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Introduction:

Cyberpsychology what does it mean?

This report is about the relationship between cyberspace and the human mind. It also looks at the topic of cyberpsychology and it's meaning. The sources for this report range from Dr. James' article on cyberpsychology, and generation 4 summaries of the article, and other related articles that I found floating on the Internet.

Before I started to "surf the net" with netscape I just thought that it was a waste of time. I was using the internet, but I used unix to do my internet work. I felt that browers let people that had no business or knowledge of computers access to the internet. As I started to use netscape I found that it was more then a toy that helped bored people to pass the time. It was a powerful tool that could connect you to other people and to information that could not be access with earlier technology. I know regard the internet as a mall/library/classroom rolled into one. I can talk with people and shop just like would in a mall. Then it instantly becomes a library were I can find an article to read or research a book to do a project. It is like a classroom in the respect that you are always learning new things while you "work" on the net.

What the Instructor Says:

Is There Another Reality in the Mind

In Professor James's article on Cyber-Psychology there are explanations to terms that people would come across when "surfing the net" everyday, but I don't think that a lot of these people have stopped to think about what these words or phrases really mean. The terms virtual reality and the mind how do these two terms relate to one another?

Virtual reality does not have a physical form, but it is created by interactions of a user and his computer. The instant that the user clicks on a hypertext link he or she is using the simplest form of interaction. A form on interaction in "real life" is when person interacts with another in a face to face discussion, that are based on mutual interest and attractions. This interaction creates an area exists with people, buildings, and highways, but the only difference from the reality that we live in is that this one has no physical form. The highway and people do not have a mass or weight that you can measure with a scale. This one difference is what sets the virtual and real worlds apart.

When you login into the internet you have gained access to virtual world and in this world all of the social interactions and other things (i.e. surfing, search engines) are done within a part known as cyberspace. This world cyberspace can be accessed in the same way as virtual reality with the use of computers. Inside a computer there is a very intimate relationship that is taking place between the hardware and the software. This relationship is like that of the brain and the mind. The brain is the physical part with the mass, neuron structure, and chemical impulses, but the mind if the part with feelings, thoughts, and emotions these things that have no physical form. The parts are of the computer are the hardware which is the hard drive, processor, and other physical objects. The software is the part that was written by the programmer, this is where the programmers thoughts and ideas are put were put into the computer. When working with a computer does it seem that the computer to knows the answers to your questions or that is seems to have the persona of a human? All of these things can be contributed to the programmer that wrote the program, because part of that persons mind (feelings, characteristics, creativeness) has been put into the program while it is being written. In this light there maybe more of the human presence in cyberspace.

In cyberspace you can find newsgroups, chat rooms, home pages among other things. In newsgroups and chat rooms the thought or focus has been molded by the people that participate in these groups. Each person adds a little of their personality or character to the newsgroup, when they participate with the group. With this information a is can be said that computers are an extension of the human mind. The mind and its characteristics are just being transferred to the computer by the programmer. Then form the computer it is transferred to virtual reality during the modem link up. It is passed on to cyberspace in two ways the first is from the world of virtual reality and secondly directly from the user when he or she participates in activities within cyberspace. Because of this relationship if you examined the properties and characteristic of cyberspace you would find that they are similar with those of the mind, therefore you could expect to find characteristics of the mind showing up as properties in cyberspace.

I found three ideas that I found interesting to me, they were hypertext, hypertext navigation, and the virtual book. I found these things interesting because them were all interconnected in a logical sequence. I got a better understand of all three concepts the more I learned about each one.

After I read the section of the article called "The hyper in hypertext" I could better understand why the Internet is called the information super highway. I guess I never really thought about were I was getting the data that was appearing on my screen. I knew that it was coming from somewhere hundreds of miles away, but it seemed irrelevant on how it was getting to my screen. I now see that this "fourth dimension" exists and distance as we know it really has no meaning in this place. As soon as I enter a gateway (hypertext link) I am go anywhere I want in a matter of seconds. This has prepared me for life in cyberspace because I don't look at a link as a piece of text anymore, it has changed into a gateway to a special dimension that allows me to travel the world in a matter of seconds.

