The documentary The Internet’s own Boy: The story of Aaron Swartz was very interesting, this is my first time hearing about Aaron Swartz and about the brilliant things that he was apart of. He was an amazing person who accomplished a lot in his short life.

Aaron Swartz questioned the systems that the government has put in place, mostly the education system and the justice system. He believed that these systems were rigged and he worked to shed light on the injustice of it all.

There is a segment in the documentary where Aarron’s brother reads a section of one of his blogs entitled Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto. In this blog Aaron speaks of the injustice that occurs when information that was intended to be free is locked up by big corporations that intend to profit from them.

This bewildered me, I’ve been apart of this system as a student especially since I’m a Biology minor. I’ve worked on a Biology article that has been published but I’ve never really looked at the bigger picture as to the whole schematics of how my work would be accessed or who controls it because I merely did it as an assignment for my class. Now that I’ve take everything into consideration, I can’t help but feel take advantage of to a degree. This makes me appreciate what Aaron Swartz have done and I’m saddened by his shorten life and the failed system that brought that to being.

When I think of Aaron Swartz, I visualize him “going against the grain”. He didn’t give up in trying to change a system that he deemed unacceptable. He was a revolutionist in his own right. He brought about much change and he started a movement. Even in his death he is still encouraging change.

“He was the Internet’s own boy, and the old world killed him”.

Aaron Swartz went against the grain.

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