Digital Resistance

When looking back at major efforts made or movements, there are certain characteristics that seem to apply to most. There are often leaders, groups that follow and support, media coverage, and specific locations that are key to the movement. This, of course, does not apply to every nonviolent movement, but many that we have looked at in class. We recently, however, discussed the idea of "digital resistance". This idea is one that I am not particularly "sold on" when dealing with nonviolent strategy. For example, we looked at a program called Second Life, where people can essentially "live a life" through a computer character. Along with personal activities, you can also do things such as protest and support certain causes. Outside of Second Life, there are other digital movements such as joining certain groups online or even just clicking to add a number on a website. I have a hard time grasping the actual accomplishments of this kind of movement. Are actions like these actually affecting the opposition? I had never even heard of Second Life until our class discussion, leading me to wonder how effective their character's protest actually is in the real world. Other examples of digital resistance could be hacking or redirecting online. This is also somewhat odd to me when viewed as a nonviolent act. Although no physical violence is being done, our society today views computer hacking as a very negative thing, regardless of the cause. Redirecting your opposition's website to porn for example, would negatively effect not only the company, but also the people that are trying to reach their website. After discussing the various definitions of violence and nonviolence, it is very difficult for me to view this as nonviolent.