Hypertext navigation another term that had little or no meaning for myself personal. I just knew that I put the URL in the space in the browser and I would go where I wanted to go. I never really understood how it got to where I want to go, but it didn't seem like something I wanted to find out. Now that I understand how the browser uses the URL to find the server and the path to the file. And I can use links to help me to navigate on the Internet. And some links have different purposes to help me find different things. Like a access link can bring me to a new location. There links that perform transit functions. Their purpose is to allow you to get to someplace else. And links can be used as structural pointers in documents. These links are like footnotes, table of contents, and index that actually bring you somewhere when you click on them. So I have found out new ways to navigate on the Internet and I have found an explanation on how a single file can be found among the millions of files on the Internet.

The virtual book is a concept that I had never heard of until I read this article. I guess the generational curriculum of Professor James is an example of a virtual book in progress. Each time a new class loads their home pages into the curriculum a new volume has been written and each persons home page is a chapter in the volume. My feeling is that each person has some power in determining the outcome of the virtual book, this is because every time there is a home page added or removed a book has been added or removed. I now know that by deleting a file or link I will be impacting more then my home page, it will have an effect on the virtual book better know as the Internet.

What Generation 4 Says:

Three Views on Cyberspace and the Mind

I read all of the Generation 4, 409a's report #4 and I have chosen three reports for in depth reporting. These reports have a few things in common they are the topics of cyberpsychology and the mind.

The first report that I be reporting on is Jami Kaneshiro's report #4.

In this report Ms. Kaneshiro talks about the ideas of cyberpsychology and the mind. Cyberpsychology can be separated into two parts with each part having a root that has it's own meaning.

Cyber deals with computers and

psychology deals with the study of the mind and human

behavior. Therefore, cyber-psychology is the study of the

mind and human behavior and its interaction with one's

self and others while on computers.

So cyberpsychology is the study of the interaction of the mind and one's self while on a computer. So how does that concept of cyberspace have to do with cyberpsychology? "Cyberspace is experienced in virtual reality with actual communities." These communities and groups that exist in cyberspace have evolved from the emotions and feelings of the human minds that interact with them. So in studying the relationship of cyberspace and the human mind is what constitutes cyberpsychology.

There are two major points of cyberpsychology. The first major point is that of virtual presence, is the force that regulates the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the person that is using the Internet and all of it's parts.(text, communities, and other multi-media offerings) The other major point is that of the mind, cyberspace is create by the human mind.

Another report that I read was created by Kathy Morifuji.

In this article Ms. Morifuji said

Cyber-Psychology is the study of people in cyber-communities. It consists of using a computer

linked by a telephone connection to the Internet where we can study people in

cyber-communities.

To study the concept of cyberpsychology you will need a computer and a modem to link you to the Internet. On the Internet we can study the interactions of people with cyber-communities. A cyber-communities are formed by people in cyberspace that share and access information with each other, but these people are not in the same location. They are joined together by there link that their computers have formed.

One of the principles of cyber-psychology is that "Cyber-space is equivalent to the human mind." The human mind can create images of places or things that do not exist on a physical plane, but these things do exist since the mind has created them. Cyber-space can be compared to mind because in cyberspace an individual can click on a web page that does not exist on the same physical plane as the person that is reading the web page. Also, both the human mind and cyber-space have an unlimited capacity to store knowledge. The growth of the human mind or cyber-space are not limited by the size of the brain or hard drive that contain them.

The last report that I read was created by Jill Umetsu

In this article Ms. Umetsu says that

Cyber-psychology is the study of people in cyber-space. Cyber-space is an environment created

by having a computer and access to the World Wide Web. The psychology aspect studies how

people think, act, and behave while on the Internet.

People seem to take on different personalities on the Internet that are totally different from themselves in real life. While on the Internet people join groups or form communities with others that share the same interests. Cyberspace can create affective, cognitive, and sensory motor behavior responses in the users. The affective behavior is in the emotions, feelings, thoughts of the user. The cognitive aspect is how the user processes and analyzes the information that can be found in cyberspace. The sensory motor behaviors of the user include sitting at the computer, click on links, and listening to the audible files on the web. There is another object that can create affective, cognitive, and sensory motor behaviors and that is the human mind. Since you can create things in cyberspace that do not really exist just like how you can imagine something in your mind.

It is the principle of dualism- something can have a physical existence and at the same time be non-physical.

Both cyberspace and the human mind fit this principle of dualism, so cyberspace is like that human mind.

