“The Invisible Coup” (2024-2025)

As an introduction to the topic in class, I read a New York Times article called “The Coup We Are Not Talking About” by Shoshana Zuboff. I became deeply intrigued by Zuboff’s article and how it tied together aspects of social sciences, politics, and business. Previously, in the Fall 2023 semester, I took a core class which covered politics ranging from ancient history through to modern times. There, I learned about the nature of democracy and the role information plays in maintaining political systems. Both the article and the class focused on epistemology, the study of information, its formation, and its use, so I was excited to draw on both to understand the ever-increasing turbulence of the current decade. 

Before writing this paper, I knew how to write an essay, but I did not fully understand how I tended to write my essays. While I was comfortable writing analytically and drawing from sources, after the first draft, I realized that I struggled with structuring essays in a clear and concise manner. My draft had two key ideas I knew I wanted to tie together, but I could not figure out how. Especially since the topic of the essay covered digital media, it was hard to narrow down the focus of my paper when there was a sea of potential sources to draw from. 

After my revisions, I basically had transformed each part of the essay in order to build a coherent line of argument. In the process of doing so, I realized how deep the issue of algorithmic malpractice went. From politics, to society, to war, I found how the power of computing could twist the order of the world. The process of writing this essay has helped to crystallize both my views on the ongoing information revolution and my own writing style.  

Andrew Hua grew up in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, and currently attends the College of Arts and Science. After running cross country in high school, he continues to run in the NYU Run Club, competing in long-distance races year-round. While studying Mathematics and Computer Science, he has always held an interest in politics and the systems behind it. In his first year, he took a class on politics that led him to consider the role technology plays in modern democratic societies. His essay further explores the impact that new digital media have on the flow of information and society.