Downloaded: The True History Of The Internet

As an assignment for my Digital Media class, I am to review the fourth segment of Downloaded: The True Story of the Internet, while relating it to the topic of this blog, if possible. There were several things (aside from the unnecessarily gimmicky and obnoxious host) stood out to me in this documentary, the first of which was the total absence of women from the story line. Now, I know that the purpose of this segment of “Downloaded” was to highlight innovation in social media outlets, and that the inventors of YouTube, Digg, Napster, Facebook, and MySpace just happened to be men, but I hesitate to accept that as “just the way it is” and leave it at that. There are a lot of awesome women in technology, and yet, at least as far as it’s presented in this video, the history of innovation on the internet was pioneered solely by men. 

While there are efforts being made to interest girls in pursuing technological studies, I would suggest that girls and women learn to emulate a quality that is demonstrated in the narrative of almost every subject of this video. Each of these men had faith in the potential of their ideas. They did not second-guess themselves, even as they were attempting things that had never been done before. They did not keep their visions to themselves out of fear that they would not be taken seriously. They did not ask for permission. In the very apt words of Roseanne Barr, 

“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it. ”