After reading the reports by Ms. Kaneshiro, Ms. Morifuji, and Ms. Umetsu I can conclude that they have the same view as Professor James . They all felt that cyberpsychology is the study of the interaction of the computer and the human mind. And that cyberspace existed within virtual reality. They also shared the same view on cyberspace and the mind. They all stated that cyberspace is like the mind in respect that both exist, but they do not have a physical form. And that the characteristics of the mind can be found as properties of cyberspace.

I have not found a definition of cyberpsychology that is different from that of Professor James. After reading the articles from generation 4 I can safely say that they all just repeated the definition of cyberpsychology that Professor James gave them. I cannot find any part that is an original thought. I guess it was the last report, so I guess they just rushed through the report. This repeating of the same definition makes it hard to come up with other possible answers because there are no other ideas to look at or to draw from. I hope that I do not fall into the same trap as generation 4, that is to restate Professor James' definition and not add something to it that is original or my own.

What I Am Saying:

How I put Together My Working Hypothesis

When I started going on the to Internet I just felt that it was a place to get information, pictures, and to write e-mail. After I read these articles and reports on cyberpsychology, cyberspace, and the mind I have to rethink my personal approach to the Internet. I another class that I am taking I am following and participating in newsgroups. I have found that each newsgroup has a particular personality that comes from the people that participate in that group. So I can better understand the idea of interacting with a person on a personal level even though the person is somewhere else on the earth. The distance that we are apart is link by cyberspace, so it seems that there is no distance between us. So I guess that my working hypothesis: Is that cyberpsychology is the study of cyberspace and it's relationship with the human mind. And how cyberspace and the mind can exist without any physical form due to the theory of dualism. (dualism happens when an object, image, or emotion exist without a physical form)

I took my working hypothesis and talked to a few of my friends about. I explained to them what my working hypothesis is and I asked for their opinions on it. Out of the four people that I talked to three of them agreed with my working hypothesis. The last person didn't agree with my working hypothesis, so I asked her which part of my hypothesis she disagreed with. She said that she had a problem with the term dualism. So I explained to her that a picture of a house can exist in our minds as a memory and I cyberspace as a image. Or that a song can be in our found in our memories or in cyberspace. She then said that the picture and the song does have a physical form. The picture can be found as a gif file and the song can be found as a midi file on a hard drive on a computer somewhere. So I tried to explain that the computer is like that brain and that these files like memories they have no real mass or form. She then said that memories have a form because they take up a part of the brain when they are stored. She then pointed out that memories have a physical shape or form it might just be that it is microscopic (neurons), so I might have been fooled into thinking that it does not have a physical form. We argued about this theory of non-existence for a while, but she had to go to class. After she had left I tried to see the concepts from her point of view. I started to understand the points that she was trying to make. The more I thought about the ideas or views that had been brought up during our discussion, the more my definition became clouded. The points that I had seen as clear and true had become hazy and distorted by the new information that I had obtained. I feel that it will take a while longer before I come up with a working hypothesis for myself on the concepts of virtual reality, cyberspace, and the mind.

What Others are Saying:

Are There Others That Share My Views

I used the Altavista,and Yahoo search engine to look for other articles and postings that related to my working hypothesis. The words that I used to search the web and usenet were cyberpsychology, cyberspace, mind, and dualism. When I used this groups of words I got over 100,000 matches, so I thought to narrow my search. I only used the word cyberspychology and came up with 57 matches.

I looked through the list and read each article. The amount of each article I read varied upon the relevancy that it had to my working hypothesis. I then used cut/paste to save parts of the articles that I would use in my report. I did not find any posts that I could use in this report. I felt that the search engines helped a lot, I do not think I could have found half of the articles that I found without search engines.

Here are a few quotes from a few articles and links to go to the original articles.

• Cyberspace as Psychological Space

The psychological qualities of cyberspace are

significantly determined by the vicissitudes of

the hardware and software that constitute

computers and the online world.

This quote from the article "Cyberspace as Psychological Space" does not totally agree with my working hypothesis. It talks about the hardware and software that make up the computers. This does not appear in my working hypothesis, but I think that this plays a role in the make up of cyberspace. This has helped me to see small flaw in my working hypothesis.

• FAQ

Cyberspace principles deal with the mind

(consciously or subconsciously), identity, and spirituality

on the Internet.

This quote helps to back up my working hypothesis because it is agreeing with cyberspace's principles that deal with the mind and it's behaviors. So it can be said that cyberspace is like the mind.

