Virtual Communities

I have been on more virtual spaces then I have ever been on in the last year. I am on Face book, my space, Twitter, yahoo chat and 4 different e-mail addresses with chats connected to them. I am rarely on any of them they were created for a class of some kind of another. My real world is so crowded with things to do that I just do not have the time to keep up with. I work 80 hours weekly, have 3 kids and 2 step kids, plus full time school. I can imagine how people would like to escape into the virtual world to escape the physical world and leave the headaches of the physical world behind and transcend into a place that would give you a sense of reality that is not monotonous of the every day life.

Social norms do not exist in the virtual world. People that have to hang out with a social norm are expected to act talk and think in a certain way. In the virtual world the norms and expectation does not exist. We get to choose who we meet and talk to online. People that can not just go up and talk to strangers or are unable to leave their home because of a handicap, or stress issues can feel like they can connect with others and use the virtual world as an outlet that they did not have years ago.

Digital divide in social networks would be income and how often a computer and internet is available. Some one that can read and speak a language can be literate with the computer social life. Asking questions and experimenting on the internet will give a broader understanding of social experience. The worst barrier would be closed minded and not willing to try and learn about it.

This Is What I Think About Cyberspace

Cyberspace: A new universe, a parallel universe created and sustained by the world's computers and communication lines. A world in which the global traffic of knowledge, secrets, measurements, indicators, entertainments, and alter-human agency takes on form: sights, sounds, presences never seen on the surface of the earth blossoming in a vast electronic night.

This description of Cyberspace made me think “now that is what I think Cyberspace is all about.” I think this because in one click of a button you can transcend in to what ever or where ever you want to be: one can be Superman flying over the Ever Glades, or be Tarzan swinging from the tops of the forest. In a click of a button you can visit your best sister or best friend from where ever you are in the world and share special moments as if you were sitting right next to her/him. Every thing that one would want to know or see is just waiting for you to explore with out having to fly on a plane, pack a bag, or leave your room. Money, time or age is never a factor to take off on a trip and unleash your imagination in the virtual world of cyberspace.