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1-Page Summary of Cognitive Surplus
What 21st-Century TV Watchers Have in Common with 18th-Century Drunks
During the 1720s, London was a haven for drunks who had recently migrated to the city from rural areas in search of work. These people were using gin as an escape from their new urban lives and as a way to cope with the stress of living in such an unfamiliar environment. The problem was that it was cheap and easy to make, so many people started drinking it because they could afford it. They also drank more than beer because beer took longer to drink. It helped them forget about how strange life in the city felt when they first got there.
In the 1700s, Londoners were alarmed by the amount of gin that their fellow citizens were drinking. They petitioned Parliament to do something about it because they believed that too much gin was making people sick, and they didn’t want to live in a city with so many drunkards. The government tried passing laws against alcohol production and consumption, but those failed as well. This went on for 30 years until the problem just sort of resolved itself when people stopped drinking so much gin without any specific action taken by anyone.
In the past few decades, there has been a significant change in how people live. They have moved from rural areas to suburban ones. This is similar to what happened in London during industrial times when workers moved into cities and started living in slums. The difference between then and now is that more of today’s workforce consists of intellectuals than factory or blue-collar workers. More time is spent with television as it serves as an ideal way for people to forget about their problems while watching shows and movies on TV instead of doing something productive like reading books or listening to music.
Many people spend a lot of their free time watching TV, and it’s been called a colossal waste of time. However, more people are spending that same amount of time online instead. This is because being online is active and allows you to interact with others in many different ways.
The Internet has enabled people to work together in ways that were not possible before. Now, they can share information and improve the world. For example, Wikipedia is a great online encyclopedia that was created by many contributors who are unpaid. It represents a valuable end product of all the “free time of the world’s educated citizenry.” People accumulate “well over a trillion hours” of free time annually, and now they can engage actively with each other online to have fun, share information and do good deeds.
Police officers analyze three factors before making an arrest: the suspect’s ability to commit a crime, his/her motive for doing so and whether he/she had the opportunity to do it. These same criteria can help explain why people have cognitive surplus:
1. Means: Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
In 2003, mad cow disease contaminated US meat and Korea closed its borders to American beef. Five years later, Lee Myung-bak informed Koreans that they would begin importing US beef again. Tens of thousands of citizens protested in Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon Park for five nights straight against the decision by sleeping there every night. This became South Korea’s biggest protest since 1987 when Koreans took to the streets demanding democracy.
Teenage girls were the primary protestors in South Korea because they loved a boy band called Dong Bang Shin Ki (DBSK). The band’s website allowed fans to communicate with each other and talk about anything that was on their minds. Online conversations among these teenage girls led them to protest against US beef imports, which eventually resulted in President Myung-bak making his entire cabinet step down and apologizing for not consulting his citizens. This shows that when people are passionate about something, they can accomplish great things even if it is just during their free time—even if they are teenage girls.
