Selections for the Report of Psychology of Online Virtual Relationships
There was a lot of information and topics that were covered in the selection chosen for us to research and comment on. One of the major issues seemed to be on false identities, support groups, on line addiction, interaction and expectations . There was a lot of hypothetical and personal feelings that were mentioned here. Here are the categories that I made and a summary of each with other's ideas from the selected reading.
False
Identities
The major threat that people worry about in false identities
is not knowing the security or the real identity of the person they are
communicating with. There could be some people posing as the opposite
sex for malicious reasons. What were to happen if you fell in love
with a false identity? Well as it turns out false identities do not
always have to be bad. False identities are not always destructive.
Ex. the man posing as a woman in a chat room to receive their support for
being. battered.
As for the security
of talking to the same person every day is another issue. Security
with identity is stable because the person who sent me a message yesterday
will be the same person today. The chances of someone falsifying
identity or cracking someones code to talk to you over the internet is
unlikely. The passwords and our email providers do a pretty good
job with our security.
Support
Groups
The internet
can bring "a depth of emotional contact". Unlike face to face interaction
where there is physical contact there is more of an intelectual
connection at a deeper emotional level. Support groups meant a lot
to people in their time of need. People in these groups develop online
relationships that lead to phone calls and visits. We already live in a
no touch society and this is no different on line. Except on line
we are touched intellectually.
Interaction
and Expectations
Online interactions
are real and meaningful. "Print is a powerful medium". You
are out there forming an opinion of me and can see how I think. This is
interaction. Through this interaction we "open up to others our very essence
and quality". There is nothing wrong meeting new people on
the net.
Expectations
on the web can be very dangerous. People get hurt with the wrong
expectations because they assume the person they are talking to is telling
the truth and the whole truth. According to this person we need to
be "street-savvy". This simply means to stay on our toes and be alert
to where we are chatting. The kind of crowd attracted to a certain
chatroom would tell you not to get attached it is just a fantasy zone.
However if entering a singles chatroom it may have different implications.
Implications that you are single and that you are possibly considering
meeting some day.
Therefore there
is a need for real data. This way no one can be completely caught
off guard. Newbies are the most prone to flaming and to inappropriate romance.
Some day there will only be 7 year old newbies who would not affect the
rest of us in the chatrooms as much. The internet population continues
to grow and until it plateau's out it will be dominated by Newbies learning
the internet.
Internet
Addiction
Internet addiction
is another important aspect online. There are sites dedicated to
these people because the extract themselves from real life and stay online
to the point they prefer online interactions over real life interactions.
Virtual-Communities,
Virtual Settlements & Cyber-Archaeology:A Theoretical Outline
Mr. Quentin Jones
presents us with a Theoretical Outline of Virtual Communities, Virtual
Settlements & Cyber Archaeology. There are a three sections that
Mr Jones presents. They are Section1: Coming to Terms with Virtual-Communities;
Section 2: Defining & Characterizing virtual settlements; and
Section 3: Cyber-Archaeology.
Coming
To Terms With Virtual Communities
Mr. Jones
provides us with a lot of different definitions and perspectives on what
a virtual community should be. He cites a number of other Sociologists
on the subject with their definition. The most popular definition
is by Rheingold "virtual communities are social aggregations
that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions
long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships
in cyberspace".
Along with the
positive feelings that there are communities on line there are the negative
ones. Weinrich [(1997)] argues that the idea of virtual communities
are wrong because "community is a collective of kinship networks which
share a common geographic territory, a common history, and a shared value
system, usually rooted in a common religion". The Critical Art Ensemble
says "anyone with even a basic knowledge of sociology understands that
information exchange in no way constitutes a community."
He takes a look
into sociology to determine whether Virtual communities can be indeed considered
a community. The basic definition of a community has not been decided
upon in sociology, it remains a major debate. Instead of defining
the term Sociologists think that it may be a better idea to change the
term. Some feel that it would be more of a "microculture" or a "community
in more of a nostalgic sense".
Defining
& Characterizing Virtual Settlements
Section 2 can be broken into four parts. They are: Minimum
Level of Interactivity; Variety of Communicators; Common-Public-Space Where
a Significant Portion of a Communities Interactive Group CMC Occurs;
A Minimum Level of Sustained Membership. In these sections he attempts
to prove the existence of virtual settlements and therefore virtual communities.
In the first
section (Minimum Level of Interactivity) he suggests a shift of the word
interactivity. He stresses the need for a new definition because
the new technologies we embrace. CMC or computer mediated communication
is a form of long term communication where we can express our ideas and
feelings in a prolonged period of time. Interaction occurs when people
post messages or express ideas amongst each other and respond to them.
The section on
the Variety of Communicators, expresses the need of more than one or two
people actively participating in a conversational topic. In order
to have a community there must be more than one or two people. Therefore
participation from others is a mandatory prerequisite of a community.
