The first chapter from An Introduction to Cybercultures and New Media, by Pramod K. Nayar gives an excellent overview of how cybercultures are defined how they function in terms of the real and virtual worlds. Because it is an introductory chapter, there is a lot of general information covering a large range of topics.While some of the arguments presented were obvious to me, there were some concepts that made me take a step back and think.
One of these concepts is the idea of transcendence that the digital world provides. It not only allows us to access and explore the entire world without us ever having to leave our chairs, but it also gives us the ability to join and explore worlds that exist purely in a digital sense (World of Warcraft, Google Earth).
The body’s limitations – disease, degeneration, aging – can be overcome through technological prosthesis. what we have is an augmented body: the posthuman.
For people with these issues, the digital world can be a great resource, where they have the freedom to overcome their disadvantages and feel like the rest of society. However, this is not to say that the digital world is the solution. Nayar clearly recognizes the issues with using the virtual world to escape the real world: suffering politics and emancipation continue to be embodied. At the end of the day, regardless of how many orcs your avatar may have killed, you still have to deal with the limitations of the physical world once you unplug from the digital one.
A second concept that I found engaging was the digital divide. When I have a question about something, I google it. Sometimes from a personal computer, sometimes from my cell phone, occasionally from my mom’s Kindle Fire, but regardless of the device I use, I have the answer instantly. As technology increasingly becomes integrated with my everyday life, I rarely stop to think about what I would do should I suddenly not have access to digital information. Granted, I live in a rural area, so I know what it’s like to have a slow connection; I had dial up until 2004. I’ve never stopped to think about what I would do if I were completely cut off from the internet. Here are some of the statistics:
– Africa has 14.7 percent of the world’s population and constitutes 3.5 percent of the world’s total internet use (though it shows the largest expansion of Internet use – 874.6 percent between 2000 and 2007).
-Europe has 12.3 percent of the world’s population and constitutes 27.7 percent of the world internet use.
– North America has 69 percent internet penetration, even though it has only 5.1 percent of the world’s population.
– Within Asia, Afghanistan constitutes 0.1 percent of total users in Asian, and has 2.0 percent of its population wired. India constitutes 13.1 percent of total internet users in Asia and has 5.3 percent of its population wired. Hong Kong has 68.2 percent of its population wired, and Japan 68 percent.
What these numbers tell me is that we should all be a little more appreciative of how accessable the internet is to us. Our culture is one that tends to take basic needs for granted (food, water, air) and whether it be good or bad, it seems as if someday soon the internet will be joining that list.
This is a decent summary focusing on the parts you found most interesting. There is some individual insight, but not enough, and you need to link to the source and address the author’s background.