Is On-line a "real" place...
Many of our young people are spending much of their time in cyber-worlds...they interact, build and even buy and sell cyber-property (the worlds first cyber-real estate millionaire was announced three weeks ago!).
Many others are building cyber-presences through sites like My Space and Piczo.
What is it that draws young people here? Are their on-line identities part of the "real" them? Is on-line even a "real" place?
Your thoughts?
posted by Jeff Whipple at 12:49 PM
34 Comments:
On-line is a real place because real people go there and do real things. People communicate through the use on-line materials, they can make or spend money and it's all real. People go here because it is a gateway to the whole world and networking, making many things possible which wouldn't be possible if it weren't for the internet. Many, many young people who have learned about computers are aiming to know more and are becoming more involved with them. The people that these people are on-line may not be the people they are off-line. Many might have fake identities or even stolen identities, they may pose as someone totally different, some women pose as men, some men pose as women, some children pose as adults, some adults pose as children and so on. On-line is a scary place because as much as we hope it wasn't real, it is, and it is just as scary and dangerous like the rest of the world is.
I think that everybody is born with a gift and some people are gifted with technology and is very easy for them to develop programs and make a living out if it. They are real people with probably brilliant minds and determination. I admire people who are so comfortable with computers. My second oldest son never took computer courses but to me, he is gifted. I depend on him to program or fix my computer when I have a problem and my youngest son is a natural with computers too and I love them for that because with a phone call, they are at my door to help.
There is a whole virtual world on the net, and I think it attracts people to it, because they get to be someone else, and live in this virual world. As it being "real" no, its not to an extent... some people actually neglect their real life responsiblities to be online, in a virtual world, now thats taking it to far! But to some people, they have nothing else to do, but be online, and so if they can making a living by being in this virtual world, more the power to them! Thats amazing that someone can become a millionaire by playing in a virtual world. To them though, it is real, thats all they do! I play an online game, where you can sell your items, money and characters, for real money! Not that much, but I have 3 kids, 2 dogs, a home, a business and school to think about, so i cant spend all my time in the virtual world! I also like it because, even for that short peroid of time, real life stress's disappear, and you get that lil'break. This helps me, be a better me, and deal with everything in a better way!!!! I dont think this virtual life is real, but it may be for some people! I don't know though, I am getting mixed messages on how I feel about it!!!!!!
I think that it is a real place and real people, but there are people that abuse it and pretend to be someone else. My son goes on and he uses his real identity and real pictures. He goes on piczo and makes his own page which helps him learn to be creative and uses his mind. But I do belive that there are people out there that pretend to be someone else and they jus abuse it and ruin it for others.
Gail: I believe on-line is a real place for some kids but it should not be. On-line should not be a place for them to go to escape from their personal situation or alleviate their loneliness. Unfortunately, this maybe the only world that is positive in an otherwise bad 'real' world. It can be a really scary place if on-line puts them in contact with predators.
Is it real? I believe the kids make it real and beleive everyone's real. They create their own piczo and all the ones that i have seen are real and putting personal information on it. The millionaire was real because she seen her money. But on the other there are bad guys all over the world and these are people that lure children or even single people to their lives beleiving they are someone else, even putting picture of someone else and saying that is them.
This is going on in virtur world and i believe it won't stop, we just have to be cautious of what we put out.
On line is a real place for those who live there. When someone literlly lives on thier computer that is the only life they have. To so of or youth this is the only life they know. We try to give everything to our children but sometimes this is to much. When a child is left alone to find thier own form of entertainment they will look where ever they feel comfortable. I this time of the internet this is where most of them go. If they are not on the net they are out doing something they probly are not suppose to be doing.I think that this is like a double edge sword. Do we want our kids online or do we want them in trouble. Tough call for anyone to make. There is a third opsition if we allow our kids to be on the computer we also have to give them something else to do. Computers can not be the only thing they have.Family has to take more of a role in the children of the future,and of today. Family and family values have to be brought back from were ever it went to.
Is on-line a "real" place?
I think it's pretty close to the real thing. you can communicate with people, see them on web cams,you can interact with them through games. I beleive kids these days, feel they are very much part of the world. by having something created by them, that belongs to them, and thats about them! like the piczo and myspace. I also think they want to be as real as things get. Yes...I beleive on-line is a "real" place.
I Think THat on-line is real because you talk to the person on line and u can see them threw there displays n stuf like that. they have blogs or myspace stuff. its pretty real to me. but theres some children who act like other people but really aint them, those are the kids parents who have to keep an eye on them.
