Contemporary internet users
According to Marc Prensky there are two types of internet users,
The Natives - who are aware and have been around the technology since their birth and know the language of the internet.
The immigrants – who are still in the confused state unable to decide which communication is better,
Stats on how many people use internet.
Out of 6.5 billion world population 1.07 billion worlds’ population has used internet and is drastically growing. But there is still a large percentage of the population that has not been using the internet. (Source: internetworldstat)
There are lots of young people who are not even aware that the internet exists. In America itself 75% of the people claim to have used internet in their life who are under 60 of age.
In such a vague concept of who uses the internet it is almost impossible to divide the users into two sections.
“Age was a major factor: the group most likely to own a computer and be connected to the Internet was aged 25 to 44” – ( Hossein-2004)
Considered that the usage is still less, we cannot judge the internet users to be divided into two groups.
People who use the internet are from various places are unknown considered that a single person can use multiple handle names and portray himself differently online. The digital divide exists in every society.
Behaviours of the Internet Users
Portraying oneself differently
Personally I have two email accounts with different approaches of usage over the internet. One email is used as an actual identity for professional or formal acceptance of people or friends that I need to communicate with. Any kind of business or close to real world transaction, I would use this email.
But the other email address I use it to access music sites, Porn sites, games and all other fantasy stuff that require an identity. I have developed this habit since the beginning; no one has ever told me that I should do this.
Both of the personalities are me myself. It is through different identities that we convey different behaviours. This is the one ability the internet provides us with. It is very common that every one behaves differently with different societies. You behave differently with friends and differently with parents. (Jandt – 2003)
According to David Weinberger the people online create multiple personalities to portray different emotions and approaches. They could not draw the lines between public and private sectors on the internet because of its blurry conception that it is not a real world. The capabilities of the internet are still unknown is a fact because it is built for a concept to develop concept. He concludes that the internet is built by the people and different personalities of the people.
“Regular posters create different personalities and identities and can be seen as a creative accomplishment resulting from intentional efforts to create a community populated by distinctive personalities.” (Sara B. Kiesler – 1997)
I totally agree that users are creating multiple personalities of one self to quench different emotions. But people are getting more realistic by thinking internet is a tool for progress and not a fantasy world. Man and machine have all ways worked together for progress since the beginning. The users on the internet use the medium as a tool in many ways that involves intellectuality.
Using internet as a medium, tool
Communicating differently
The communication industry was indeed waiting for a new medium like the internet to appear. The point stressed here was did the communication among people change with the technology of the internet.
People used to write letters on paper and it used to take a very long time for a message to pass to the receiver. The methods of writing letters on paper may soon disappear. The email technology copies the postal system for sending the mail to a wider area in a much smaller time. The advantage of the internet makes the process much cheaper and effective.
There by proves the internet as a tool for communication. (Adès, Graham – 2004)
The more real time application of a non internet world is the phone. The internet has dominated this area as well, where IM has the ability to text chat with buddies’ real time and also call long distances at absolutely no cost. People even communicate online with multiple people at the same time. They have developed their own type of representing language and the true meaning of the purpose of it. Language is used for communication and the text that is used on chat engine could be understood by almost anyone who is a regular user. Like k instead of OK. It is a fact that people are communicating through the internet without revealing their identity. This may be an advantage for shy people who could effectively voice their ideologies over the internet.
(Source: http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html)
More communication methods are drifting people to go online. That does not mean that people are going to live on the internet. They are just using it as a tool like previous systems before the internet ever existed. The hype that Marc Prensky gave in communicating differently was not the actual portray of the real happenings. (Hossein - 2004)
Sharing differently
Web logs a new way of sharing and reporting information online for a person without technical knowledge to create a website has boosted the number of people to use the internet. The whole journalism industry is under the threat to loose it professionalism.
http://blogs.salon.com/0000014/2006/03/19.html (date visited 8/11/2006)
Cell phone camera is effectively used to send a message instantly or by clicking a snap and reporting an incident that happened in ones locality. Both the message and the picture could be directly updating the web log through the cell phone itself that is connected to the internet.
This is some drastic change I feel that has change the way we share information. There is indeed hype here and the instant way of internet users to spread information is also popularly called as viral because it spread like that through air. (C. Rustema M. Herlé – 2005 )
Web Cam is another amazing tool for sharing; personal online communication has always lacked emotion of other people’s feeling or expressions. The usage of a webcam over the internet allows real time communication face to face. It is cheap and effective. Chat programs are equipped with the features to add a web cam.
