Week 4 - Topic 1 (Lister)

Sorry this is very late in the week, but it's better late than never doing this blogging business

Online Community - Empowering/Disempowering? - Of course like many of us when we think of online communities we think social networking etc. So I'll refer to the simple site which we're all familiar with (yes, it is Facebook!). As a whole, this and other sites like it, are empowering as it gives that sense of freedom. As Manuel Castelles mentions the internet is 'the fabric of our lives'. In my opinion I agree with this statement but can see it in two ways. First is that seeing the internet as the fabric of our lives says we dress ourselves using the it to create an image of our choice and that we can use it to design things of our choice. Which would refer to statements I made last week in that we create new images and identities of ourselves and so on.

Internet As A 'Public Sphere' - The internet has always seem to be a sphere in which everyone is connected to each other. As with social networking people all over the world can talk to each other whenever they want. The same with blogs and also forums. With also the availability of picture sending and web cams, it's changes dramatically in the past few years from the simple text messages we send to one another like the form of these blogs we type. The interaction is on a much higher level. But as the saying goes, the more advanced and complicated something is the more chance of it breaking and leaving you at risk. This use to be more of a threat, but with more security measures taken on sites and the wide availability of security software protection, we can be at ease more from the dangers that face us on the net.

'Dangerous Materials' - Of course with the use on the net, comes the risk of viruses and the ever annoying spam messages popping up on our screens daily! So these items maybe people promoting something of themselves but of course the freedom of the net is not always positive.

Producers Of Culture On The Net - With the internet being a place where anything can happen, such as being the person we wish to be, to fighting mythical creatures with a sword of destiny or whatever, than the opportunity to create new cultures is always a possibility. Anyone can express opinions or interests which are different to everyone else, to which other people respond to. If this keeps building, you can have a group of people who are the same to you but different to everyone else which may lead to a new culture. One prime example is the ever expanding world of online gaming. As the name suggests is started on here and has turned into a multi million user sub culture in only a matter of few years.