Nagging Questions

There are several things that are nagging me about this entire topic on the impact of social and communication aspects of ICTs. In fact this blog post is turning out to be a compendium of ideas that need to be further narrowed down.

Is the rise of the internet a fundamentally good thing or bad thing for our lifestyles? I suspect the answer is a yes but I do have some misgivings about it in the following context. Is the net impact of the net going to increase our social connectivity or decrease it or will it have no impact? Some studies we have read conclude that those who are social offline bring those contacts online as well and that their social behavior is reflected online. Like the television, is the Internet playing the role of a technology that reduces facetime between neighbors, friends and colleagues and if that is true then what is the impact of this loss?


One thing I am considering is doing a meta-analysis of studies on the impact of the internet on social capital in the western world. Please note that I am specifying the western world because many of the papers we read were ethnocentric and applied mostly only to the west.When looking at this we have to consider penetration of the internet among the population. For instance, internet access and langugae barriers probably make penetration rates so low in rural developing countries that it would be pointless to investigate its impact on social capital .

Phenomena such as second life and the inordinate amount of time that many people spend in that alternative universe also makes me uncomfortable. It would be interesting to find out what proportion of US youth spend a lot of time on the net gaming and what is the impact of this gaming on their lives? When previously they would hang out with their neighborhood friends or in other social activities, have these lifestyle changes made a significant impact in their life?

One other topic that interests me is the impact of the internet on people in developing countries? Has the net contributed in a significant way to their lives in terms of commerce or social connectivity? What proportion of people in South Asia have been enriched by this technology and how? Is there hope for deep structural change in their lives due to this particular technology? That is what entry into a utopian information age would entail, a deep structural change in which the poor get empowered and rich stop getting richer at the expense of the poor.

One other idea is investigate the use of the internet as a communication device by muslim fanatics to reach the public. There are reports about Al Qaeda resurgence and the emergence of videos on terrorist websites. How has the internet facilitated contact between these groups and the people they want to influence ? While this sounds like a fascinating but morbid study, I think it may be too much to pull together by the end of class.

Identity Online

Frankly, the readings for this particular session have felt a little surreal to me and created a sense of discomfort. The whole idea of gaming online with MUDDS for hours at a time seems unhealthy for most people. I think something seriously is wrong with the world if people have to retreat to MUDDs either to gain a sense of themselves or to escape their reality. I understand that some people with poor social skills would benefit from a world in which social cues are different but this is not true for the vast majority of us. In fact just reading these articles made me feel lonely.

I agree with Turkle that we all have multiple identities. For example , I am a mother, wife, employee, student, South Asian. If we engage fully with the world, why does anyone need to go to MUDDS to experience and test multiple identities. We have the real world around us to test out our identities. It could be that the virtual world feels safer in which to do that. But I feel that the lessons we learn by testing in the real world are difficult to replicate in the virtual. For instance, its easy to misconstrue what is said or communicated online without visual social cues. In fact this happens often. Turkle herself says so when she explores a young man's meeting with his online paramour.