online marketplaces and global/regional politics. OR RATHER, THIS IS NOT FAKE NEWS!

So, for these reasons, established in 2011... Civilians News has come into fruition. Civilians News was born on April 5th, 2011, in Walled Lake, Michigan with the goal of providing, "news for all views." Civilians News was established free of corporate bias with the goal to counteract the daily news cycle. In this light... Civilians News has begun, directly from the grass roots Americans we walk by on the streets and that we speak to every day. Hopefully, our readership grows over time and our readers *(YOU!) can help us develop into an online platform which is dedicated to; free speech, progress and turning negative news into change.

Thank you for reading, Civilians News! NEWS FOR ALL VIEWS!

William Larsen – Founder of CiviliansNews.com!