Top-down power: Hierarchies thrive on the internet | Jen Schradie | Big Think

A key factor in the digital activism gap is that groups that are more hierarchical, rather than horizontal, are more likely to use the Internet. This really overturns this sense that groups and protest movements like Occupy Wall Street or other more horizontal movements are really tethered to the Internet. In fact, the rise of a lot of these movements really rose in sync with the rise of digital technology.

If we really go back even farther, if we look at the launch of the World Wide Web over 30 years ago, it really coincided with the tearing down of Soviet symbols and structures. Right, the Berlin Wall was coming down at the exact same time that the Internet was spreading. So, we have in our psyche this cultural connection to the rise of the Internet as being this non-bureaucratic technology.

Even an early Apple commercial showed this very Orwellian group of people sitting, listening to some leader. In this is 1984, right? In comes a woman with a sledgehammer, and she swings it around and she throws it at the screen of this leader. Apple then says, you know, "1984 won't be like 1984," in reference to Orwell.

So, we have this really strong belief that the Internet is more horizontal and that out of those statues and walls crumbling will come the phoenix rising of the Internet that will enable everyday people to participate online. Certainly, in some cases, that's been the case.

But what I found overall, over time, without just these spikes of political protests, is that groups that are more hierarchical, that have systems in place, often find that this hierarchy goes in sync with systems. They are really able to engage and have high levels of online participation, very much contrary to the image of a digital activist as a radical left anarchist protester. It's much more likely to be an older conservative Tea Party member.