Het wassende web. De opmars van internet als persoonlijk communicatiemedium

Samenvatting

The Invasion of Cyberspace. The Use of the Internet as a Means of Personal Communication. It is argued that we are barely hanging on to objective reality, daily dragged down by the accumulated weight of the unrealities we consume, and therefore in no condition to absorb the shock of a new generation of illusion-making technologies that threaten to send us straight through the looking glass. But are we really the poor victims of reality-generating technology that invades our private lives as technopessimists claim? The author argues that people can still tell the difference between real and virtual life. This article focuses specifically on the Internet as a personal communication tool, especially as a provider of chat rooms, the most commonly used manifestation of cyberspace. It is in these chat rooms that people interact in virtual space. The author has tried to investigate the role and meaning that people attach to this form of interaction, finding that cyberspace offers no credible alternative for real space, at least not yet. Cyberspace is no more than a supplement, an easy-to-reach port of refuge where one can find, in most cases, only superficial contact with other individuals in absolute anonymity. It is the anonymity that causes paranoia among the visitors to cyberspace. This paranoia, the consequential fluidity of identity, as well as the superficial nature of the interaction keep cyberspace from actually competing with the real world. 31 References. Adapted from the source document.