Hegemonic Coding.

After an intensive self-exploration lessons in Javascript and JQuery within a span of a month, I felt equipped for any coding challenges in my future job; I believe I can run a program and like-wise hang internet browsers (no-go).

Thanks to the free lessons on the Internet, I managed to developed two interactive websites applications; they are no big projects but replicas of twitter and flipboard - they were really basic and easy to pick up to be honest. However, in the midst of formulating the former twitter-type application -exploring the DOM manipulation and JQuery methods - and experimenting with the limits of the program, there's a disturbing thought that lingered in my mind itching for liberation.

So in a nutshell, there were 3 main functions in the Twitter-type applications - for simplicity sake, let's call it 'T-app'. The first function was the creation of a post (duh). The second was to limit the word counter in a post. The last was the disable button which was aimed not to publish if there's 0 words or when the post exceeds a stipulated amount. In short, the second function was rather thought-provoking.

On the surface, it might not seem like a big deal. Sure, it allowed people to express their opinions in the posts. Also, there is this humanistic idea of allowing two strangers to interact; the T-app had good intentions.

However, while executing the function, I realized I could jolly well limit their outputs by either stretching the word limit to infinity or even a mere 50 words. Rather, I could do anything I wanted. With regards to the T-app, there were severe implications. Assuming the T-app becomes a popular usage (or it already has. Think Twitter), users will be accustomized in expressing their thoughts and ideas within the limit of let's say 50 words. This is rather problematic in many ways. For instance, it would lead to the creation of short form words or new abbreviations which could spell the end of long words in the dictionary (e.g. word.length > 13). Indeed, the laws of the English language or any other languages will undoubtedly take a beating and evolve as we speak. Consequently, it will nevertheless influence the development of education and the quality of academic works.

Hence I think therein lies a rather hegemonic relation between the users of I.T and the creators of programs or inventions in a world where I.T is becoming more prevalent; the users in this case, who are not knowledgeable about computing, might be vulnerable as victims as they are susceptible in the exposure to new programs and I.T applications. For instance, I feel that liking in the platforms like Facebook and Instagram will definitely affect the way we seek pleasure in the realms of aesthetics or personal interests. It is scary because the influences can be unpredictable yet this fact of not knowing brings about great adventure and challenges. The only way out I feel is that the users are able to clear demarcate the linguistic rules stacked between the virtual world and reality; I can totally relate to this - typing my thesis paper and writing a Twitter post involves a subtle switch of linguistic laws yet the former is viewed as the larger obstacle because it entails more words as opposed to the latter. However, this is not to say that less is more nor more is less; can we find a moderate balance?