The history of the web is an astonishingly large topic. The readings really opened my eyes to how quickly with which the ease of access to information has risen due to the internet. I thought it was particularly fascinating how the author likened the history web in 1995 to ‘a walking city’ only within a few short years to become a ‘sprawling megapolis.’ In harmony with the modern day urbanization, the internet has grown into a vast entity of information in a small space. Because of the speed in which the internet has progressed, I find it difficult to understand sometimes that the web is VERY new (in some way younger than I am). Because of this explosion of information now easily accessible on a large scale, the line between what is true and what is not true has been blurred. To help clear the blur and because researching the internet has become something of a daunting task, many scholarly indexes of relevant information have been created, in order to make research easier. In addition, the freedom of the internet and resulting digitalization has downplayed capitalist endeavors in some respects, causing some databases of information to exist only for paying subscribers. Thus, the ‘rich get richer’ in mind as well as financially.
For a possible topic for my project I have decided to research the effect of the Vietnam War and Veteran memorial on music throughout the last few decades. A possible research question pertaining to this topic could be: “How was the Vietnam War received in different genres of music and what role does music play at the Vietnam Memorial?” The question is rough right now, and is split into two parts. As I stated in my first blog, I enjoy music and finding a connection between music and the war/memorial could potentially inspire a compelling final project.