New Virtual Society - Essay Example

Prof. Jon Henson WTNG 102.41 September 19, Writing from Sources Read the essay "Relationships, Community, and Identity in the New Virtual Society" found in the Writing from Sources folder in the Resources section of Bridges. Then, complete the assignment by typing your answers directly into this document. (Note: replace the text in blue with your own information.)Whenever you finish, save the final document as follows: (Your Last Name--WFS. For example: Smith--WFS) and send directly to me as a Microsoft Word attachment.

  Let me know if you have questions.Direct Quotation:1. Nowadays, Internet facilitates not only people’s interactions but also changes the structure of communication process making it less awkward and intense. Hence, according to Rushkoff, “cyberspace creates a temporal and spatial separation from which it becomes seemingly easier to accomplish unpleasant interpersonal tasks” (qtd. in Brown 30). In this respect, for example, while terminating relationships or turning down a candidate for open job position, a lot of individuals prefer to substitute face-to-face conversations for virtual methods of communication in order to avoid any embarrassment and try to prevent oneself from any negative emotions. 2. Cyberspace helps to widen communication and diversify person’s social ties, which, despite all advantages of virtual life, can stay quite unstable and weak.

For instance, Brown states that “someone with more than 3,000 Facebook friends probably has more than 2,000 shallow friendships” (31). Even though, being a former classmate, coworker or merely an acquaintance from exhibition, each so-called “friend” from such a long list may have different relation to the owner of profile, not many social networks admit this disparity and provide relevant additional options for their users. Paraphrases:Original Material:“In the new Virtual Society, we will see an increasing transition from basic matchmaking sites to sites that enable people to actually go out on online “dates” without ever leaving their desks.

While face-to-face dating will never entirely disappear, the process - and even relationships themselves - will happen more and more in virtual space” (Brown 30)My Paraphrase:According to the latest forecasts, in the future, dating sites will be more advanced implementing technological option that ensures virtuality of face-to-face dates. Hence, users will not be forced to leave their houses in case they wish to meet someone. Therefore, along with existence of traditional dating, virtual relationships and meetings will be widely popularized (Brown 30).

Original Material:“More and more people regard the virtual world as a place where they can establish and maintain safer, less demanding relationships on their own time. Ease, flexibility, and relative anonymity will continue to be three key components on dating online” (Brown 30).My Paraphrase:The number of proponents for dating in cyberspace keeps on growing due to the fact that majority of Internet users considers virtual relationships as less complicated and more secure (Brown 30). In addition, the opportunity of staying anonymous plays significant role in the process of influence on people’s preferences.

Summary:Information technology has managed to restructure human’s social ties and implement virtuality to the trivial and routine processes of professional and personal lives. Such tools like BharatMatrimony.com in India, MyGamma in Singapore and Wang Hun in China force users to spend more time in cyberspace than organize face-to-face appointments which sometimes can be time-consuming, inconvenient and stressful (Brown 29). Taking into account so rapidly increasing popularity of virtual space, it is fair to state that business is also reshaped and redirected to satisfy people’s needs in virtual world.

Hence, a lot of virtual restaurants, cafes, entertainments, cinemas and even chapels have been monetized (Brown 30). In addition, currently, Internet strives for providing users with personalized tools and contents of their sites that attract more and more people everyday. Also, even though virtuality succeeds in capturing young users’ attention since deep childhood with the help of various social networks and games for kids, according to the statistics, the significant number of Internet users in 2008 consisted of elderly people who sought for security, less pretentious communication with users of similar interests and less demanding relationships (Brown 30).

Despite the fact that Internet helps people stay in touch with each other and strengthen social ties, it also develops online business appointments, celebration events and entertaining time-spending, which can bring auxiliary profits to the online companies. In addition, the process of interaction with other people in virtual space is supported by programmed avatars that make representation of specific individual. Brown considers that “if it becomes possible to connect virtual reality programs directly to the brain, thoughts and emotions may also be digitized, rendered binary and reduced to 0s and 1s” (31).

Therefore, in perspective, such avatars will be able to produce own thoughts and actions based on person’s blog posts and profiles in social networks allowing users to have as many representations of themselves as they need. Consequently, the future of cyberspace consists in multiple personalities that will be able to modify economic sphere drastically.Works CitedBrown, Arnold. “Relationships, Community, and Identity in the New Virtual Society.” The Futurist Mar-Apr. 2011: 29-34. Print.