The idea of the Internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time, particularly in the popular medium of film. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society? Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.
“The Internet is a strategic research site in which to study fundamental social processes.” (Smith, Kollock (1999, pp 4)). Cyberspace is a place for learning, a place for communicating, and a place for social interaction. To many people, the Internet represents a place to escape from reality or a place to connect with friends. Cyberspace has enabled people to communicate from across the world with each other, and as such, remains a valued media in today’s society. This essay will explore what ‘cyberspace’ means to us today, within our contemporary society, and will aim to find the relevance it holds in relation to the other media it interacts with, such as television, gaming, and social networking.
‘Cyberspace’, as a concept of a semi-existent space has been around for many years, and people continue to use it as a platform/landscape for their communication needs. Enabling the use of email, forums, games, and media sharing, Cyberspace exists not only within our world, as a tool, but fundamentally also stands on its own, as a world of its own. Mark Nunes states, “the internet is quickly creating its own world … a cybernetic utopia” (Holmes, 1997). Cyberspace is a means to an end, in that without it, and its infinite vastness, people would find communicating and learning much more difficult. As technology has progressed, so has the relationship between it and the people who use it. Internet/Cyberspace creators, as Chodos, Hamovitch and Murphy say, “are often avid consumers of information as well” (C, H and M, 1997), in what has now become an orgy of untrustworthy human thought. From my experience as an Internet user, ‘the Web’, ‘the Net’, or ‘cyberspace’ serve the major purpose of allowing me to stay in touch with friends who I have not seen or spoken to in years. Social media networking sites, like Facebook, have allowed me to reconnect and share my experiences with friends, new and old. As well as this, Facebook allows me to post videos and music I like to my profile so my friends can watch or listen, and comment on them. The vast majority of the time I spend online is on Facebook and Sidereel.com. Where Facebook, allows me to talk to friends, Sidereel.com, built for the purpose of video sharing, enables me to watch American television online. With quick links to video streaming websites like Megavideo.com, Sidereel keeps me up to date with my favorite shows, like Dexter and The Office.
The idea of ‘Cyberspace’ as “the joint network of all existing communication channels and information stores connecting people and machines.” (Heylighen, 1984) is one, which arises many questions as to how it has came to be, and ‘where’ exactly it ‘exists’. As a global community of Internet users, ‘Cyberspace’ allows for the interconnection of billions of people. It serves a unique purpose in providing the world with an unmatchable medium of communication. People continue to explore the Internet, find new sites and become attached. ‘Cyberspace’ is a unique experience for everyone. Governable by anyone and everyone, it allows for absolute democracy within a worldwide medium. People can create and use the ‘space’ in whichever manner they wish. It is theirs and everyone else’s. For this reason Cyberspace still holds relevant truth and meaning within today’s society.
Within ‘Cyberspace’, people can take part in games and/or virtual worlds, which enable them to explore and destroy certain objects, as well as meet new people, and create relationships. With varying degrees of violence and sociability, games like World of Warcraft and the likes of Habbo Hotel serve different yet similar purposes for the gamer/online user. Jan Jagodzinski writes, “it’s not a question whether the created world is as real as the physical world, rather the question is whether it is “real” enough … to suspend disbelief while immersed “in” it” (Jagodzinski, 2004). Where World of Warcraft aims to fulfill a gamers’ want to kill and eliminate enemies, Habbo Hotel is a purely social platform, which provides a virtual world for people to communicate within. However, it becomes necessary to understand that, as Patricia Wallace writes, “the Internet is not cocaine, alcohol, or nicotine. And people who understand why the Internet can be such a time sink may be able to get the problem under control and get back to more productive activities” (Wallace, 1999). From my experience, as a former Habbo Hotel user, it gave me somewhere to be someone I wasn’t, and someone I ‘wanted’ to be. Habbo Hotel also allows you to spend legitimate money in the game to make your ‘room/s’ more appealing to others, thus increasing your popularity. In playing on this platform, I soon realized the dangers that came with such a site. With ease, people could pretend to be someone they weren’t, making everyone a possible victim to online abuse and misconduct. After a few months, my account was deleted for reporting too many ‘dangerous people’ and among other things, finding out a cheat for swearing online. The $75 dollars I had spent on ‘Habbo Creds’ instantly became nonexistent.
Arguably, the Internet provides an invaluable and indispensable method of communication. The limitless possibilities of Cyberspace are addictive, and people are easily addicted to it. With the introduction of handheld technologies, becoming more and more advanced, the Internet becomes more readily available to those who wish to use it. Certain handhelds also take advantage of the Internet to create online shopping opportunities. The likes of the iPod/iPhone and of sites such as the iTunes/App store and eBay, have made the purchasing of goods, and online media content, very easy. Within our contemporary society, one relying heavily upon the need for quick online connection, ‘Cyberspace’ proves invaluable. People desire to be connected to the net at all times, and maintain a constant connection with their friends and family. Cyberspace as a concept within today’s society remains completely valid. The world continues to use it for all manners of intercommunication, including gaming, media sharing and social networking. As a result of this, ‘Cyberspace’ itself plays a part within our contemporary culture and society.
Bibliography
Internet Sources
1. ‘Cyberspace’ (Heylighen, Oct/17, 1984) http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/cybspace.html
2. ‘Is Cyberspace Destroying Society’ (Birkerts, May/30, 1995) http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/aandc/trnscrpt/birkerts.html
3. ‘Learning to be a citizen of Cyberspace’ (Mosco) http://www.unesco.org/webworld/infoethics_2/eng/papers/paper_21.html
4. ‘Cyberspace Saturates Reality’ (McHugh M. Apr/14, 2009) http://maureenmcq.blogspot.com/2009/04/cyberspace-saturates-reality.html
5. ‘Magic and Cyberspace’ (Drury N.) http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeIV/MagicCyber.html
Academic Sources
1. Chodos, Robert & Hamovich, Eric & Murphy, Rae (1997, pp 65) Lost in cyberspace? Toronto, Canada. Lorimer. Sourced from:
http://books.google.com/books?id=uhwsGcsUY7AC&pg=PA65&dq=%22cyberspace%22+consumers+creators&lr=&ei=n6neSqP9CYbekwTu9-WZAQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false
2. Holmes, David (1997, pp 163) Virtual Politics: Identity and Community in Cyberspace. London, SAGE. Sourced from:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=x_zOA24lvIIC&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=cyberspace&ots=sgD8L5CF5Q&sig=7n1h67iddsHIxMMMZ1uKh4alMWs#v=onepage&q=&f=false
3. Jagodzinski, Jan (2004, pp 169) Youth fantasies: the perverse landscape of the media. New York, PALGRAVE MACMILLAN. Sourced from:
http://books.google.com/books?id=JvF0wB_PBUYC&pg=PA169&dq=cyberspace+cyber+addiction&lr=&ei=GaHeStbVBY30lQToromeCA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
4. Smith, Mark & Kollock, Peter (1999, pp 4) Communities In Cyberspace. New York, Routledge. Sourced from:
5. Wallace, Patricia M. (1999, pp 189) The Psychology Of The Internet. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Sourced from:
http://books.google.com/books?id=k0Z2-I0zrDgC&pg=RA1-PA185&dq=cyberspace+addiction&lr=&ei=PqTeSvyYMpCUkATtqOW5CA#v=onepage&q=cyberspace%20addiction&f=false
