Quinn Cohane
Sociology 022 – In the Facebook Age – Spring 2010 – Dhiraj Murthy

Pro: There’s no different from online and offline relationships- they’re both face to face.

Opp: Many friendships formed online and formed offline- people still want traditional relationships. Strictly online relationships are not as meaningful. In an online relationship, you always wonder if the other person is not being entirely truthful. Online, you don’t have physical cues like hugging, kissing and presentation, and these all add to relationships. You can’t play around with your friends and feel comfortable being in their presence if you just know them through the computer. It’s hard to successfully create a completely new kind of friendship.

Pro: There are pre-existing methods of communication that are both offline and yet not face to face. There are more subtle ways of expressing identity through text messages and you still know who you’re talking to. Online relationships are purely voluntary, while offline relationships are often due to work and family ties and cannot be abandoned. They can be based purely on mutual interest and allow you to emphasize with someone and connect with them. Trust is something experienced by the individual whether the relationship is online or off. People can make true connections if they are willing. There will always be people that are not completely truthful, but if you sense that the other person is being honest then you will believe them.

Opp: There is not enough evidence that allows you to say that most people will be truthful on the Internet. You can never have a meaningful relationship if you can never fully tell what the other person is trying to say. In real world relationships, a signature on a love letter signifies “remember me.” Online, a username signifies “believe me.” Would you rather receive a love letter or have someone tell you “I love you” in person?

Pro: While many online friendships do feel the need to go offline, they start out as “pure” relationships- they are purely platonic and are not based on sexual tension or desire for intimacy. There is more curiosity, mutual interest, empathy and pure listening instead of thoughts like “I wonder if they just want to get in my pants.” Blind dates are similar to chat rooms- you’re meeting the person for the first time and still have no information about them. They can put on as much of a fake persona as someone online can. Online users know that they can’t show their facial expressions, so they use other techniques to describe their feelings that can be transferred across the Internet. In an online community, all that matters to you is how you perceive the other users.

Opp: You do need to have physical cues to fully experience a relationship. People gives off gestures of discomfort or awkwardness, and without being able to see and sense those you won’t realize how the other person is feeling. It’s harder to put on a fake persona in person because the other person can sense physical and verbal cues that you’re lying. People don’t always pay attention to what they write online- look at YouTube video comments. Skype allows you to get more visual cues, but it’s not mobile. Texting allows you to talk wherever you are, but you have to be in front of a computer and in a quiet, private environment to Skype. The physical connnection is a way to tell someone else that they’re not alone. If you have a great online conversation with someone for 2 hours, you’re still going to log off at some point and leave them all alone.

Small villages in Africa can now use the Internet, yet 1/3 of Americans still do not use it or cannot. We’ve always separated ourselves from “third world countries”, but maybe we’re not so different after all.

Who is Stephen Fry?

I’m enjoying the soundtrack. It makes the video seem very “hip” instead of just being an informational tool.

I’m excited to finally learn about a real person that contributes to Wikipedia. I’ve always wondered who these so-called experts are, since I know plenty of people that have jokingly created Wikipedia pages or added false information to articles.

I agree with the statement “I despise WIkipedia, I loathe Wikipedia…I use it throughout the day.” As much as we try to avoid it, Wikipedia has become the go-to website for quick, hopefully accurate information. Sometimes it’s just too tempting to take the easy way out, no matter how much it opposes our innate principles.

Why do they keep showing shots of Dr. Aleks using her laptop in random places? And sometime she just stares out into the distance. Is that really necessary.

I wonder how many people know that “Dead-heads” were the first serious users of the Internet? I was surprised by that information. “Dead-heads” have a reputation for using drugs and praising Jerry Garcia, not being the guinea pigs for advanced technology.

The Web started out as a very noble endeavor- Barlow’s constitution represented “the underdog” finally standing up to “the man.” But is this reversal of power still true today?

I really like the idea behind Ushahidi, but how effective was it? Were enough people really able to get to a computer and report an attack? I would expect them to have trouble both finding a computer if an attack really was taking place and avoiding the violence being directed toward them.

What exactly is the World Wide Web? How is it different from the Internet?

It seems like so many people just want to turn a profit from everything they do, so it’s always nice to see someone like Tim Berners-Lee, who created something so unselfishly. Then Bill Gates happened, and now it’s all about making money.

I remember hearing about the Napster controversy when I was younger. I didn’t really understand who Napster was or what the problem was, but it was the first time that I noticed an Internet company getting in serious trouble. I do agree with Lars Ulrich’s basic point, that people aren’t paying for his services so he should get to do the same, but it’s hard to take him seriously when he’s a millionaire and clearly doesn’t need to save money by not paying to get his car fixed.

Arianna Huffington correctly predicted our current print media situation. While traditional newspapers are now struggling and trying to streamline their websites, The Huffington Post has been consistently updating itself and is ahead of the game.

Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia return to the ideals advocated by Tim Berners-Lee, but these ideals cannot exist in our current online society. Wikipedia has had to enforce rules and police submissions instead of just letting users write what they wish. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to return to the days when software was free and everyone had a right to all parts of the Web.

Another comment on the random shots of scenery- it’s interesting that a documentary about the Web, which could be filmed against the backdrop of a computer screen, the filmmakers used natural, outdoor shots from around the world. I’m sure they were trying to create a certain mood in the viewer- that the Web can be equated to something naturally powerful, fresh and beautiful.