Intro to Cyberculture

2004-02-01T22:51:00.000-08:00

Virtual Bodies
The story of Julie, the disabled woman was kind of sickening. It reminded of the issues with race pretenders, and it is no different. People pretending to be disabled is like a satire on the actually disabled, it is irritating, but then again the cyberworld was pretty much created for these other identites and it is horrible. people need to realize that just because it is not a physical being you can still hurt people, regardless of the realm of life, virtual or real, lying is not accepted in the majority of cultures.

2004-01-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

The importance of this lesson is to realize that the things that happen in the cyber world can affect how we feel in the real world. So the question is how do we deal with trading and crimes coming from the virtual world but effecting the real world players.

2004-01-27T19:09:00.000-08:00

Living In Cyberspace
The article that caught my attention the most is a rape in cyberspace. To me this was somewhat obsurd. How can a person say that she was raped in cyberspace, sign off for crying out loud, tell him to go f*** himself. However after I read some of the other articles, I looked back at this one and decided fine, they dealt with the problem in the cyberworld, not saying it was a real life issue which helped me a little. However for the sake of arguement, maybe there should be a cyber term for this "type" of rape, but it should not be called a rape because it is different, it is more of a menatl violation, rape is mental and physical in the real world.

2004-01-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

Virtual Identities
virtual communities are not a bad thing, however, anything good can turn into something bad, and vise versa. So, virtual communities can help people in much of the same way as therapy, considering they still have a real life. i think virtual communities turn bad when you have hate groups, or people ousing these communities as their life instead of going out and meeting people.

2004-01-21T20:29:00.000-08:00

Virtual Identities
I have to agree with Kali Tal in that people going online pretending to be others, having multiple identites is nothing new. Minorities have had multiple identities all of their life and no matter how many courses or books read on a minorities experience no non-minority can ever understand how it feels to be called a nigger, spick, chink etc. I hate that at UW so many students think they know what it means to be a minority and open up their mouth to say what they think they know only to tell me as a minority that they know absolutely nothing. And it is the same on the internet, all people do is reinforce the sterotypes that minorities strugglke to get away from.

2004-01-20T08:20:00.000-08:00

The Network Society
Globalization is businesses taking their jobs oversees for cheaper labor. It deals with prices, recessions, it's easier because of technology, and it can hurt or help the economy depending on your perspective. then there is networking systems, computers sharing information between eachother, this also deals with people sharing ideas and getting help from people in different areas.
Networking systems have made it possible for globalization through technology.

2004-01-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

I have finished reading the medium is the message for the second time. I read it when I attended Howard University in 2001. I ended up getting a little more out of it this time then I did the second time. I have always enjoyed the analogy made about mediums being extensions of our self. I agree with this. Technology simply enhaces our own current abilities. I also believe that too many times people put too much emphasis on the message instead of the medium, they are both equally important. One is not better than the other, they compliment eachother.

2004-01-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

Approaching Cyberspace.
Basically this section dealt with why we even create cyberworlds. It is because people want an escape, it is like when kids have imaginary castles and such, cyberworlds are adults imaginary tools. I also agree with Heim in that is also deals with our fascination of technology, but its still a imaginary concept as well, we imagine and daydream about the things we are fascinated by.

2004-01-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

January 8, 2004
Blogs and Blogging
This weeks topic was basically just finding information about what a blog is, considering that we have had to make one for class, I'm guessing I have a pretty good idea. However since i have work and to take care of my mother it is very hard to make an entry when I'm supposed.