In August, a 16-year-old Taiwanese teenage boy committed suicide because his mother asked him not to play the on-line virtual video games all day long and locked his computer with a password. He left a death note which reads, “The online game (Dawn Online) is my only resource of happiness. Good bye, my friend in Dawn Online.” He signed his name as “Eternal Star,” which is his online name. He also wrote “Game Over” below his signature.
It was a miserable story about the computer mediated communication, but it also addressed how important this second life could mean to a person. What can a virtual community accomplish? In a virtual world, people seemed to reborn with an identity, making connections with people the way they might or might not act in their real life.
“On the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog.”-- This pointed out the various possibilities CMC could bring. The absence of one’s physical being in CMC supplied an equal chance for people to listen purely to others in ideas without prejudices.
I am not saying that CMC could solve all interpersonal problems that face to face communications can not solve. CMC provide a channel in its reduced cues, and in its asynchronous textures to open up opportunities for creating new interpersonal communications. Participants could take time to formulate their ideas to a more composed and thoughtful response. Participants could act liberally in this virtual community. It was true that for some moments, this kind of living was real and appealing.
Just remember to show respect to others as you are in a real world. CMC has its positive capacities within, while people should make a good use of them.
It was a miserable story about the computer mediated communication, but it also addressed how important this second life could mean to a person. What can a virtual community accomplish? In a virtual world, people seemed to reborn with an identity, making connections with people the way they might or might not act in their real life.
“On the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog.”-- This pointed out the various possibilities CMC could bring. The absence of one’s physical being in CMC supplied an equal chance for people to listen purely to others in ideas without prejudices.
I am not saying that CMC could solve all interpersonal problems that face to face communications can not solve. CMC provide a channel in its reduced cues, and in its asynchronous textures to open up opportunities for creating new interpersonal communications. Participants could take time to formulate their ideas to a more composed and thoughtful response. Participants could act liberally in this virtual community. It was true that for some moments, this kind of living was real and appealing.
Just remember to show respect to others as you are in a real world. CMC has its positive capacities within, while people should make a good use of them.
1 則留言:
Your post really reinforces for me the idea that online and offline lives are very much intertwined. While some people may use a virtual world to play with totally new identities, for most of us there are consequences to our online actions that filter into our offline lives, and vice versa.
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