A) Turkle's ideas of a simulated world being created inside the social realm of the internet are very interesting, persuasive and controversial.
I think the ideas that identity and relationships being formed online are false and inconveniently comfortable (because they are not real) is one that i don't personally agree with.
Relationships made online only lead to a 'real life' relationship after the people have met in real space. They don't only ever have a virtual relationship, otherwise what would be the point in meeting and getting to know another person in an environment they obviously feel more comfortable, safe and confident in, just to speak with online and never actually spend real time with?
B) 'Computer screens are the new location for our fantasies, both erotic and intellectual.' This idea that we use computers for the location of all our private affairs is probably quite true, but it also raises the debate about identity again, and how people use this 'location' to change, lie or simple exclude certain aspects of theirs.
For example, there are people who change or completely use a false identity for a bad purpose, such as pedophiles and online stalkers. However another aspect of this is people who simple choose not to reveal certain parts of their identity such as race, age, gender etc and this can be for more positive purposes such as online dating, where they are simply omitting things they feel others don't need to know about right away.
C) 'The lessons of computing today have to do not with calculation and rules, but with simulation, navigation, and interaction.' In my opinion, this point is very true, when mobile phones first became popular, it was largely business people who owned one for similar reasons as the computer (calculation and rules), however children even as young as seven can be seen with a mobile phone in their hands, and i, admittedly, would feel totally lost and befuddled without a mobile with me at all times.
People perhaps feel a certain social connection when carrying a mobile phone or sitting at a computer screen because they will always have someone to talk to if they wanted, and there is also a sense of safe when being somewhere unknown or unfamiliar if you have a mobile, perhaps because of such quick and simple interaction and navigation if it is needed?
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RINCY
ReplyDeleteI definately agree that people sometimes prefer interaction through the internet as they feel more secure and safe, do you think that by stalkers and pedophiles being online this could in a strange way be an advantage as the law can sometimes track them down via i.p addresses wheras if they wernt searching online it would be near enough impossible to find them.
ReplyDeleteThat could be an advantage however, although it may make it easier to track down pedophiles, it also makes it easier for them to aquire the trust of their targets through false identities. So the disadvantage strongly out weighs the advantage as if not for the net there would be less of these people to track down in the first place.
ReplyDeletei was just wondering if pedophiles would even be at large without the use of the internet? I think a moral panic has been made through the use of the internet and other mediums, without it the majority of people wouldnt even know about it. It only been in recent years that pedophiles have been at large in the news; sarah palin for example. Which has made people aware of the issues facing the internet.
ReplyDeleteHowever, these people must of existed before the internet. Unless the internet has created what you called 'fantasies'. Its hard to know. I just dont think pedophiles would be be at large if the internet was around.
i meant sarah payne ha
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see a conversation going on here! I think you are right Issy that there is a tendency to want to keep that technology close at hand as reassurance (however misguided that might be) - and I think we could argue that whatever the period, that may have always been the case, whatever the technology.
ReplyDeleteBut therefore we need to think about what Turkle says as related to its own time - when did she write this? Does the new-media era in which it was written give us then some insight into why and how she took the position that she did? And do her arguments still apply all these years later?
As to the paedophile issue, there is much to be said for the fact that it has been "bigged-up" by the media. But at heart it is a techno-determinist argument to say that paedophiles are created by the web. Certainly there have been this kind of people always in society, but a lot more happens in society than just media technology - we also see changes in cultural values, beliefs, political and religious and judicial and familial (etc) discourses and so on. These too are part of the picture of why and how paedophilia comes to be part of the web environment.
ReplyDeleteWhat am I trying to say? A message to all here (ie not just Issy!) Look to theory, concepts, arguments that you find/hear in the unit readings and lectures. Use these as as evidence and support in your conversations and they may help to answer - or at least guide - your discussions of these difficult issues (not to mention impressing your tutor with your unit knowledge)!