Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a reoccurring idea coming up in class. That idea is the monopolization of the internet. Platforms are used to connect people, and in today’s world, technological platforms are on the rise. Technological platforms are those that don’t require physical presence to connect people, and that includes the internet.

There are most definitely powerhouses in the platforms of the internet that relay the idea of a monopoly. Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter, YouTube, and Pandora/Spotify are among the most prominent. Now, a lot of the time,  the monopolization of the internet is treated as a negative, but I feel like it’s very much the opposite. The monopolization of the internet is something that helps move it forward.

Now at first that may sound absurd. Monopolization can be seen as hindering the growth of smaller entities, and possibly stunting development. But with the internet, I feel it’s different. With the internet, things come and go, take memes for instance. The same holds for monopolies. Look at MySpace, Limewire, Yahoo, AIM, and others. They used to be considered the biggest platforms in what they did. But now they’ve bowed out, and moved over for the new top dogs.

Looking at it, internet platform monopolization isn’t necessarily a bad thing. All these new big names had some improvement over their predecessor. The old apps becoming the biggest name of their platforms put them in the spotlight. This allowed people to be shown what was good about the current era, and what needed improvement. The next monopoly takes that information and improves on it. People often say that Facebook was a massive improvement over MySpace, and Google’s results are generally better than Yahoo’s.

Now to some, monopolies like this are bad, as they don’t feel they promote new ideas and improvement. Maybe it sounds like I’m saying that “I for one welcome our new overlords” in some regard but I honestly feel like these waves have their benefits. “Out with the old, in with the new” as the saying goes. I feel that saying fits this trend very well. It’s the nature of the internet to grow and improve and I feel that the monopolies have played a part in that.