Aaron Swartz & Access

Internet’s Own Boy follows Aaron Swartz as a little kid growing up in Brooklyn until ultimately when he was grown and had a full mindset and knowledge about how the internet can be used. Growing up in Brooklyn as a little kid with his 2 brothers, he was often shown on the film as being the motivator for his brothers. When I say this, I mean it as he often took it upon his hands to teach his brothers everything he possibly learned at a young age. For example in the film it showed Aaron stating “Let me teach you algebra”. Ideally, that’s not something a little kid learns until maybe grade school but for Aaron, nothing seemed intimidating for him.

Aaron can be named various things such as a Software developer, writer, just to name a few. But in my opinion, I think the name that suits him best is Internet activist.

The title of the documentary “The Internet’s Own Boy”, it tells the viewers Swartz was an expert and understood the web at an unbelievable pace that few others could relate to. He started in his early teens with his involvement in the creation of the RSS feed, the social news site Reddit, and several other hubs for leftist activism and information sharing.

With such knowledge for the internet and how it works, it made him a target by the government. His intentions with the web was to make it a better, fairer place for users to feel safe on and know that everything is in the open and not hidden. One thing led to another and he was later arrested. After that, he was sentenced to 35 years with a $1 million fine if he was convicted. As a result, he committed suicide. This film highlights all his achievements and features numerous people close to Aaron with their stories about him and what he believed in.

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