Gap between Muds and Real Life (Session 5)

1)The idea intrigued me most in this weeks' reading was about facebook. Expecially, the research that how people show their identity in off-line anchored environment was interesting.

According to this article, people show them differently whether the environment is anonymous or nonymous. For example, MUD is anonymous environmnet, people establish "suppressed or hidden true self" or "unrealistic ideal self" whereas they establish "real self"in real face to face environment. Facebook is online environment, but it's not anonymous nor nonymous because its off-line anchored relationship.

As a result, in Facebook, people present them in nonymous settings, because most of their relaionship is based on the real life. However, they try to construct group-oriented identity, show their popularity (wall posts from friends), well-roundedness (descriptions of one's interest or hobbies), and thoughtfulness. So it's called "hoped-for possible identities" which is people would like to be, but have not yet been able to be.

After I read this article, I compared it with my facebook self, and I found out that this makes sense. For me, it's been about two months since I started using Facebook, but I usually try to present myself in a positive way. I think that's hoped-for possible identity. For instance, I try to make more friends, and show my interests and hobbies through wall, but, actually almost all of my relationship is anchored in off-line environment, I think I usually show "real self" on Facebook, and that's also "true self" of me. I think that I establish quite similar selves, when I'm in real life or anonymous life.



2)The article "Aspects of the self" is talked about MUD(Multi-User Domains/Dungeons). I never heard about MUD before, but it is really appealing that it can be used as psychotherapy. In this article, there are many cases of solving problem in real life using MUD, and some of the people overcame their problems through participate in MUD, but some of them couldn't.

But I don't think that it's a good idea to use MUD for psychotherapy, because it can't be a fundamental solution. The author pointed out that "MUDs offer parallel lives" which means real life is one of the many windows, so MUDs players easily go into one life and then others. But is this good? I think people, who spend 8~10 hours a day in MUDs, might confuse real life with simulation life, and one can think RL is just one window, so they don't take it seriously. If they don't like RL, they can just shut down RL window. Also,it is almost impossible to connect MUDs life and real life. Even though one can communicate with people in MUDs life, Real life is totally different. In MUDs the only thing people have to care about is text. However, in real life, there are many varables such as apearance, body language, and other situations surrounding people. I don't think they can easily adapt themselves to real life, as we can find from the Robert's case. When he decided to visit Kasha-his virtual girlfriend, he said that "She had a great personality over the computer. We get along pretty well. BUT I just didn't want someone coming to live with me"

Facebook and Second Life (Session 4)

This week's reading was so interesting to me. I would like to write about the effect of facebook on my life and education, and virtual communication.

1) I recently started facebook, and it is kind of interesting to connect with others and get feedback. I usually log in facebook when I use laptop, and keep doing while studying, and it is true that sometimes it disturbs my study. However, as the author mentioned in the article- Facebook and academic performance 'we CAN'T be stated that FB use cause a student to study less hours per week or have a lower GPA,' Rather I can save time to meet people by meeting on-line space, and also it makes me to have good relationship with others.

Also, facebook can be used in a classroom as a positive way, to interact with each other, and to communicate with parents, teachers use facebook. The link below is the news related to using facebook in a classroom

Teachers use facebook to update parents

2) Second life is a virtual reality that people can live "second" life. In this life, it is possible to meet other individuals, go to events, take classes in cyber space, and buy property with real money. People who aren't satisfied with their first life can go to second life. Everything is as similar as real life except people create digital personality called "Avatar." so they can create "ideal" appearance and personality as they want.
I think the reason why some people enjoy second life more than first life is that they can conceal who they really are. They can selectively show themselves(hyperpersonal communication), and it makes people more attractive than real one, as mentioned in the article; Computer-Mediated Communication, so less is more, imagination makes people have high expectation of others.

That reminds me of the movie, 'Avatar,' which Jake who can't walk in real life, go into Na'vi tribe as an avatar identity, save tribe, and fall in love with Neytiri. He can't distinguish between the real and the virtual life as time goes by, finally he chooses avatar life as his second life.


so, my question is this, some might be satisfied with second life more than their "real" life, but what is "real" For them? first life which is not meaningful them is real or second life is real?

Information society (Session 3)

This week's reading was about information society and cyberspace. I already read about information society in many articles, and actually we are in the middle of 'information society' now. However, it was a good change to grasp concrete idea of information society to me.

In the article 'The information society revisited' the author explains about a difinition of information and information society. He suggests six ways to distinguish information society from other societies;
-Technological innovation(using cable, satellite television, computer-to-computer communication,etc)
-Occupational change(manufacturing employment to service sector employment, and importance of capacity to manipulate information and creating, using information)
-Economy change(Half of US's GNP is combined with information sectors.)
-Space(All cyber spaces connected to networks)
-Culture(TV, computer games, radio, movies... all information environment form&change culture)

The process of transforming from industrial society to information society is quite smooth, and it is hard to define 'what is information society" well, because of the definition is based on qualititive assessment rather than quantititive assessment, but I could understand what changes we have experienced now in information society.

Another article 'Cyberspace and the American Dream' also mentions about information society, but it concentrates more on the nature of cyberspace.

Cyberspace is bioelectronic environment. It is inhabited by knowledge, and it is a kind of warehouse of digital form(disc, tape, CD...) Adding, creating, defining, and expanding is getting much faster than the past. The nature and ownership of property also changes, and market place also changes from one-time monopolies to competitive battleground. It is a dynamic competitoin which challenge the old one and replace them. Community in cyberspace is loose and heterogeneous. it glue holding together an increasingly free & diverse society. and this gives an answer to my question not clearly, but to a certain degree. My question was about a relationship in cyberspace, and I was not sure about talking to webcam, and making friend thought that could be a 'relationship.' According to this article, it is a nature of cyberspace. We connect to each other in cyberspace(it is really huge, so we hardly imagine its size :)), and people communicate and interact each other in this diverse society, but it certainly holds tighly.

So, How about education? How can we define education in information society? Education environment is also affected by technology. Different form industrial society, media(such as computer, video) are used frequently, and the interaction between students takes place in cyberspace(blog-we are doing now :) and facebook) rather than face-to-face. In cyberspace, students present different points of view, and it makes dynamic discussion. Students, as a active lerners, creat, add and expand educational materials, Teacher also act as a coach, supporter, and peer-lerner, from lecturer in industrial society.

Session 1~2

After Watching the Michael Wesch's speech, 'The Machine is (Changing) us'. I found out that it is interesting and meaningful to me. I thought about anonymity and development of technology. Recently, it is more common having conversation through on-line(like facebook or U-tube) than through face-to-face, and some people think that it is more convenient and comfortable. Michael said communication through on-line could bring hatred as public performance while it could bring freedom without fear or anxiety. Some people more easily reveal part of them which they don't want to show the people around them, and they take comfort from showing deep inside of them to the public. My first question is this, so anonymity(talking to machine) brings disconnection with people around them? and it brings new relationship with people they don't know? Can we call that as "relationship?"

According to the reading, development of technology and society are related to each other. As industrialism brings emergence of capitalism, technology sometimes lead the change of society. Then, what is next stage? What other new technologies will emerge and how can it affect our life? Technology develop gradually to artificial intelligence, and relationship between people moves from face-to-face to on-line environment, can it be a reality that machine really "using" people?

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This is a blog for Social Comm Aspect Internet ICT (MSTU 4020)