1). Have you made friendships that exist exclusively in cyberspace? If so, how are they different from f2f relationships? If you have not formed cyber relationships, why not?
When I was in the 7th grade and the internet was a completely new world to me, chatting in cyberspace was all I did. I begged my mom to get AOL so that I could go into all the cool and interesting chatrooms they had. The one that was awesome to me at the time was the “NSYNC” chatroom. I remember there was a boy in the room that swore he was Justin Timberlake and we would talk for days! I would sneak on the computer at times just to email him or even talk to him. I think it’s ridiculous now, but back then, it was my favorite thing to do!
They are different from face to face relationships because you actually know and have met the person you are interacting and befriending. You are able to see their face gestures, hold their hands, hug their bodies, and have actual face to face interactions with them. With cyberspace, the only thing you know about them is what they are telling you. You do not know if what they’re telling you are lies or actually real.
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Hi Goober:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments to my post. I had to chuckle when you stated in your blog about you chatting in Cyberspace with so called Mr. Justin Timberlake. According to Sarah Trenholm, “Many theorists argue that they do so to fulfill preexisting needs. Uses and gratifications research focuses on the needs that motivate media consumers” (Trenholm 2008, pg. 309). In your case, the so called Mr. Justin Timberlake fulfilled a need in your life during your 7th grade year. It may have boosted your self-esteem; it may have made you feel accepted to the male population as a female, or it may have just been the excitement to think there is someone out there whom you did not even know, but you feel connected to whether he is telling you the truth or not.
Your post is pretty fun and I definitely was an AOL chatroom junky in middle school. Does AOL still have them? That would be funny. The chatrooms were fun because it was so anonymous. You could really say anything and nobody would know who you were. That was fun, but at the same time it was scary because people would lie about who they were or use profane and inappropriate language.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't long before I stopped using the chatrooms because the quality of people in them was just bad. Talking to fake people got boring and my need for normal f2f interaction persuaded me to stop chatting in chatrooms.
I definitely value f2f relationships much more than internet ones. I think people are more real in person than they are online.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteReally funny post, but who hasn't done that when they were a kid? I never really attempted to make a cyberspace friend, mainly because of the potential dangers my parents lectured me on.
Now that I'm older and able to make decisions on my own, I feel that cyberspace friendships could be a positive thing if kept to a minimum; There have been interesting studies done that proved that people that depend on cyberspace friendships actually become more timid and apprehensive in real life when talking to real people.
I always have preferred real life contact opposed to something that's almost make believe. It will be interesting to see where the Internet goes and how communicating will evolve? What do you think all of the social networking websites and what kind of harm are they doing to people?