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As discussed during class, isolated regions such as North Korea undergo more shortcomings as opposed to any forms of advantage or profit resulting from restricted access to social media or social networking sites. Through the general consensus of my fellow students, I feel that the only valid argument that highlighted the disadvantages of social networking sites or public search engines such as Google was that these big corporations geared their marketing schemes towards vulnerable computer savvy users unbeknownst to said computer savvy users. But let’s get real here. Although it never comes to mind or surfaces from the depths of our inner conscience, we as a whole that comprises a superlative, powerful nation are blessed to be granted the ability to search whatever we want freely, and have access to an innumerable quantity of information that great thinkers from studied past generations, those frizzy haired visionaries that meticulously studied and did research solely from reading books that were rarely available to the general public (an act  that rarely occurs in the high school setting these days despite their grand availability), could only have DREAMED of attaining or receiving access as an adolescent, or at the varied age in which knowledge is absorbed like a sponge.

            According to The Telegraph, “The UN's World Food Programme says North Korea faces its worst food shortage in a decade, with six million people at risk - a consequence of poor economic management of its centrally planned system, a series of bad harvests caused by harsh winters, flooding and exhausted agricultural land, and the regime's unwillingness to spend its dwindling hard currency reserves on buying food for its 24 million people.” The United States, as well as many other nations, have acted upon this disturbing news and began a food aid to help the North Korean civilians literally starving to death. However, due to the persistence of a nuclear program initiated by Kim Jong-il, the U.S. suspended the food aid in 2008, discontinuing assistance even after his recent death a few months ago. Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/death-of-kim-jong-il-shows-north-koreas-isolation-224948/. It’s sad to say most Americans are unaware that a famine of this severity is even possible to exist in such a technologically advanced society in which hunger is becoming less and less of a global issue despite the fact that it is still a haunting phenomena, which is another poignant topic in it of itself.  If the North Korean people knew that famine was an abnormality, and means of living were not devastating or horrendous as the quality of life for which they are subjected to, then perhaps a revolt such as the one we are now witnessing in the country of Syria would manifest. The North Koreans are an oppressed people, but because they are restricted from the outside world, they live their lives through the truths in which they are fed through a government that bullies without resistance. They are brain washed into believing that what is going on is not a question of dehumanization, it’s a fact of life.

            It’s sad to say, but I only really started learning more and more about North Korea’s isolationism through the death of Kim Jong-il as expressed through this article. Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/death-of-kim-jong-il-shows-north-koreas-isolation-224948/. According to BBC, the lucky few North Koreans who attend school are heavily monitored by their teachers so as to spew out robotic responses that do not give away any knowledge to a western reporter to suggest these severe restrictions. “‘Thanks to the Great Leader,’ one young man replied, ‘we are allowed to watch English and American films, like The Sound of Music.’ When asked which world leaders - other than the Dear Leader - he admired, he quickly answered ‘Stalin and Mao Zedong!’ However, the students had not heard of Nelson Mandela.’” Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16243995.

            Conclusively, I feel that the Google search-geared-towards-vulnerable-computer-users argument is completely applicable. However, I think that despite this, access should nonetheless be granted to all walks of human life, even with those pesky and persistent ads that are like eye candy to the susceptible consumer. To the oppressed North Koreans, any form of information is worth the double-take on an ad, because in all honesty, a maddening ad regarding abroad teaching degrees or Ugg boots for cheaper prices is the least of their concerns when their stomachs, much like their search engine bars, are blank.