It has been a couple of days since I found these articles and I related them to my working hypothesis. The discussion I had with a friend, that I talked about earlier in this report happened after I researched for these articles. I felt that I would leave this articles in my report, to show how hypotheses are always changing. When I found and wrote about these articles my working hypothesis related to the views in the articles, but now I have a different view of "cyberpsychology." I do not know how to put it into words yet. I just know that some part of my original hypothesis has to change to incorporate the different views that others have brought to my attention.

Final Considerations:

Last Thoughts

When I started this report I had the idea that the only definition of cyberpsychology was that cyberspace is equal to the mind. And that cyberspace had no physical form. I found that I was just following the path that Professor James uses in his article "cyberpsychology". I did not have anything in my working hypothesis that was my own, I now have a different view on the whole matter.

I will agree with Professor James that cyberpsychology is understanding the relationship between the human mind and computers. There is a relationship that exists between these two entities that is stronger then a relationship that you might have with a person on the phone. It is not as powerful a relationship as one that take place between two people during a face to face conversation.

I have come to this theory because my thinking has been changed by the ideas that other people have brought to my attention. A computer may be considered an extension of the human mind, but does not have all of the capabilities and capacities that can be found in the human mind. Images and memories are stored in the human mind with chemical representations. These are not the memories themselves, they are like bookmarks that indicate what type of memory or image is being recalled. Files on the internet on the other hand have a exact place on the hard drive where they are located. These files might be written in an electromagnetic language, but they are still written down. And it is not a representation of the program or file that is stored it is the whole item. And as for cyberspace equaling the mind. I believe that the mind and the brain both have a part in creating cyberspace. The mind thinks of something to put into cyberspace, but it is the brain that move the hands and fingers that programs the computer to make the thought appear in cyberspace. So, I feel that cyberspace is a creation that is formed by the union of the brain and the mind. With this information I cannot come to the same conclusion that cyberspace is an extension of the human brain. I think that virtual reality and cyberspace are creations of the human mind and brain.

I think that my view is adequate for myself. If I started to look at cyberspace as an extension of the human mind. Then I will have to give all of the qualities that I associate with being human to the computer and cyberspace. I think that these qualities are reserved for life forms that can adapt on their own. I do not feel that a computer is a life form, it is just a tool that humans have constructed to make life easier.

The information that I have found in the articles from generation 4 do not strengthen or weaken my hypothesis. The students from generation 4 just repeated the information that was found in Professor James' article. So their reports cannot weaken or strengthen my hypothesis, but Professor James' article does not share the same views that I have. The differences in our working hypotheses can be argue and picked at, but I think that each person must come up with a hypothesis that he or she lives by. And everyone can have an opinion whether it is right or wrong, but in the end no one can change that persons hypothesis except the person.

Each day I see more and more people getting hooked up to the internet. They are advertisements on TV for internet providers and infommercials about getting your business online. Even with all of these things I cannot say that we are seeing a new human evolution beginning. When you think of evolution the first thing that will pop into your mind is "survival of the fittest!" Then the phrases like natural selection and Darwinism seem to climb out of the wood work. More people are using the internet, but this does not mean that the people that use it are going to survive better then the people that don't use it. Sure some businesses might gain a step on their competition, this growth of a few companies will not impact the entire human race. And if more information is put online will this mean that the people that do not get online will be weeded out. I do not think so!! So I can't say that cyberspace or virtual reality is the start of a new human evolution, but I will say it has been an advancement in technology. And this technology will keep advancing, but in the end people will still have the choice whether or not to use the internet.

As for the net being a spiritual thing. I guess it can be if the definition of spiritual that you use has nothing to do with religion. I can see spiritual meaning things like freedom, individualism, and creativity. So I can see how the internet or cyberspace can be a spiritual experience. You have the freedom to say or express any thought in cyberspace. There are no rules that limit your imagination or creativity. As an individual you can design your home page to your standard. So in these regard I do believe that cyberspace can be a spiritual experience.

Professor James has an article on his home page about the spirituality of cyberspace. If you want to have another view of spirituality and cyberspace

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Report 1	Title	Introduction	Instructor	Generation
	What I Say	Others	Final
Topics	Leon's Page	My Home Page	409a Class Page	Generation 4a

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If you have any comments or questions you can e-mail me at shintani@hawaii.edu I will try to respond to all messages. Even if you don't like the paper I would like to hear from you, so I can hear your ideas on how I can improve my paper.