Welcome to those few brave souls who’ve ventured back to my little blog. I wish to tell you that those who fearlessly continue to trek through this jungle of my thoughts will be greatly rewarded at the end of their journey, but since I like to keep chocolate for myself, that would be a lie. I simply hope that a few of you will feel it’s worthwhile to stick around long enough to see a little of how I understand the subject and the implications for the world around us.
Lessig’s reading was particularly interesting to me because he seemed to suggest the internet was conducting an overhaul of the traditional ways people deal with the world around them. I noticed however, that in the online game conflict example, while the notion of space changed, human interaction itself seemed to change very little. While the physical and the cyber world had different kinds of laws and gatekeepers (code vs. nature & the govt.); humans in each still had to deal with similar types of conflict. They could still invade each other’s space even in somewhere as seemingly endless as cyberspace and while their solution was different to a ‘real life’ solution, it still required some level of compromise. For this reason I felt Sterling hit the nail on the head in his discussion on USENET as a set of social conventions, as I feel the internet has in many ways become a really powerful tool used to extend our social world.
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What I find interesting about the world of invention is that the invention never seems to be allowed to remain in the sole ownership of the inventor, as almost immediately the consumers take it for themselves, use it in unexpected ways and add to it. I’m sure this has always been the case, but it seems more common in the online world which changes rapidly, often daily, in order to reach the consumers’ needs.
P.S. I know the 'cyber-map' is out of date, but I think it does an excellent job of illustrating how cyberspace, although it isn't physical, is a real thing. The caption for it, which I found pretty amusing was: I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone, "I'm from the Internet", instead of laughing they just ask "Oh, what part?"
ReplyDeleteI think the map is great, even if it is a bit outdated, and the caption is thought provoking.. Also the notion you brought up of how the notions of space change but the human interaction does not seem to was very interesting, as I had not previously considered this. Having said that, I definitely see merit to what you're saying. Although not a gamer myself, most of what I know about online gaming culture involves people who, although they may be living or acting through an avatar, still converse and interact in similar ways as offline. Good job, I thought it was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe would like to think that all gamer's still have a reality outside of their virtual one, but what about the people who have died playing too many video games? Isn't it scary enough to think that someone can go without water and food purely so they can continue playing games? I would like to think that gamer's have a balance but does everyone? Nice post.
ReplyDeleteYeah I totally agree that gaming can be scary when it gets to that point- probably more so for people (like me) who aren't part of the world and don't fully understand the appeal. But although powerful, I think it is like any addiction... if you look at people with gaming or internet addictions, you will see very similar behaviour to those with other kinds of addictions.
ReplyDeleteThe root of the problem is actually something else in the person's life that they're trying to escape from-be it the ordinary stresses of a fast-moving world or something deeper like broken family issues. The gaming becomes an addiction when people lose perspective of how much time and value they should place on that activity-which has been chosen because it was initially enjoyable for that person, and when they look at that thing to somehow 'save them' from their problems.
People in general, I think, have a tendency towards addiction- in that we hate to deal with our problems directly and are always looking for a distraction... and it is ridiculously easy for it to get out of hand.
I guess I'm just saying that I still think that the technology remains a tool that we use in typically human ways. I'm not saying that it doesn't change us-because it definitely does... the way we process information has definitely changed with the internet etc as skimming takes preference. What I am saying is that I still think humans are humans!
DXW1, I think what you're describing is hegemony... that is the process of coercion and consent. Even though we should know better, we allow these companies to have such power over us because we're convinced we're the ones getting a good deal out of it. It's actually surprising how wilfully ignorant people are capable of being.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I love the map you've included in your post. The longer I look at it, the more I am just enveloped in the craziness of our online world. I would have to say that this would you show us here - really has become a major part of millions of peoples social lives.
ReplyDeleteI think that the inventors in this online world should beware of consumers out there, who are breaching copyright laws and taking credit for others work. But how could this possibly be policed this? It is exactly as if someone stole information or a piece of artwork in our real world - except there is millions of places to hide in our cyber world.
I am sure that our rapidly changing online world will figure it out somehow.
I wonder if there is anything left out in the world to invent ? im sure there is and im hoping we have the resources for new inventions but seriously we have everything and more and new inventors in this day and age need to play hard ball when it comes to putting there idea out there. Its DragonsDen 101 . . . . haha . . . . the concept of stealing an idea for some reason makes me think of the movie "Social Network" the fact these twins had an idea but couldn't execute it hmm i think Zuckerburg (if true) did the right thing by stealing it turning and idea to reality
ReplyDeleteThat map is amazing !
ReplyDeleteI feel that the internet is indeed changing the way we do a lot of things, online shopping for example... there is a huge shift from traditional shopping to online shopping as the pace of our lives increase so does the inability to waste hours meandering around the shops!
I agree with Sterling, the internet does extend our social world... it is rare to find a person without some form of online social networking account and for this I believe that the internet is THE leading tool in our social world!
Hahahaha your blog gave me the giggles well done :)
ReplyDeletethe thing about online gaming that really gets my goat is the way the media seems to always link the use of gaming to horrific events like the recent massacre in Norway or the Columbine shootings.
Awesome! Happy to make someone laugh. Am enjoying everyone's insightful comments also.
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