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WE ARE, IN CYBERSPACE (Part 1) |
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Written by Aaron Darc
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Wednesday, 13 September 2006 |
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Page 4 of 5
Imagine what happened to C316095, when it ventured into the other component of Blackboard – the forums. C316095 had never been in a forum in its life. Saddle up, C316095, you are heading into the very heart, the peak, of student interaction. These kids talked more on here than they did to each other in class, and even then, it was minimal communication that, as expected, never went beyond three sentences.
When C857643 posted, “Hi, I’m having trouble with the connection between Theory of Mind and development of empathetic capacity”, they were met with a standard response.
“C907658: Same ☹ This is hard”. Or if they were helpful, “C456982: Try reading chapter 6 – 18, it says so on the reading notes from tutorial A-23. You can download it in the Additional Information category.”
And what did I do? I would try to engage a dialogue, in order to explore the issues raised in the essay question, by provoking discussion, and relating it to our own lives. I would ask rhetorical questions, as a means to create an enriching exchange of thought and idea. The response went a little like this…
C456932: What? Just download the stupid paper! Why do you care?
C346743: Lol, UR NUTS
C865733: ROFL
This corrsponded with my journey outside of my university realm, in the rest of cyberspace, and slowly, the two become one, connected by the rules, dynamics, and patterns forming in my experiences of both. There was no difference. The rules were the same. These kids from my real life were effectively the kids in cyberspace – somewhat logical, really – and they were as stupid, and as emotionally and intellectually unequipt as each other. I mistakenly thought of cyberspace as something that proceeded the actual real world out there (or, at very least, was an extension of it). I was wrong. With these kids, cyberspace proceeds all else – real life is the lesser, it’s the lesser extension of it. Kids no longer meet in cyberspace to talk about the things that happened in the real world – when they meet in the real world, they discuss what happeed in cyberspace. The focus is shifting.
And the real world, to these kids, is a vulnerable, anxious place. It’s foreign, and difficult, and it requires far more – too much – from them. I eventually saw this on Blackboard, where identity and the loss of cyber-anonyminity, became threatening and negative. In the recognition of real identity, and the connection being made from cyberspace to social reality, in walked consequence. In walked the possibility of complex interaction, without the snug limitations of cyberspace, without a “disconnect” tab. In an existential light, what this allows them to do is turn down the emotional volume of their existence, because the anxiety of identity as it is connected to the perceptions of those around you, is removed. Shit doesn’t stick in cyberspace, and so you never really feel it – you never have to incorporate it into your sense of self, or in any way construct a meaningful self-perception from it. And from a techgnical perspective, people don’t – can’t – hit you, or disown you, or harm your daily existence I any way. Nobody can really find you in cyberspace, and everything is as transient as we control it to be.
In Blackboard, I noticed a pattern of identity being wielded like a weapon. Anonyminity was so important, that whenever any tension did break out on Blackboard (and it was succesfully kept to a minimum by the communication codes), the question of identity became a very anxious battle. |
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