To some people who dont have a life outside of their home, and are "computer geeks"... cyberspace might be as real as it gets... but i mean, even for those who are new to the cyberworld... everything they do is real, and hey control all of that,unless of course someone else is in control of their computer. Its kind of like another world... everything that can happen online..happens in our "real lives" as well..such as...stealing, lying, maaking friends, purchasing things...Renting movies even!the list goes on... so yea... i think "cyberspace=online" is Real..
I think definitely the internet and cyber-space is a "real place". It has almost a surreal effect about it though, it almost makes you wonder if the people you are speaking to sometimes are REAL people, but of course reality clicks in, and then you realize that it is real. In the case of online games, it's fantasy in a lot of cases that seem to take on a real personality. The characters come to life in role playing games. For young people that sometimes are shy and find it difficult to make friends in person, the internet can help them find a social group, and become comfortable with different peers with similar interests. The only thing is that they have to be sure who they are talking to. Now the REALITY of the internet comes out, where true identities are tested and questioned. Sometimes you have to wonder, is this person really a teen, or is it a predator disguising his/herself online to attract the young person. I think that what draws young people here is the thrill and excitement of a new environment, how easy it is to make new friends, interesting websites for children and teens alike. There are so many things, but as parents we always have to be on the alert and keep our ears and eyes open for danger. It is real, and it can be dangerous, but it is also real enough to have tons of fun. thanks Melissa E.
What draws young people to sites like My Space and Piczo is they want to talk to their friends that they have met in school. The young children that go on these sites just want to interact with their friends. But the kids have to be more aware of who they interact with because they are people out there who will take advantage of them. I think that on-line is a real thing. When you talk to other people they answer you back right away.
Is on line a “real place”
Depending on each individual some may think that on-line is a “real place”. I do not think it is a real place. I use it for information only, when I need it.
My space and piczo assist youths to create a beautiful person, who is fun loving and out going. In the process of developing this person they have also created unnecessary misery and false security. Who on-line predators take advantage of.
I feel youths are reaching out to stranger for comfort which may provide false love and happiness, they are seeking and can not find at home.
Rose Levi
from carla ward. Ithink what draws young people to cyber communicating is that it is fast and easily accessable from virtually anywhere there is a computer.Most young people have been educated to use a computer to easily communicate with others , they are so used to it ,that it seems the norm for them to communicate this way. I think that if a parent is really involved in their childrens access to a computer than the child would probably differentiat the cyber world from the real hands on world. Ido believe that on line is a real place because you can chat, talk, have conferences, buy, sell, trade,etc.
Yes I think that online is real place. But you have to be very careful not to get caught up in what's real and what isn't. young children and adults are fascinated by online chatting and creating their own personal space. Which to me they should be very careful because you cannot trust anyone out there. I think it draws young people there simply to be in the incrowd. And communicating with others simply builds them up. It can be in both positive and negative ways. Which is unfortunate.
I think on-line is real for some people and not real for others. Some people live on their computers 24 hours a day, they chat with others all over the world, play games, pay bills; While others create on-line indentities that are not real and use thier identities to prey on others. I think that on-line is not real for me because I would rather interact with people face to face, and like Rosie said I only use the net for searching.
LJ: Good Morning everyone! What draws people to the virtual world? Its just that, the opportunity to go, anywhere or be anyone; just from the tip of your fingers. Let your fingers take you where you've never been before! I believe it's a real place but for some it may be a fanasty world! It really depends on the individuals. Is it an adult, a youth or even a child. What are they using it for? A tool for learnigng, for sharing, for meeting people; or is it to cheat, to lure people to danger, to or steal? Although, there are people who just like to meet people, chat or just play games online with other people. For those people who are shy, isolated or insecure; I am happy that their is another venue for them. But again, are they being honest? Whom they are in contact with? I have a neighbor who is a middle age married man, apparently he hasn't been outside for over 15 years; doesn't work, or go anywheres. He is always online, 24/7. What does he think is it; is it is he real or not! Then I have an Elderly friend who uses it to as a tool to be in daily contact with her children in Ontario, but; also has a friend overseas, she chats with but doesn't give herself false identity, however; she also doesn't give all her personal information either. You just don't know who that person is on the other end. Look at AMW show most of the people who are fugitives look like you and me, it just goes to show that you shouldn't trust just anyone. Personally, I don't go online chat to strangers or play on line games. I don't have the time to spend hours on the computer; It's a tool for me, I am learning more about the virtual world. Few months ago, I wouldn't have put any pictures up on "my space", let alone put any information on it. I only chat with people I personnally know. This Tech. course is taking so much of my time. I feel I have limited time to spend with my family. Normally, I'll be online for 20mins then I have enough of it, either my eyes start to burn or my hands / arms get stiff! For now, hope everyone has a good weekend; have a safe journey in the virtual world :)
Yes, online is a real place, there are real people who are using the internet. Those real people enter another world known as “cyber world”. You can see anything you want, talk to whoever you want, mistake your identity without anyone knowing. Young people are drawn to this place because this is what everyone is doing. It is a phase of our future generations, we couldn’t wait to go home from school and call our friends on the telephone, now kids can’t wait to get home to go online “MSN” to talk to their friends.
