Week 6 - Lecture

This weeks lecture from Adam Muir focused on the relationship between media and technology and its place in society. In this lecture we learnt about new media and the difference between vitual communities and individual identity
Adam explained this to us with two definitions:
Virtual communities: ' people carrying on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships.' (Howard Rheingold, 1993, The Virtual Community)
Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are all perfect examples of these communities. Just as in a physical community, a virtual community can partake in and spark discussions, share information and conversations that mimic the physical community.
Individual identity: “The Internet has become a significant social laboratory for experimenting with the constructions and reconstructions of self that characterize postmodern life. In its virtual reality, we self-fashion and self-create” (Turkle, 1995, Life on the screen)
And just as these virtual communities can mimic the physical, individuals can build themselves an online identity that mimics the way a person can create their physical identity. In the physical world a person creates identity through their social interactions and presentation: these online communities allow us to do the dame. A virtual identity can easily be deceiving however, it doesn’t take a genius to portray ones self with a different identity, I’m sure you have heard just as many horror stories as I have where scam artists, predators and even debt collectors can trick online communities into believing a ‘made up’ individual identity’
Social Media:
Social media is the dominate form of online communication, In the early days of the internet this meant people from all different demographics were able to communicate, when old communication technologies wouldn’t have been able to link them.
Only yestesterday my Mother happily informed me of all her college buddies who have been finding her on Facebook, and how nice it was to hear from them. Without a facebook page I can safely say my Mum probably wouldn’t have come into contact with any of these people. But in this online community, by listing schools, universities and workplaces as part of your vitual identity, it is easy to link with numerous other individuals we may not have ever had the chance to communicate with.