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.
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What exactly makes the communities you've described virtual communities rather than simply an extension of the physical world? The platforms and clients you've named, what makes them communities at all? Aren't they just conduits to enable community building? A program in and of itself is not a community; it's just a program.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, it would be both a logical fallacy AND untrue to state that social norms do not exist in the virtual world. They most certainly do. Perhaps you mean something else by "social norm" but I don't know what.
Talking about "social norms" reminds me of the sociology class I took a few years ago. One of the first things the professor asked us was "What do you consider normal?". Who's to say what's normal and what isn't? What defines "normal" is the society.
ReplyDeleteSomething that stuck out for me was when she asked the class if anyone had ever been around someone who is talking or acting outrageous. Usually if someone is doing something that causes a lot of stares or whispers, it's usually out of the "social norms" for that society.
In the virtual world we can spot people who aren't fitting in or who are pretending to be something their not. They are probably going against the "social norms" of that specific community and will be shunned, asked to leave, or ignored.
Hello group. For Friday's blog assignment, I'm calling Donna Haraway's article: The Cyborg Manifesto as mine.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Dena.
Hi there, I'll be blogging on "When Species Meet" Corrinda
ReplyDeleteI'm bloggin' on Modes_Witness@Second_Mellennium.Female_ Meets_OncoMouse: Feminism and Technoscience
ReplyDeleteJosh
I am blogging on "Situated Knowledges".
ReplyDeleteTina
I think you're right about the internet being an outlet for people who are not physically able to leave thier home. They are somehow connected to the "real world" but yet safe in thier home where nothing can get them.
ReplyDeleteWhen you state "social norm" I interpret it as one being able to do things and be someone they really aren't and get away with it. Where as if they were in the physical world they would not be able to do so.
I do, however, believe that there social rules in virtual reality that just as much as there are social rules in physical reality. They may be similar in some ways and they may differ in other ways. It just depends on the space that you are in. C
I wonder how that applies to shut-ins, people who deliberately stopped going out due to personal issues or psychological ones.
ReplyDeleteI think the best part about cyberspace is how it reflects our real lives, especially the social norms. I think it will take time for these norms to differentiate themselves from the society norms we deal with on a daily basis.