The virtual world. I'll
talk to you online. As is seen time and time again in
colloquialism referring to the internet, online is a place, much more
than an activity or state of being. It is an apt comparison as well.
The digital world shares many properties with a real locations.
One of the key properties
of a place to the average person, is the ability to gather, and act
there, which all can be done online. Skype, IRC chat, and other
social media services have made it possible for people to meet up and
interact fluidly with one another. Interactions are so fluid that
projects have been built where the contributors have only ever meet
online. Real world location is rather irrelevant to interactions
online. The internet is not like a place just for gathering but also
in representation. Websites have addresses, the URL, that are written
down and shared just like the address of a building. Yet people are
in the virtual space, not Michigan, or London.
2 comments:
It can also be said that people don't know how to describe the internet as anything but a place. When they try, like the senator Ted Stevens, they often get ridiculed for the inaccuracy.
It is true that we go to a website or "hang around" on facebook. Although our traveling process these days is often Google or other search engines rather then directly typing in the address.
I don't know what you're talking about. The internet is nothing if not a series of tubes.
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