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In today's world, we are subject to the omnipresent process of information sharing. At this very moment, your device is processing vast amounts of data within its own system, beaming electronic signals to each one of its internal hardware components, insuring that it is performing its tasks at an optimal capacity. Meanwhile it is communicating through a network that seamlessly connects millions of other devices, all simultaneously sending and receiving packets of data on servers maintained by a subnetwork of bandwidth cables that span oceans and continents.

 At a moments notice, we can access just about any piece of information we want, whenever we want. It's formed into a habit for most technology users. Most can't truly live without its convenience. Sometimes it's extremely hard to disengage and really take a look at how and why something is happening. Especially when there is so much content to enjoy on the internet and not enough time to enjoy it. Regardless, I like to take the time to look up from my screen and orient myself with what is happening in the real world while people are living their digital fantasies.

It is that point that I again realize that our real world and digital world are more connected than I have cared to notice, and that in a similar fashion, the lines between our fiction and reality are becoming blurred.

Enter the Matrix.

The Matrix has been the subject of controversial discussion since its debut in 1999 for the thematic substance portrayed throughout the film, that deals with a broad range of topics. However, while many of these themes can fall secondhand to the spectacular film itself, they become increasingly hard to ignore when they tap into our very own digital culture. It is after all a film based around technological constructs, and does very well to put those themes on the forefront.  

One of the most interesting of these themes shown is the portrayal of digital culture and its impact on society. This is primarily displayed in the first half of the film in which the main character (Neo aka. Thomas Anderson) is still living in his false reality. The Matrix simulation in the film replicates nearly every aspect of the year 1999, the year where technology was making its way into the daily lives of the average American. However, this was still a time of uncertainty of technology, and the application of personal computers was seen primarily for personal organization. Regardless, technology had its impact on society, and this can be seen in some of the first scenes in the Matrix.

In one of the first establishing scenes, we can see Neo in his apartment asleep in front of what appears to be a significant amount of programing language on his computer. He is awoken to someone relaying cryptic messages to him on his computer regarding the Matrix, and his curiosity surrounding it. Almost immediately after the end line of the message, he hears a knock on his door. He then opens the door to a group of clients searching for the best hacks money can buy. We immediately see the prevalence of hacker culture displayed in this first seen. Hackers are seen as this shadow network of blackhats that operate only to disrupt the establishment. In a sense, that perception is true. However, hackers aren't all exactly out prey on unsuspecting citizens in the zero dark hours of the morning. Some are. But most are just simply tinkerers. People who are curious about the laws that have been set in place surrounding the hardware and firmware they operate on, as well as breaking them. This can be seen later during the dialogue exchange between Morpheus and Neo regarding the Matrix. It is a program based on set rules that can be bent fit your own standards. This is the same mentality that early homebrew clubs were built on. 

Hidden within some of the most iconic sci-fi movies are the struggles that the previous generation went through to make the present what it is today. The Matrix and Tron are films that had new concepts at the time. The creators of these films left multiple hidden messages about the 'truth' behind many of the technologies and freedoms we take for granted today.

With Tron, on the surface we see a movie about a man named Flynn hacking into his old workplace to get proof his work was stolen. Doing so, he ends up breaking in and getting sucked into the artificial intelligence program that runs the company and fights for his life to get out. Beneath the romanticism of the movie we see one of the more apparent issues: copyright.

The company that Flynn works for, can be viewed as a symbol for ATARI. This can be assumed because of the videogames that were released, similar to Pac-Man and Space Invaders, which marked the rise to power of the corporation. During the rise, boom, and crash of video games ATARI was at the center of it all. They were the videogame company before Nintendo and other companies rose to power. However, much like Flynn's case, some of their programmers weren't credited for the work they did and had their work stolen. Tron speaks about the issue of copyright and how this played a part in shaping society back when the Internet and the World Wide Web were coming out.  

The Matrix is a film that discusses the World Wide Web and the issue of closed systems, along with the World Wide Web and the Internet. The main character of the film, Neo, is a hacker who is trying to figure out what the Matrix is while also maintaining his ordinary life as a programmer for a software company. Upon finding out that the Matrix is actually an AI that has created the virtual world in which all humans live in, he joins up with like minded individuals to attempt to free humanity.

