Well, i've not had much to say the past few days, but i've got a few good thoughts i'm planning on expanding on sooner than later, hopefully. I got to see my parents and sister this weekend. The 4 of us havent been together at the same time for longer than a few hours in a pretty long time, and in that time we (me and my sister, me and my mother, my mother and my sister) primarily communicate through AIM. and my father talks to me and my sister through emails primarily, and can use AIM but prefers not to. (i haven't yet had time to ask why this is, but don't worry, I will sooner than later).
So this is the first time i see them face to face after weeks of talking via computer (well phone too, but not as often or as lengthily). It was interesting to me on a few levels. The first thing i noticed (and always have noticed, but due to my keen attention, was declared officially) is that we all act the same- we get mad at the same things online- unlike many people i know, we say the same things on the computer as we do in real life. That's always been something i couldnt understand- why do people talk differently? Anyway, so then i also noticed that since we had kept in touch, we were all entirely updated on each other's lives and doings. Maybe a bit less intimately, as we weren't physically present.-- I realize i've said this before, but i also said that i knew it was going to be repeated, as it is a fact that always strikes me strongly--. This just continually draws my attention back to the fact that we now have another completely viable way of keeping part in someone else's life, in a "distant" manner.
The other thing that was interesting to me was I got to talk to my parents, particularly my father, whom i discuss this class with a lot. So i told him of the goings on in class, and how it's changing how i see things: like how i notice all the differences in the way our entirely lives change, everywhere. You don't even realize it, but the vast amount of things that change, particularly expectations, but since the computer has become the incredible tool that it is, it infiltrates every part of our lives. Honestly, the dependency scares me- but thats another whole posting or even essay. When i spoke to my father, he called me out on something. He asked me what i meant when i said "virtual". What made something virtual? He said he was under the belief that if he is sending an email, he is not virtually communicating with me- it is directly what he is saying. I found it difficult to explain. What is virtual? What defines- or who- defines what is grasped as virtual. I plan on doing a class posting asking that question, and i also plan on continuing telling my observations of how much the world has changed with the developing technology without jus even realizing it.... but later.
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things I don't enjoy
- unnecessary drama
- painfully cold weather
- obnoxious things (people, noises)
- the bottom of your pants wetting your socks
- styrofoam
- waking up early
1 comment:
The question of what constitutes "virtual" is a good one. The first impulse is to think of "virtual reality" as a simulated reality, like this Second Life we've been talking about. When we use that definition, we are thinking about a particular, fairly limited, set of technologies that create 3-D, visual simulations of a world (either a simulation of "reality" or one we make up).
However there is a more sweeping definition of virtual. In this definition we think about the interpenetration of the material world with digital information. You can think about this in a literal/material sense, in the way that the "air waves" are filled with wireless broadcasts of digital info from WiFi and cell phones to satellite tv. You can also think about how the world is mapped out with GPS coordinates.
For example, SUNY Cortland is a place, a campus, but it is also a series of websites and other media.
Like your father, I'm sending you a message here. Are you getting me? I mean that two ways. First, am I physically there? Of course not. Second, are you understanding me? How would you know? This is as much a problem of writing in general as it is of cyberspace. You're getting a virtual version of me. If the message is simple, there's less likelihood of error. As the message gets longer and more complex, it's harder to gauge whether or not you "got" what I meant. In fact, it even gets hard for me to reconstruct my own intention. That is, if I write a book over the course of a year, it's layered with multiple intentions. Who can retrieve just the one? Instead, it's more like you're navigating a virtual space, seeing some aspects of the world I composed from your own vantage point.
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