To them this is a real place and they make their presence known by making their on-line identities through pizco pages.
Having personal space on the internet isn't really personal space. Usually you have an option for others to see your space or not, but at some point someone is going to see it. I think that personal space and cyber worlds are just a way for some people to either better express themselves or hide something from others. As far as their on-line identities being the real them, that I have conflicting thoughts. For one, like I said before, this may be a way for someone to better express themselves only because in "reality" they lack the confidence, but in cyber worlds they can be what they can't be in public. But on the other hand, it is also a place where, creepy people can slime around and trick others into believing they are something they are not, for horrible reasons. There are lots of perverts/ psychos out there that are constantly on the hunt for young children/ teens to meet them and abduct them or even worse things that I would rather not mention, everyone knows what they are capable of.
So to answer the question if on-line is a "real" place.... no it isn't. How can something be "real" if nothing in it is "real", it's not a physical place, you cant touch it or see it all, all that a person has is a screen in front of them, with maybe a glimps of the vast amount of information threw "windows".
Physically its not a real place. Its real in peoples minds. I think cyber worlds are made so people don't have to deal with there real lives and selves. So if you want to get away from the real world then I guess now they finally invented a place you can escape to. It may become the next vacation spot to head to for March Break.
In response to the question, is the on-line environment "real"? I would have to say yes and no, there are some people who build their cyber-presences out there for the specific intention of luring young people to their sites in order to exploit them. Than there are others who have radical views on certain issues that might draw in a young person who is searching for their identity and this individual is feeling vulnerable, or seeking some attention. These cyber-spaces may seem "real" and a majority of them probably are. I would take great caution in deciding what I write in it, or what pictures I place in my cyber-space. I know of one individual who managed to find out this person's password just by reading what she had written on her cyber-space. I decided to have my own cyber-space because I like to write, and I was also curious to find out about other First Nations people that are on these sites. So I have been rethinking what I have written as my blog and the pictures I have posted to be on the safe side.
There are others who have difficulty in distinguishing the real world, from the cyber-world. I was watching "Intervention" one night and they featured a male in his mid-twenties who did nothing but play video games 24/7, he was unemployed and living at home with his parents. He had a girl friend that would come over to visit him and he would ignore her completely. You could see that he thought that his games were real. His pupils were dilated when you were watching him play. This young male was obviously escaping reality. He did end up going to a program for four months but then as soon as he returned he was back on that on-line video game. This particular individual would prefer to be on-line playing video games rather than seek out human interaction. This is sad.
Cyber-spaces are fun to have, you just have to exercise both caution and descretion. A lot of people also use these sites as a marketing tool to promote themselves especially if they are an artist who are trying to sell their art work or album.
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Is on-line a real place? Yes, I think that it is, but one has to reconsider what the term "real" means, and the person who is using the tools. Piczo and MySpace is an avenue of expression, but what exactly is that expression? Is it the real self? Is it an image of a person they desire to be? That has to be looked at when viewing these kinds of websites and when chatting with others in a chatroom. Whether it is healthy or not cannot be determined. A look at the individual and how they use and rely on these tools must looked at. In some cases, it's a way for us to honestly share our life stories, but for some it may be a way of hiding who they truly are because of the pressures in their everyday lives and their inabilities to cope with the socialized stress to fit in and be accepted. Before technology, people only had journals, diaries, clothes, art, extracurricular activities, etc. to do that and it was localized. Now that expression is global and there for all to see. And one has to wonder how healthy that can be when it's put out there for more people to judge the person on.
Is online communication good for socialization? We would be stupid to think it isn't. It does offer contact and connection, but the degree of it being heart-felt must be taken with a grain of salt. Is that person on the other end of the link real? And like all communication, eventually there is a desire for human contact to make the long conversations and "talks" human and meaningful. Can a person have a healthy relationship with an IP address?
All being said, it depends on the individual and their abilities to be able to distinguish between online and the reality that we all live in. It can be real to them, whereas the rest of us don't see or understand, but if they can still socialize and be competent away from the computer and online, then who are we to judge?
Is on-line a real world? That's a good question. In my opinion, I guess it depends on the person using the world wide web. Can the person distinguish whether it's real or not? For some people, that's the only place they can be themselves. They don't have to show their face if they don't want to. They can have a fake identity if they choose, and nobody will know the difference. Yet, for other people, the internet is a learning tool they use to do research. For our kids, I think it's real, because they're chatting with their friends, or playing virtual games with their friends on line. I guess the internet is what you make of it. If you use it as a learning tool, to make friends, to do business, it's up to you, if you think it's real or not.
