“Reading” Cybercultures

“Reading” Cybercultures comes from Pramod K. Nayar’s book, An Introduction to New Media and Cybercultures. Nayar begins with defining cyberculture to be the electronic environment where various technologies and media forms coverage; and cyberspace to be the worlds and domains generated by digital information and communication technologies (ICTs). Nayar describes the virtual world to be, in a sense, our Second Life. With the technological advances that have come to light, Nayar argues that this virtual world has very much become a part of our identities and that cybercultures and virtual worlds have a material dimension.

 

 

The formation that is cybercultures is at various points, and in different ways, attached to, connected with, replicates, extends, and augments real-life material conditions.

Nayar discusses the different issues that arise in cyberculture studies: globalization, technocapitalism, and cybercultures; material and corporealty; E-governance; civil society are among the many. The issues that caught my eye were the digital divide and the issues an individual can experience in our material life, such as race, class, gender and sexuality. The internet has both linked together and divided individuals. While many can connect with different people across the world, the internet has also created what Nayar calls the Digital Divide. The rise and accelerated growth of ICTs are subject to unequal access between countries.

Pippa Norris suggests a three-layered digital divide: the global divide referring to the divergence in Internet access between developed and less developed nations; the social divide, referring to the social divergence between Internet access and use between classes and sections within a particular society;… and democratic divide, referring to the difference in nature/quality of use of the Internet and digital resource between users. (Norris 2001, 4)

Since the virtual is an extension of our material world as Nayar explains, it would make sense that an individual can find the same or similar issues. Cyberspace provides a separation of class by being accessible to only certain individuals.  For the issue of gender and sexuality we can take the example of women. How are they represented in the cyberspace. Cyberspace is gendered not only in terms of access, but also in ways in which women appropriate cyberspaces. When concerning the issue of race,…

Cyberspace is a “raced” medium where disembodiment, transcendence, and fluid identities are privilege of the white race (Nakamura, 2002)

Cyberspace, Nayar goes on to argue, is best read through the lens of cultural studies. Cultures studies are focused on the way meanings are generated in everyday life through mass cultural forms and social interaction rather than within high culture. It contains four basic themes:

agency, genealogy, identity and power, and social space and corporeality. (Slack and Wise, 2006: 143)

I believe that Nayar’s point that cyberculture cannot be treated as simply virtual worlds created by computers is very undeniable. Cyberspace and cyberculture has not just become a part of our lives, but our daily lives and a part of who we are as individuals. Every day I see someone pull out a mobile phone, computer, ipad, or whatever technological gadget it may be; even the younger generations. So therefore, we can’t simply ignore and think that the internet is just this virtual world or “thing” as Nayar put it that’s out there; but rather a part of our society and culture.