The Matrix is a world with constraints that controls the lives of the people that inhabit it. It dictates what can be done in the world and what cannot. People like Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity want to remove the control that the Matrix has on people and allow them to be 'free'. This means that they want to remove people from the Matrix so that they can embrace true freedom by realizing the truth of the real world and living their lives accordingly. Just like the issue with closed systems, networks like AOL controlled what content people could access on the World Wide Web. No one could add or create content on the system, leaving them powerless and without a voice. This is completely different to the culture we have today where individuals can make their own blogs and websites, uploading and downloading software freely.

There is an important scene in The Matrix where Neo is able to learn anything in an instant by downloading it directly into his mind. At one point he is amazed at how easily and efficiently he is able to learn martial arts. This is a crucial point in the movie because it speaks about the rights of individuals to freely upload and download content on the World Wide Web. While closed networks controlled the Internet and made an attempt to control the World Wide Web, when it first came out no one knew how big of a platform the WWW would evolve into. Corporations wanted to limit and monetize the Web and place constraints that would prevent what modern day man can do easily, such as post an article or download a video. The Matrix, while an entertaining sci-fi film against a corrupt AI, is actually a movie about man's fight for freedom on the Web and using the Internet.

After watching two of the most iconic movies in regards to computers and the evolution of technology, one word stuck with me, immersion. Tron (1982) and The Matrix (1999) both revolve around the concept of being immersed into a virtual reality of sorts. In today’s society this concept is becoming a reality. Whether it be through our phones, computers, video games and now VR headsets. 

Tron was released right before the video game crash of 1983. Due to this Tron focused on the rise of video games and the idea of them being something that we can immerse ourselves in. The movie itself revolves around a man named Flynn that gets sucked into a video game and has to find his way out while fighting parts of the machine he is in. When the movie was released it caused a large interest in computers and video games. It made people want to try and replicate what had happened and go into the grid like Flynn. It helped boost the number people interested in personal computers and the number people who created them. In Tron, Flynn is fighting parts of the machine like the MCP (Master Control Program), which has control over the programs across a variety of machines. The MCP is able to gather the different types of programs onto one single machine. This concept was brought into the movie after one of the creators discovered ARPANET more commonly known as the Internet. While this was not one of the main topics of the movie it is something that sparked curiosity around the subject of being able to share data among multiple devices. We do this on a daily basis with all of our devices. For example, my phone, watch and computer all connect and sync up with each other. I can send a text on my phone, go on my computer and continue the conversation from there. While Tron revolved around going into a video game and essentially playing it to escape, The Matrix focused on escaping a virtual reality and staying in reality.

The Matrix was released in 1999 after the rise of the personal computer and during the rise of the Internet. The Matrix focused on the future of human life if we continued to immerse ourselves with our devices. The concept of humans being born into a virtual reality and being under the control of programs and machines is something that has appeared in a variety of films before and after the matrix was released. However this time it was different, there is someone who is able to fight the programs, someone who is able to the read the code known as the Matrix and manipulate it to his will. What this shows us is that we are the creators; we can alter anything on a computer with a few keystrokes. This created an interest in programming and personal computers. The idea of being able to create something and have it do something for you with one click brought a larger interest in personal computers and helped create new technology. In The Matrix, those who were free and outside of the Matrix went back in by being ‘plugged in’. Once plugged in, you were able to connect with everyone else in the matrix. It’s like plugging an Ethernet cable into a computer and going onto the Internet. In fact, when those who were free went into the matrix, they were able to download and learn how to something in seconds. Today, we can go onto the World Wide Web and search how to do something and find a guide within seconds. What was once a concept in a movie is now reality.

We are slowly adapting all of the ideas in these movies and using them on a day-to-day basis. Whether it be sharing data among different devices or going online to something we do it as if its nothing. Even now, we are creating technology that allows us to immerse into a video or a movie or anything really. Virtual reality is becoming a reality as we speak and it will be something that we use on a day-to-day basis as well.