really enjoyed this rather long reading – alot of very interesting points were raised – shame none of this was discussed in lectures. Coming from a psych/sociology perspective, I found the discussion of offline vs online identities pertininent. How do the two intertwine, if at all?, is posed by the article. At first it seems not at all, but by the end of the aritcle there was a sense that you cannot completely ignore the offline identity, and that it will eventually show through in your online avatar – whther it be by the quickness of your typing, or the opinions expressed – ie: a style is created.The story of Julie was a good illustration, but a very specific one. Is physicality totally absent online? Another interesting question is cyber-ostracism – the exclusion by some or all of a community if the rules aren’t followed. (pg73) The discussion about hierachies (power) is also interesting but it is only one of many sociological aspects of the internet and not one that I think deserves the amount of discussion afforded it in class. Pg 82, point about openesss and honesty in discussions and that electronic decisions seemed to take much longer than ‘in real life’. Discussion of cost a good one – assumptions that it is a big factor is not correct, and infact, the hackers, who are very clever, are often kids with limited hardware and software who ‘get around their limitations. I really disagreeed with the discussion about censorship – after taling about a courtcase in canada, the author said: “the point is not whther this subversion of hierachy is good or bad but the fact that it occurs”. This reference was to subversion which broke the law and undermined a fair court trial – there has to be discussion of good and bad – this simply cannot be ignored. As a fellow student has said, even a year (in internet time) is a million years -the technology and usage is developing so fast, and the point raised about cyberporn showed up the ‘age’ of the article. I think that nowdays people reading/accessing information online are far more discerning than those quoted here.
I would like to see more discussion in lectures on individuality vs community/offline vs online avatars/ the growing sophistication of people who both publish and access the internet. Also how the sociological aspects of interaction are mirrored or differ online. Also, if we are to have an indepth philosophical discussion, how about having one about ” if you delete everything you have ever written online, do you cease to exist?” “Do you really own your own words?”
