Hackers get a bad rep almost all the way across the board. The very word "hacker" has a violent intrusive connotations, which fail to adequately describe their actual work. The vast majority of news coverage relating in any way to the term "hackers" is negative and fearful of what is unfamiliar territory to most, even in our modern society.
Hollywood and TV shows have spawned numerous iterations of the "hacker" character, from the 1983 WarGames, through most 007 movies, Sneakers, the Matrix trilogy, Die Hard 4, The Dark Knight, etc. Even today it seems like most movies weave some level of computer hacking into the plot of every story. In the entertainment media, I see a pretty even split between malicious hackers dead-set on destroying the world as we know it and the Robin Hood style hackers who use their skills in illegal and wrongful ways as a means to a greater end. But in both cases what they are doing is still portrayed as devious and wrongful behavior.
News coverage is overwhelmingly negative towards hackers, especially in light of several huge hacks on government states and billion dollar companies and corporations. All of the info which Snowden released in many cases was branded as hacking, which is not entirely truthful, but it served as an easy label which the public could understand. Recent alleged hacks on Sony from North Korea, or on the U.S. from China continue to paint a threatening portrait of hackers whose only goal seems to be the undermining of society as we know it.
Anyone familiar with those known as "hackers" know very well that these representations are far from the truth. If anything, hackers are directly responsible for the safety of our Internet and electronic devices. Their work is like the vaccines of our Internet, scary at first, but essential in the long run.
That is an interesting concept, that maybe we use these single stories because it is alot easier to group people in to big folders rather than take the time to get to know their stories. Hackers is perhaps too broad a definition to describe all the different types of people that use their knowledge of computers to achieve something.
ReplyDeleteI liked your analysis because it was different and I had never thought about hackers that way before. It's true- "hacker" is a very negative term but a lot of our modern technology today we owe to the hackers. So I'm curious, are you a future hacker?
ReplyDeleteI love the group you focused on. In the times we live in, this is such a rich area to focus on and consider. Hackers have been such a strong element in movies and tv shows in the recent years that it's no surprise that there is such a heavy focus on the other side of the story that is limiting.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of considering hackers as a specific group. How can we fight the negative connotation of the term hackers?
ReplyDeleteinteresting topic
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