Hello class:
The rapid access to information provides the immediate gratifications people seek. The power of entering into a world filled with the material of one’s interest give cyberspace a great advantage over the unpredictable everyday life.
The individualized features of the web place each user in the front seat, creating the illusion of control. Even the word cyberspace (κυβερνοχώρος) hints to a sense of empowerment, a space waiting to be governed. Technology maybe has passed the stage of functioning as an extension of oneself and moved on to replace the “self.”
Control is the ultimate objective of most actions and decisions people make in an effort to prove themselves. The internet enables one to recreate his entire virtual environment, thus conquering his ambitions.
In the book, Communication and Cyberspace, there is a reference to how people tend to “measure” themselves. The computers’ memory and operating system define how powerful one may be.
The illusion of attaining further command over others is a feature very difficult to give up.
As a result, the nature of human interaction and relationships has been modified to fit into the standards and expectations set by online communication. It would be very interesting to examine the depth and types of relationships created among users.
Margaret Maria Roidi
Posts
When you wake up in the morning, you want to figure out what is going on in the world today. You can get it from any medium, including the Internet, newspaper, TV or radio. As technology evolves, the amount of information that it carries also increase. Computers today are much friendlier than they were about fifteen years ago. We can mainipulate certain programs on the Web and can socialize with virtual, as opposed to physical, friends. MySpace and Facebook allow the user to talk with hundreds of people he/she has never met with yet.
ReplyDeleteFreddie
all of our key technologies provide metaphors that we then apply to ourselves, which has a certain irony to it if you consider the fact that the technologies are extensions of ourselves to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI like how you introduced this idea of people measuring themselves with their technologies. I think this is a vaild point, whether it be an actual computer or a way a person sees themselves as a "memeber" of cyberpace- whether or not they have a huge friend base on a social network, or viewers of their website.
ReplyDeleteI see this more and more that a person's value is being judged on what they have or do technologically speaking. Whether or not you own an iPhone, or have 1000 friends on Facebook is becoming a defining factor for some people.