Technology and Social Interaction

              Most of human communication is non-verbal, but that does not mean communication solely through the internet, texts, or other digital media is not meaningful.  When the only way to talk is through type, it makes the user focus on what is being written and rethink the thought before pressing “send”.  This in itself makes the person think before they “speak”.  In the virtual world, you are your words.  Digital media enables those that may suffer from physical barriers (i.e. handicaps, lack of confidence) to interact as equals.  In Second Life, for example, you can be whoever, go wherever, do whatever, the company’s advertisement even says Second Life can “change your mind and your world”.  What would you do if you had unlimited resources, the change to live, indeed, a second life.  You could design yourself as well as the place you live.  Nothing is stopping you.  However non-verbal communication is lost or misinterpreted such as original intention, context, and sarcasm. 

            I believe that the spread of such technology has a positive impact on our everyday face to face interaction.  This was not always my opinion.  I was like many who believed those that spent scrupulous amounts of time using digital media were anti-social, awkward, and even lazy people.  However, after the TED talks and even conversations with some new friends here, I have found that technology actually enables communication not like I had spoken of before but an even deeper level of commitment to ones words and actions.  My friend said that he was incredibly shy growing up and when he found World of Warcraft, he was able to practice his language skills, grow comfortable with typing, and then translate those skills into real world conversation.  He said without World of Warcraft, he would still be the same unconfident, shy boy he once was.  I then continued to ask him, are the friends you made in World of Warcraft the same as the friends you have here in the real world?  He replied that they are friends in a different way, that they provide more of an outlet, and a group of people that share common interests.  This idea of relationship “difference” can be applied to online dating and marriage.  In the digital world, we can create meaningful relationships but in a way that we are not used to.  Dating and marriage online can seem like an outlandish concept to certain individuals, but to others, the virtual world is a viable platform through which people meet their girlfriends, boyfriends, and future spouses.  I believe that you can create relationships that will be limited by physical means.  Balance between online communities and real communities is key to living a healthy lifestyle.  Both can work symbiotically.  If balance is not obtained, then the real world should never be sacrificed for the virtual and the person must focus on the real.  True interaction is physical, discussion is similar and requires less physical interaction, but most of all, we are our words but also our actions.  

Are Bloggers the New Political Activists?

             Blogs were met with little aversion, only brief skepticism.  It was a strange concept, posting your ideas to an unknown audience and a very large one at that.  But once the initial apprehension subsided, blogs sprouted up everywhere making the internet fruitful with innovative ways to express, discuss, and collaborate ideas.  There are blogs about everything now; blogs about food, parenting, medicine, etc. but an important blog ‘type’ to consider are political blogs and how that alters the relationship between the government and its people. 

            Bloggers in many oppressive countries are hailed as political activists, pioneers that dare to speak out against their government and motivate their communities.  This has been proven true in the case of China and the Middle East.  The idea itself, I find, is more romanticized than truly effective.  This idea may disappoint you or even infuriate you but please remember I am not claiming bloggers are not effective, I am only trying to remind people that bloggers are not the new activists.  I wish they were.  And yet, only so much political change can occur from behind a computer.  Blogging is anonymous and can be done from anywhere.  In this way I believe blogging lacks the type of authenticity or even responsibility for what is posted.  It is easier to say than to do and this is true for anything.  In online political forums, spokespersons from a presidential candidates’ campaign can easily post on hundreds of blogs without the people’s knowledge.  Anonymity can be incredibly useful by making no one blogger better than the other but it is also a dangerous fact about the internet.

I like to think that bloggers are motivators rather than activists.  They incite ideas and conversations that stimulate constructive thought in its readers.  Ideas are words and that is exactly what blogs are.  However I still have a hard time calling bloggers political activists.  Bloggers are behind a computer, they are anonymous, they are not physically doing something in the real world that will translate into political action.  The internet has yet to over throw dictatorships (as was previously assumed in the case of the Middle East) or put in place new laws.  Blogs are the start of political activism but they are not the heart of it all.  Yes, I will agree that bloggers are a new driving force that we have to be aware of if we are aware of the digital age at all but I believe bloggers need to not only discuss but act because it is that last step that most people are not daring to take.  My generation, the youth, have never lived during a time of world war or revolution (like the 60s), we have never fought for our rights or for the rights of others.  We see and read so much about far away places but are almost desensitized by the influx of information available at our fingertips.  Bloggers need to put a name to their writing, take claim, and take action. 

Love and Other Digital Drugs

At age 19 I can honestly say I am not sure whether I have been in love.  Teenagers in general think they have “found what, or who, they are looking for” and then the next moment they are chasing after “the next best thing”.  Love is blind, love is foolish, but most of all, love is a game for nearly all teenagers who think they know everything.  Literally, Second Life provides a place for their users to love and experience countless other emotions because they can act on the slightest impulse.

Second Life is a complete virtual world, accessed online, and complete free.  These three dangerous forces make Second Life incredibly accessible and appealing to those with hectic lives.  It is good to have outlets through which one can relax or explore, have fun or be daring.  Yet, is there a point where outlets become a dangerous addiction, a tantalizing distraction, so seductive that one wishes to escape completely and thus altering their own reality?  This melodramatic run-on sentence may seem a bit overwhelming, but it is not the first time that a lifestyle has become an addiction.  In Second Life, you can run and walk but also fly.  Second Life is you, but better.  Users are able to create a version of themselves, their own avatar through which they live their ‘second life’.  After starting ‘fresh’ users interact with real people in a very unreal place.  This is incredibly appealing to 30 year olds and older because they are a time of their lives where they tend to look back and regret.  The feeling of regret can motivate anyone to escape such anxiety.  Through their avatars they have the ultimate power to decide what they look like and how they act without any physical, financial, or emotional responsibilities; or so it seems.    Second Life virtual world is perfect.  It is everything that is ideal for those that use it.  So much effort and time go into the creation and maintaining of the world that “users” become “civilians” of a new reality. 

            An important debate in the sociology world is whether or not the actions users make in virtual worlds (i.e. Second Life) hold real merit, or can anything be done without actual consequences.  This idea is particularly important in the context of love.  In class, we watched a video in which a family was torn apart by the mother’s addiction to Second Life and adulterous actions inside it.  But does adultery apply to characters made solely of binary code?  Many people actions speak louder than words which invalidates any actions made within the game.  However, I believe love, pain, and sex that occurs in the digital world are very much real and therefore makes the users responsible for their actions.  Actions are emotion based.  Users need to remember that Second Life feels as real to them as it does to everyone else playing the game and cannot be treated as such.