Ontological Shift
In Michael Heim’s essay “The Cyber Space Dialectic”, he discusses how our culture is going through an ontological shift fashioned by the Internet. Heim articulates his theory of what dialectic is and how this ontological shift is creating a new dialectic. The Internet is the main place today where people from all over the world exchange and communicate their ideas and feelings. The Internet is a new community in itself. The ontological shift into the cyberspace times will change the way we think, and the way we act; it will change our overall sense of being. These change that Heim calls an “ontological shift” has brought on questions about changing society. These are similar to the questions that Peter Drucker and Benjamin Barber brought up when they discussed about creating a new society. Will society benefit from this new society in which its central being is cyberspace? This is a serious question since we are living in the phase that is changing into the cyber world now. How will this change affect this new technologically inclined society?
We have all used the Internet to talk to other people, either using chat or emails. We converse with people with different backgrounds and cultures. When interacting with different types of people, it means that we are working in groups and collaborating. This is what the Internet is all about. Interacting with each other in new ways, and learning how to open yourself to other points of views and new ideas. In his essay Heim states,
“Computer networks foster virtual communities that cut across geography time zones. Virtual community seems a cure-all for isolated people who complain about their isolation. Locked in metal boxes on urban freeways, a population enjoys socializing with fellow humans through computer networks”(Heim 374).
As Heim explains in his essay, the Internet can bring together communities that are isolated from the rest of the world. It helps communities and different types of people communicate with each other. It creates the idea of group work through computer networks. This was also one theme in Barbers essay; Group work is what makes ideas carry through and productive. In Barber’s “Making Civil Society Real” he states,
“Civic responsibility, being a partnership between government, civil society, and the private market necessarily depends on the active collaboration of political leaders, citizens and business people”(Barber 106).
Our responsibility as a society is to collaborate our selves with all the groups that make this society function.
In “Modern Romance,” Celeste Biever describes romantic relationships in the Internet community. She describes how people can romantically be involved on the Internet and how the Internet teaches one to learn about a person from the inside out.In “Cyberspace and Identity,” Sherry Turkle also expresses her interest in the Internet and how it allows for the act of self-exploration. Even though their focus on what the Internet is used for are different from the perspective of one another, Biever and Turkle both see the Internet as a place for exploration in a general sense.
Today the internet serves as a major source of communication in several different ways. When thinking about communication
We are promised a global village instead we inhibit the drab cul-de-sac and endless freeways of vast suburb of information.” Though we have a multitude of ways to communicate that are much faster and and newer, we are constantly participating in ways that alienate us from each other and the world around us. Marche describes this as an “epidemic of loneliness”. He discusses the effect this has on our modern society.
As capitalism runs its course and develops new technologies, society is left to pick up the pieces and figure out where these new technologies will lead them. Ever since I learned to use the Internet as a child, I have become accustomed to seeing more and more fascinating technology developments that have changed the way I communicated as the years went by. Now that the Internet has infiltrated more aspects of human life, it has become necessary to reflect on how this critical juncture will continue to affect our society. In Digital Disconnect, Robert McChesney provides an analysis of the arguments that the celebrants and skeptics used to express their views of the Internet. McChesney then moves past these arguments to explain how the PEC plays a key role in determining the direction that the Internet is heading towards. By assessing McChesney’s views, I hope to develop my own interpretation of the Internet’s impact on society.
There is an agreement in the literature that “when people share a strong sense of community they are empowered and motivated to change the problems they face and are better able to mediate the negative effects over things which they have no control” (Chavis & Wandersman, 1990).
Tyler, R. T. (2002). Is the Internet Changing Social Life? Journal of Social Issues, 58 (1), 195-205.
It is evident that Ruth Marcus’s “Cyberspace Dunderheads” and Goldwasser’s “What’s the matter with kids today?” share common objectives. Both articles concur that advances in technology have restructured our present and future existence in various ways. Communication, social networking, and obtaining knowledge have all been affected from technology’s advances, according to the two authors. Although their articles have similarities, all of their views and opinions do not coincide .Goldwasser and Marcus chose different avenues of expressing their opinions.
The term “cyberculture” is derived from the word “cyberspace”. William Gibson’s science novel “ Neuromancer” predicted a world that man and machine merge to become a cyborg (Tribble and Trubek: 521). This prediction became reality during the end of study of the 1990s when cyberculture began to flourish. This culture exists within several cultures here on earth. Some may ask, what is cyberculture? Cyberculture studies cover the examination of the subject and the forming communities within the realms of those networked spaces that are being created through technological devices and amplifications (Silver). In this essay I will examine how technological advancements affect our fundamental habits of writing and reading.
"Finding One's Own in Cyberspace." Composing Cyberspace. Richard Holeton. United States: McGraw-Hill, 1998. 171-178. SafeSurf. Press Release.
“Digital technology will fundamentally transform education, the way we work, play and interact with one another suggest that these new media will have an even greater impact on our culture than the invention of writing and reading” (Furedi, 2014). Social change is the transformation over time of the institutions and culture of a society. In today’s culture, technology and social media is something that effects everyone. These days, everyone is involved with technology of some kind. There have been many social and cultural changes in the past ten years due to social media and technology. The Internet has changed communication and relationships, everyday life, education, subcultures, and social protests (Ch. 20).
Should the most selfish elite individual take heed and meditate on the ideology behind community, he/she may awaken to the fact that many persons looking after one person has more advantages and a better survival rate than one trying to preserve one. The needs of the one will never outweigh the needs of the collective group. In the end individuality inevitably leads to self-destruction; therefore, commitment to community is a requirement for contemporary Americans and vital to its survival.
Franzen, Axel. “Does the Internet Make Us Lonely?” European Sociological Review 16.4 (Dec, 2000). 428. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.
The technology nowadays has an influence on our lives, it has affected everything in it. When this technological revolution started, we didn't expect that it would affect our emotions, and our feelings. All we expected is that technology would develop our ability to have easier life and control nature. But what really happened is that the technology started to be part of us that we can't live without. The Internet is one of the technologies which appeared in our lives, and now it is dominating our lives. The Internet is replacing many things in our lives : Email has replaced the postal services , E-shopping (e.g., ebay) is replacing regular shopping, and now you can arrange your dates and relationships on the Internet.
Society has over time, developed many means of communication starting with the word of mouth to writing letters, the telephone, and now the internet. The internet has developed its own form of communication, which is a social network. Social networks have created a way for people across the world to communicate with each other at the same time, all in one place, thus making it the internet the reason behind the revolution known as Social Network.
The internet has revolutionized all forms of communication since the beginning of its existence. The world has now become smaller' or more like a global village', so to speak. The internet was first used by the U.S military for communications purposes. The internet, from the communication point of view, has brought on new developments and techniques to keep in touch not only for individuals, but for businesses as well. An example of how the internet has impacted communication would be an example of doctors now communicating through live video feeds via the internet with patients or other doctors to diagnose patients or to even guide and advise surgeons through complicated procedures.