Living the iLife

The Internet has allowed people's interpersonal relationships to benefit from more connected forms of communication. Text messaging, instant messaging, camera phones, digital cameras, email, and social networking have all contributed to people's ability to remain in communication despite barriers of time and space that may have existed in the past prior to the development of these technologies. MUDs, message boards, usenet groups, IRC, newsgroups, and most recently sns have allowed people to develop interpersonal relationships with people they would have never been able to previously. Bargh and McKenna state that "others believe the Internet affords a new and different avenue of social interaction that enables groups and relationships to form that otherwise would not be able to, thereby increasing and enhancing social connectivity. These technologies have increased social capital as well. SNS combines the features of almost all of these aspects of Internet communication into one architecture. This helps in facilitating the creation and longevity of interpersonal communication. As Bargh and McKenna state, "the main reason people use the Internet is to communicate with other people...and the principal reason why people send email messages to others is to maintain interpersonal relationships. The article on convergence concurred that "Our lives, relationships, memories, fantasies, desires also flow across media channels. Being a lover or a mommy or a teacher occurs on multiple platforms. Sometimes we tuck our children into bed at night and other times we instant message them from the other side of the globe." Bargh and McKenna further state that "the Internet has unique, even transformational qualities as a communication channel, including relative anonymity and the ability to easily link with others who have similar interests, values, and beliefs," but that "features of the Internet also tend to leave a lot unsaid and unspecified and open to inference and interpretation." The convergence article points out the way in which previously unavailable interpersonal relationships develop, "Knowledge communities form around mutual intellectual interests; their members work together to forge new knowledge often in realms where no traditional expertise exists; the pursuit of and assessment of knowledge is at once communal and adversarial." Rheingold provides the practical model of these ideas when he speaks of Well "Finding the WELL was like discovering a cozy little world that had been flourishing without me, hidden within the walls of my house; an entire cast of characters welcomed me to the troupe with great merriment as soon as I found the secret door. Like others who fell into the WELL, I soon discovered that I was audience, performer, and scriptwriter, along with my companions, in an ongoing improvisation. A full-scale subculture was growing on the other side of my telephone jack, and they invited me to help create something new." He goes on to say that "I have good friends now all over the world who I never would have met without the mediation of the Net."
All that being said, all of this connectivity has severely limited an individuals privacy.

Hacker culture has made important contributions to the development of the Internet. Hacker culture is a sub-culture that wouldn't have come into existence without the Internet. The free software movement has been one of their greatest contributions, both in terms of software and ideology.

The idea of the Internet as a social space instead of a mere tool was a very interesting concept used in the article by Mark Poster. The juxtaposition of Germany and the hammer was a great way to illustrate his concept of the Internet as social space.

The Internet provides the capability of a global or national political dialogue that could never have existed on such a large scale before. The Internet "enables citizens to disseminate news and organize resistance to totalitarian rule." The Power of the Mobile Many illustrates this in terms of the ways that Filipinos and Zapatistas were able to successfully fight against coercive and repressive policy. I find the concept of "netwar" to be very intriguing and actually ties in very well with what I wish to examine in my research project for this class. I feel that the Internet is becoming the new public sphere. We haven't had this kind of a public sphere for some time due to the way broadcast television was packaged and funded. The Internet allows us to bypass many of the commercial interests that have eroded journalism. People are very busy these days among working long hours, long commutes, and other such responsibilities that we simply do not have the time to meet at town hall or the agora. The Internet allows us to participate in a public sphere from anywhere. We can comment on a blog or a message board from our cell phone while we are riding the metro home from work. We can now become peer to peer journalists via the same methods. "What if smart mobs could empower entire populations to engage in peer-to-peer journalism? Imagine the impact of the Rodney King video multiplied by the people power of Napster (The Power of the Mobile Many)." As Rheingold states, "if a government is to rule according to the consent of the governed, the effectiveness of that government is heavily influenced by how much the governed know about the issues that affect them."

Overall, I would have to say that the Internet has been more of a boon than a pariah. My greatest concern is its potential to completely erode privacy. Foucault's analysis of the panopticon should provide us with a stark warning that we are constantly under surveillance, especially in the era of the Patriot Act, domestic spying programs, and immunity for the companies that acquiesce to governmental demands.