Accessibility - At What Cost?

Without a doubt, I think access is the most important social or cultural effect of technology. People mainly use the World Wide Web to gain access to information and entertainment – not to mention social networking, communities, and a sense of belonging (access really encompasses nearly anything you can do on the Web – it seems like a cop-out answer). I think the ability to link geographically distant people and access extremely specific information so easily without time or space constraints makes this technology so valuable. I could really go on forever about the pros of this convenience and ease, but I think there is something else to be said about the Internet’s accessibility.

While the Web can provide everything from TV shows to medical information to music (as I listen to the Shins on youtube.com), it becomes so easy to get caught up in cyberspace and substitute it for reality. After reading the Identity in the Age of the Internet article, I’ve become very afraid - not afraid of the technology but, instead, how people are using it. Yes, this technology is allowing users to access new cultures, new ideas, new people, and even access new genders or personalities for themselves, but the line between reality and cyberspace is becoming more blurred when I read things like: “‘This is more than my real life,’ says a character who turns out to be a man playing a woman who is pretending to be a man.”

I think this ability to access new perspectives can be extremely helpful but when players like Doug (a college student that was interviewed) refuses to talk about his character because his anonymity online is very important to him, I wonder if he even sees that he’s playing a GAME. If power went out, I feel like he wouldn’t be able to go on. In the reading, he minimizes “RL” to “just one more window.” I get extremely frustrated with this!! To me, this would be the most disturbing effect on society. When people say things like “I’ll Facebook you,” or when I used to get people I only somewhat know showing up on my Myspace tracker, I wonder how much more time people would spend together in person if this technology wasn’t available. I think I may be playing the devil’s advocate at this point, but it’s worth thinking about.

Another obvious negative outcome of this type of access is Internet addiction. Once people realize how much there is to do online, they sometimes don’t even leave their rooms. I suppose every new medium has its share of overusers and abusers, as I think of the poor souls who live vicariously through TV characters or parents who use television as a babysitter (am I stepping on any feet yet?), but the Internet seems to have more problematic and addictive characteristics than these other mediums. When I went to the Center for Internet Addiction website, it put this in perspective. I found this text:

Take a test:
- Cybersexual Addiction Quiz
- Internet Addiction Test (IAI)
- Quiz for Obsessive Online Gambling
- Quiz for Compulsive Online Gamers
- Quiz for Online Auction Addiction
- The Partner's Addiction Test
- The Parent-Child Addiction Test

All of this overuse results from our ability to access basically anything at any time, with little to no constraints. Personally (and this is a little embarrassing), I stopped using Myspace and Facebook because it wasted too much of my time. I would often sit and read about my friends’ lives like I was intimately involved, spending every day with them. I finally had to quit (the decision was not easy) because it made a good distraction for writing papers or actually being constructive with my time (now I’m sure I’ve stepped on some feet, haha).

In the article A Review of Research on Internet Addiction, “80% of nearly 600 respondents indicated at least five use-related problems such as failure to manage time, missed sleep, missed meals, etc.”

That said, I think the access brought on by this technology is a double-edged sword. I really liked Cooper’s Jurrassic Park reference that technology can absolutely be two-fold. Anything can be bad if you use it wrong…but I am just not sure what peoples’ definitions of “wrong” or “too much” really is. I know my bounds, and I access the Internet when I know I’m in control. When it gets to the point that I feel like the Internet is using me, I’m out!