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Difference of Opinion « Pheona

Let me firstly state the obvious and say that communication technology has had a positive impact on many parts of my life but it also wastes a whole lot of time and does create distance in areas of life where distance is not a good thing.

It’s hard to say if I’m more or less disconnected with society because all this communication technology that is second nature to me. The term society needs to be defined first. However, culture and society exists online as much as it exists in the real world. Perhaps in some ways online society in a personal sense is more authentic. The anonymity allows for that – so perhaps one can get better insight in such a way, but then again, whatever society is online is mostly derived from the world outside of it. Then again, since one may be less personally accountable online, distance is created that way. You need a balance I suppose, and being part of a generation Y doesn’t make most ways of communicating a difficulty – and I think that’s a good thing. The rest is down to common sense, which may or not be common.

Stuff like MySpace is a pain in the butt, yet also useful to me in many ways. I recently deleted all my custom additions to my once beautiful MySpace page – all the videos, the colours, blah blah blah – because I was spending too much time adding stuff to my page to make it more “me” and I guess, prettier too. Who I wants an ugly MySpace! Which is fine I suppose, but it’s not entirely productive and it’s not a priority by any means – hence the deletion and the consequent default MySpace page. However on the hand, because of MySpace, I have got back in touch with high school friends, and other friends which are now in other parts of the world. Chris, a really close friend of mine from the Media Studies degree, is overseas right now, and I can see how his journey is going since he updates his MySpace with photos and comments of what’s going on. Another friend of mine recently left for South America, and MySpace allows us to keep in touch in a fashion that’s a bit more “real” that email since we’re talking to each other’s profiles. Either way, email or not, such technology has definitely allowed me to maintain networks, and not lose friendships. I’m terrible at keeping in touch even with people I care about, and stuff like MySpace makes it easier.

On the other hand, with MySpace being a public and potentially private arena all at once, it can trivialise things like relationships and “love” and make such ideas seem increasingly like a cliched movie. People take things too far at times. But again, people can make statements on MySpace which they otherwise would not, and different sides of a person can revealed on MySpace which one may not pick up in real life. The problem starts if MySpace becomes your primary means of contact.

Talking about being disconnected, all this connectivity can be terrible because it because it becomes a huge procrastination tool! Trying to study in your room – but instead you call someone with your mobile, or you get on MySpace, or get on World of Warcraft. Then your grades suffer, your goals become displaced, and perhaps you can start avoiding others you feel answerable to – usually people who care.

I remember I got really sick in third year and I had to take major time off uni, and drop a couple of subjects. During this time I was sick I got in to World of Warcraft. It can become an addiction, and I can see how such a game can make people terribly disconnected and instead just live on a virtual world within a virtual community. If it becomes more than casual recreation, it eats time – it is a waste of time. One can become disconnected. I’ll go into this in more detail when I speak about World of Warcraft in my online documentary.

With regards to academic work – it makes it far easier to find information. Although there is a lot of rubbish online, there is still a decent amount of quality, and being part of this generation and doing a course like this gives us the skills to find it a bit more easily. Programs like MSN Messenger make doing assignments more efficient when people can’t get together as easily. You can share information with each other, share files, and argue about opinions. The Same goes for blogs. I’ve used MSN for uni and school work as well as for just chatting with mates.

It’s hard to write about this because there is so much to talk about!