I have recently been involved in several conversations about Internet use where the folks I’m conversing with seem to bring a very strange (to me) assumption to the conversation. They seem to think that the Internet is somehow antisocial and isolating in nature.
But some of my colleagues disagree. One person I was recently talking with had volumes to say about how using the Internet too much threatens to completely remove the human element from your life.
Which makes me ask, “What Internet are you on?”
Tags: Social Networking, Web useView blog reactions
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October 15th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I am in the process of finishing up my MLIS degree, and over the past 18 months or so the program I am in has moved from offering many classes that meet at least once a week to an almost completely online format. I must say that I am disappointed in this move, and that doing all my work over the Internet has led me to feel isolated and disconnected from the program. This may not be the fault of the Internet; perhaps it is the way my current class is structured on the Internet (no chat forums, no streamed lectures, just dry page-long essays that are desperate to be real discussions) that makes it so difficult to engage in. At any rate, it makes me glad to be almost done. Part of the joy of graduate school for me was getting to GO to campus and actually meet my instructors and fellow students. That hasn’t happened since early 2006, and it makes the whole thing seem unreal and, therefore, unimportant.
I’m sure there are many students who thrive in the virtual atmosphere of Blackboard and Plone. I’m just not one of them.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Ugh. That does sound isolating. It’s too bad - there are so many fun and engaging ways to put course content online. Dry, page-long essays sound very dreary!
October 19th, 2007 at 8:29 am
The issue of online communication vs. face-to-face or telephone is huge. It seems that everyone is at a different spot in terms of what they are comfortable with. When you work with people you have to try different methods and use the one they are most responsive to. I have some colleagues who never seem to answer their email, so you have to try to catch them on the phone or in person. Many people cannot have “conversations” via writing, because they do not write well. In terms of the “internet,” many people do not think of people on the internet as “real.” Online dating has opened up possibilities for many people, but there is still a big stigma attached to it because of the pervasive opinion that it’s only for “losers” who can’t meet people any other way. I love interacting online, and I find the new social tools fun, but it turns out that none of my friends or family are interested in communicating that way, so in that respect it is somewhat isolating. People complain that teenagers are constantly on facebook or texting on their phones, and do not interact with the people they are with. There are always extremes in adoption of any new thing. I think the place of online communication in society is still evolving.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:22 am
Michelle Boule wrote about this at ALA TechSource: http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2007/10/is-virtual-the-new-reality.html