2. The idea of the internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society?
Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.
The term cyberspace has no definitive definition, but is rather a metaphor for describing the virtual entity that occupies the space between computer systems. It was first termed by William Gibson in 1984 in his book, Neuromancer, in which he defines it as "a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphical representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the non-space of the mind, clusters and constellations of data". (Jordan, T. 1999)
It as been accepted for some time that the idea of the internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture. However, the fact that the internet is defined as the sum of interconnected computers and the software that runs it which is logically linked together demonstrates how the terms cyberspace and internet are two different concepts. (Lecture Notes) Billions of people enter the cosmic body of the internet every day, going about routine activities such as email, messenger, gaming and social networking. It’s the sum of all the individual users data and information that make up the cyberspace body. The internet is more of a channel to access different systems around the world. Therefore, cyberspace is not the connection between different computers but rather the connection of data between the users. It’s the conceptual space where people who may or may not meet each another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas, chat and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, exchange knowledge, share emotions, make plans, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends, flirt and play games without leaving the computer screens but leaving the body behind. (Silver, D. 2000)
We live in a society where we are exposed to never-ending and attainable knowledge and all at the click of a mouse. More than ever, the concept of virtual communities within cyberspace is changing the way in which we view society and ourselves as individuals. Catching up with friends no longer requires the effort of organizing a time or place or the niceties of a handshake or kiss on the cheek. The advance of new technologies in communication means that billions of people world-wide can connect with each other without leaving the comforts of their house or even their desk chair. Instead, they rely on the wonders of the internet, without so much as a thought to the changing social standards within society. In 1995, the then vice president of America Al Gore remarked “These highways, or more accurately, networks or distributed intelligence, will allow us to share information, to connect and to communicate as a global community”. (Silver, D. 2000)
With an enormous number of social networking sites, chat rooms, blogs and forums, it seems that the direction of the social behavior of today’s society is shifting. Many people are using the online forms of communication to create and join communities within the cyberspace realm. This illustrates that the concept of cyberspace in contemporary society is more relevant than ever. The ease and ignorance at which individuals make their mark on these sites demonstrates the vastness of cyberspace and the way in which everyone who accesses the internet is inevitably connected through it. One common and very popular vessel for communication is networking sites such as Facebook. The statistics speak for themselves. Facebook has 300 million active users who spend on average, 8 billion minutes on Facebook per day, accompanied with 45 million status updates each day. (Facebook.com) Majority of the users are aged 35 years or younger and enter personal information on to their own link on the site, which is then released into the cyberspace sphere without so much as a thought as to who can or will access their information.
In contrast to explaining the relevance of cyberspace in contemporary society it is important to acknowledge the other forms of communication that do not enter cyberspace but are still accessed via the internet. Personal and private programs such as Windows Messenger, iChat and email provide a communication vessel, however are not entered into the virtual lands of cyberspace. They cannot be ‘googled’ unlike social networking pages; neither can they be accessed by anyone apart from the user. This illustrates the important differences between the cyberspace and the internet, although they are undeniably connected.
In conclusion, the relevance of cyberspace in today’s society is unquestionable. It is however, the interchangeable definitions of cyberspace and the internet that society needs to understand. The cosmic body that is cyberspace is filled with billions of individuals and business’s data, personal information and not so personal. It’s the concept that the internet is merely the technical connection between the vessels of virtual communities while cyberspace is the cosmic force that drives it.
Reference List
Facebook Statistics,
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
Jordan, T. 1999. Cyberpower: The cultural and politics of cyberspace and the internet, Routledge, Great Britain.
New Communication Technologies Lecture Notes, 2009
Silver, D. 2000. Looking Backwards, Looking Forward: Cyberculture Studies 1990 – 2000, University of San Francisco
What is Cyberspace?
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/c/cyberspace.html
Viewed 13 October, 2009