Mary
In my opinion on-line is not a real place because you cannot physically go there. Although you can chat with people, shop, and find information, does not make it a real place. For some people the web is away for them to escape the real world. On-line they can be who they can not be in the real world because on-line is an anonymous place that is why most teenagers find it easier to chat with people on line. Also in the real world there are consequences to all our actions and on-line there seems to none.
No, online is not a real place, techies are trying hard to make it more like a real place, and it seems that it is real. People can talk to each other and see each other through web cams. But in my opinion, it's just a very fancy phone, where you can see my pictures and information. "Real" happens when things are done or said after a session of chatting or making comments on a web page. The emotions of a victim because of the actions of bully's online are for sure real, or when a predator finds his/her target in the "real world" because they searched the sites of my space and piczo are for sure real.
But I can't physically go into my tower, go through the phone lines, and appear on the screen and say hi!
Also being online can be very addictive, the gambling, the chatting, the shopping, & games all these actions have "real" effects to families. Either it being debt, or time away.
I believe that the reality of online identities are what people make them to be. For example, when I go on line I present myself with my true identity, however, that is not the case for many others. Some people feel frightened when confronting the real world upfront but feel at ease behind a computer. Some people are not happy with their true identity and therefore, create a more appealing one on line and spent most of their time on line. It is too bad that for many this is the case but if it doesn't harm anyone, i guess, it's Ok
All depends on how you look at "real"....Real people go on-line and interact with real people. Some people use real information about themselves and others don't. But I do think on-line is a "real" place because you do, do real things such as chat with people, buy stuff and search information.
I believe that on-line may or may not be a "real" place. It would depend on the individual. Children may be themselves when interacting on the computer, or, for example, shy children use that opportunity to become someone else. On-line is real when you discuss topics such as on-line bankingn or shopping, because it is real money, products, and people that are giving and receiving the different products and services.
Cyber-space is both mythological and factual. The people that you can speak with thru cyber-space and the items you buy and trade are real. There are also many games that seem very real but are truly mythological, my son and his friends play a game that is amazing in every way possible. You can speak with other characters buy and sell items. You can be the tiniest “human” person on earth, but in this game you can be the biggest strongest character that can rule the “world”.
The only scary thing about this is sometimes people take it too far, computers are in my opinion as bad as any gambling, smoking drinking, drugging habit one can have. When you become addicted to the point you neglect your real life duties.
A few years ago, I had a friend who never touched a computer, never drank a lot or drugged at all. I showed her a few games I played on the computer and she thought it was awesome. Her husband bought her a computer and since then I have not seen or heard from her, her world revolves totally around the computer. Her marriage has broken up, I never see her out and I feel she has lost touch with the world around her. Even though she believes her world is complete “inside the computer”.
I think if we teach our children to use the computer and entertainment it provides in a healthy way. Just as much as we need to teach them about the other addictions in the world, I guess cyber-space is as real as you want it to be.
For alot of people the internet, cyberspace is a real place. People put alot of effort and alot of their personalities into their pizco and myspace pages. People often say that they met on the internet so it has to be a real place, at least in their heads. The only qualms I have about calling the internet a real place are the people out there who falsify their information in order to befriend young children for predatory purposes.
hi jeff,
I just wanted to say that there are many sites on the net that attract young adults and adults and it is interesting to find out what interests these people. I know that you never have to be you when you are on the net so many people are attracted because they can be someone they are not or who they would like to be. No one has to be themselves and can hide through many identities. My space and sites like those allows people to show who they are or who they wish they were. It's like a hidden identity. These sites allow for people to use their imagination and make up different identities and act as different people and see what interests them the most, many people act out their fantasies on the net on who they'd like to be but it is scary because it can be a child pretending to be an adult and may get them in some trouble. The internet is a money making machine and it doesn;t take a genius to figure out that they may be able to make a buck out of a simple idea they may come up with. Look at all the millionaires who got rich through computers, it is world wide access to make big bucks.
I feel that the net is both real and not real, it all depends on the indiviual that is using it. The usser could be who ever they want to be "real" or not. It's up to them.
Do i think online is a real place?
hmm.. i'm not quite sure, honestly i think that online is just a moment in time that we spend connected with the world. I dont considerate it to be physically real just menatlly. It's just processed information that we recieve.A form of communication. the information that we share might be true but many of the other things we do online like play games are just for entertainment. For some people this kind of entertainment works but for me it doesn't. Well i guess for me online isn't real.
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