The third prerequisite
would be Common-Public-Space Where a Significant Portion of a Communities
Interactive Group CMC Occurs. This simply means that there
must be a place where these people can come back and meet over time.
Whether it is a bulletin or a chatroom or newsgroup it does not matter.
The need for a virtual space or place in the web for the same people to
come back and interact is very important.
The fourth and
last requirement would be A Minimum Level of Sustained Membership.
This means that there needs to be a following for the discussion or group.
They cannot just meet one day and stop. The site must become established
so that the settlement is always active.
Cyber
Archaelogy
Mr. Jones discusses
the importance of cyber archaelogy and how it is different from the norm
of archaeology. In archaelogy, archaeologists study humanity's past
by scientific analysis of the material remains of cultures. Mr. Jones
calls for research of the virtual communities via the long term perspective.
The patterning of cyber artifacts can be examined systematically.
He says "if explanations are to be provided about the relationship between
technology and online behavior a longer term perspective needs to be taken".
Leslie
Francis
Leslie shares
her experiences with newsgroups. She finds that they attract people
with like interests. She takes us on her journey as she goes from
a lurker to an active participant. Her evolution from posting on
small newsgroups of little to no importance to larger ones with more meaningful
content. Leslie believes that people will spend more time with a
particular newsgroup depending on their personal involvement. She
describes her feelings of acceptance once she came out of the closet and
posted messages.
There is a policy
of internet justice that Leslie addresses. She finds that in her
spamming newsgroup there is a form of internet justice. That form would
basically be "an eye for an eye" concept. There are a lot of people interested
in this topic and you could find groups dedicated to solving these problems.
Another topic
that Leslie found interesting was the joke or humor newsgroups. She
describes the web as a place to relieve tension. She says "Humor
newsgroups appear to represent a release from any of the frustrations and
pressures of both the off-line and on-line worlds".
My
Comments
I liked Leslie's paper and her experiences with newsgroups. I have
not to this date posted anything in a newsgroup. I am still in the
lurker stage. I do think that what she had to say about the kinds
of people that interact in particular groups share the same hobbies or
interests. I think that what Mr. Jones said about having a place
in the virtual world is needed to have a community and I feel that these
newsgroups would be such a place. They provide a place for people
to return if they like what they are reading. There is interaction
that takes place. i would think that the greatest interaction or
one of the largest newsgroups would be the humor ones in which everyone
only goes to have a good time.
Asako
Shinagawa
Asako shares
with us how she became a netizen. She talks about our on-line interactions
as we travel through the web. She addresses dualism and relates it
to us as a new identity. Our body online would be our homepage and
the more people visit the homepage the more friends and people get to know
you. She says that when we become an active member on the web we
change ever so slightly or a lot for some of us. We are not held
back by race creed or color. We can do what we want, when and where
we want to do on the web.
Asako says that
we make a friend every time we make a link to another persons page.
That person will indirectly become a friend of yours because you just made
them more accessible which is considered really good in the eyes of a Netizen.
The goal is to be well known or heavily visited.
She also had
to summarize papers fom other generations and the one that I liked best
was from Ryan
Mitsui's report. He says "your page only exists in the minds
of the people that visit your page". The number of people that visit
your page determines your presence in cybespace.
My
Comments
I thought that Asako did a really good job on her report. She had
a lot of useful information that was interesting. I learned a bit
from this page because I never gave much thought to the dualistic values
of being a Netizen. I would like to exist in a lot of people's
minds so spread the word I want you to make a link to me. Nah I am
just kidding I think for some people that would be great but I for one
like to keep it to a minimum. I am enjoying the experience that I
am having in the class and the interactions that I have with my classmates
on line is really neat.
Marini
Singh
Marini shares the experieces
that he goes through to become a netizen. He highlights topics coverd
by Dr. James in class and elaborates on them. He discusses the role
of virtual communities and settlements and their role in virtual reality.
My
Comments
I liked this page because it was to the point he got his message
across. He had good use of fonts, color and it was very easy to get
through his document. I think that Marini enjoyed the class and got
a lot out of it with his new online experiences. I think it was an
eye opener for him just as it is for me. I am glad that I was able
to take part in such a class where you are not limited to just who and
what you have on campus but on the WWW.
How Do
I Compare With Others In My Generation
I
feel as though I did a fairly decent jobin getting the message accross
and that the use of color (white background) was appropriate because I
was not trying to attract people to this site rather get them to read and
understand this site. I tried to make this page with no distractions
which is why I did not use a background. I think that the size of
the font and colors are appropriate and beneficial to the reader.
Suggestions
For Future Generations
My
suggestions to you future generations is to be creative and original
and not be afraid to express you feelings. There is so much that can be
gathered from the Web and the its size is ever growing with more users
and pages every day. This may be the way to telecommute in the future and
all this netizen stuff is becoming a greater part of our lives and it will
be for many years to come. I think that this will evolve into something
much greater and provide a more economical and beneficial means of communication.