The usage of a web cam was initially for a security purpose of monitoring and even today they are for the same reason. Since internet could send multimedia content highly compressed digital format we could use it for more purposes like personal communication or video conferencing. The cameras for monitoring have become more sophisticated and advanced for security but due to the quality of the video it lacks the usage over the internet much because of the hi band width it takes. But whatever the purpose it is a tool that is being used.
Source: www.portentinteractive.com/library/videopr.pdf visited date: 08/12/06
Buying and selling differently
The popular eBay has been mentioned by both the articles and how effective it is to shop online. The early shopping methods were simple to buy or sell a product.
You could auction
We can auction a product in the real world but we really need the resources to gather a huge number of people. The internet has many people using the auction sites for product purchase as well as sale. People could sit at home and confirm the sale instead of spending extra resources for the auctions. Whether the sale is safe could be checked by tools such as previous feedback by other customers that is provided. This could give us a judgment on a particular sale.
You could do research about the product
We could learn about the right price or the quality of the product by comparing. Learning many things and all research work is done in a package. All this may seem too much in the real world. It is a much safer bet to buy online as many say it is not.
EBay http://pages.ebay.com.au/ebayexplained/safe_trading_tips.html date visited: 08/12/2006
Quantity of the products
The website could just present the item description and picture of the item as it is indicated. We hardly use any kinds of physical resources. The number of products may be very large. Searching and describing the product under sections and constant monitoring on the products sold make eBay an extremely huge resource for shopping. The best part is all users are contributing to this service. In the physical world it would be much more expensive to conduct this process.
Actual Product
Unless the product is intellectual, we do require the physical interaction of posting the product to some one and this cannot be done in the online world. The online world could be a great tool for unlimited ideologies. Again it is only the intellectual property that could be implemented. The real world is where we have the physical exchange and this is a fact.
Reality
The internet is run over physical wires and telephone networks. The definition of public and private spaces on the internet must be rethought. The control is more in the hands of the owners of the telecommunication networks. The identity could be traced pin point to the user, there is no complete authority of free speech and neither the internet is completely democratic. There is no public space such as a forum for expression of ideas because they are all owned by some one or some network. (R Desai, W. Quinto - Law – 2001)
Even though internet is a medium for cultural activities, the physical world could never be escaped. It is for the purpose of ease on this physical world that we have contributed to connect online for our mental or intellectual possibilities. Again they have not been perfected. We as a human species always aim to ease ourselves for more comforting lives. And we have always used tools in the process. In the evolution of this process we have managed to develop tools for intellect. This is an amazing discovery. I could go with David Weinberger on the concept of that the internet and the increasing numbers of its users are also increasing the possibilities of the world we have not yet discovered. But the world is not virtual.
According to Marc that people are learning more form this new medium and are improving their knowledge more. The same flexibility was available in the physical world before the internet as well it all used to depend on the person more. The technology has improved and the drift is towards it. When telephone came every one wanted one. When the wheel was discovered every one wanted to use it. The technologies that were invented and discovered have always changed our lives but the change is for advancement. Even to this day people have been speaking directly. Even to this day people are able to walk. I totally disagree with Marc of his division of internet natives and internet immigrants based on what people know.
References:
1. Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm visited date:2006-12-08
2. The Internet Encyclopedia. - Page 668 by Hossein (EDT) Bidgoli – 2004
3. Intercultural Communication: A Global Reader - Page 203 by Fred Edmund Jandt - 2003
4. Culture of the Internet: Research Milestones from the Social Sciences - Page 115 edited by Sara B. Kiesler – 1997
5. The Rough Guide to Ecuador - Page 42 by Harry Adès, Melissa Graham – 2004
6. Source: http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html Suler. Department of Psychology, Rider University visited date 8-12-2006.
7. The Internet Encyclopedia. - Page 604 by Hossein (EDT) Bidgoli - Reference – 2004
8. Source: http://blogs.salon.com/0000014/2006/03/19.html date visited 8/11/2006
9. Corporate Communication Worldwide - Page 744 by C. Rustema M. Herlé – 2005
10. Source: www.portentinteractive.com/library/videopr.pdf visited date: 08/12/06
11. Source: EBay http://pages.ebay.com.au/ebayexplained/safe_trading_tips.html date visited: 08/12/2006
12. Law of Internet Disputes - Page 2 by Deven R Desai, David W. Quinto - Law – 2001
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