September 11-13 Discussion

The idea of virtual worlds is a really exciting and almost sci-fi-eque idea. The ability to leave the real world in an instant to connect with millions of other people all over the world in a virtual environment does not seem real. In Baym’s Personal Connections article I think she makes some good points when talking about how digital media is changing the social norms of communication. In the opening pages of the chapter I think she really highlights the two sides of this argument beautifully. Baym talks about how there are skeptics who see this new communication as being shallow and belittling old traditional communication and in the other corner the adopters who believe that it gives a better opportunity and builds stronger communication connections. In Baym’s article represents a few questions that need to be explored. The first being the question of presence vs. absence of a physical self is the communication less intimate based off of the lack of physical being, however this could be argued by the mental vs physical being argument where as long as you are mentally stimulated by the conversation there should be no lack of intimacy or personal connections. The last idea that I found very interesting was how a person’s real personality and digital personality differ. I think this is a big player in this whole argument. As someone who does play video games there is a slightly different personality online just based off the idea of anonymity. I think that is really the issue the differing of personalities online versus in person. All the other arguments can be figured out as Baym says later over the history of our lifespan new technologies have scared people but eventually everyone gets used to it. The idea of differing personalities is a challenge which does come into play in these virtual environments that Joe Sanchez talks about. These social virtual worlds or gaming virtual worlds that Sanchez talks about is an exciting idea, but when you really want to connect with somebody who knows if that is really their personality. If this really is the way of communicating in the future or another way to meet people how will people in the digital divide fair? There is still a big digital divide issue where people will be left behind. This idea of a digital divide will in my opinion create two different groups that will be fine once the hype curve dies down. I think that the idea of communicating with people in real life and also through mobile phones will be in one division and the other side will be the virtual world’s people. I think the virtual worlds environments only attracts a certain type of person, most people will still go to a more traditional view of communicating. In my generation I see a lot of computer guys that will embrace social interaction via virtual worlds, but there are still a lot of people who do not like to do that based off of social stigma. I feel that social networking should and will eventually assimilate into a traditional mold of communicating given your identity is still intact. I believe this because of what Portwood talks about in her article about media refusal. There is this hype curve of social media right now where everyone is on it and they are “addicted” for lack of a better word; once this hype curve dies down it will properly assimilate into a hybrid of traditional communication and an added twist to it, but no way will it replace it completely it will make it more portable and mobile. The technology idea is the same a telephone and smart phone have the same premise just the smart phone builds upon that basic model. I feel digital communication does the same with traditional it is the same idea that builds upon the original idea without threatening the traditional. In my opinion communication is communication. It will rapidly evolve, but overall humans have a desire to interact with each other and while that is still a basic human need to feel a bond with a group or connection with others it really does not matter where the communication comes from. Everyone will adapt and everyone will find their niche.