The Conceptual Realities of Cyberspace
By Lily-May Hawken
Image 1: (Kiderra,2015)
Cyberspace - a unique yet daunting
marvel, with almost no limitations to what can be explored and the perceptions
that such exploration can bring. Geographically dispersed in a ‘city’ of
interconnections, the practice of ‘dérive’ constitutes the fact that a cyber-flâneur wonders non-purposively (Barnes, 1997) throughout the
cyber realm.
As put forth in Prouty’s theories he mentions that, “the
sheer size of the city was a threat to the individual” (Prouty, 2009), which can
still be seen as relevant due to the immense size of cyber space, which can in turn
become a minute threat to the one who is internalising such information. With
this in mind, it would seem that those unware of the flâneur’s existence would be subject to a certain vulnerability,
as the flaneur is “unbeknownst to all the others” (Prouty, 2009), until it is
convenient for them. Such vulnerability could exist in the Care2 community, as
petitions are publicly displayed and as put forth by Prouty, the flaneur “hides
in the crowd” (Prouty, 2009) and would easily be able to contradict the view of
the supporters of a petition.
Here, some of Barnes’ theories are more applicable to the
Care2 site itself. This is due to the fact that the Care2 community, although
geographically dispersed in reality, internalise the environments in which they
have familiarised themselves with, and counteract the normalities embedded within their social communities to come together as equals. Through this internalisation,
they attempt to 'organise the environmental impressions into meaningful
patterns’ (Barnes,1997) by creating petitions.
Although this embodiment of the internalisation of one’s
surroundings and that which they try to change, the creators or ‘gate-keepers’
if you will, have used strategies to empower the user of the site (Pauwels
& Hellriegel, 2009). By creating a sense of familiarity throughout the
site, and using the users interests to connect them with others throughout the
community, they almost develop of “virtual identity” (Barnes,1997).
Through this manipulation of content, the ‘gate-keepers’
almost create a map, not one of which we follow to get to a destination, but
one of which we as the viewer cannot possibly comprehend. As Wood, D et al
discusses in “The multiple truths of the mappable world”, the truthfulness of a
map is dependent on its purpose (Wood, 2006), so in turn a map drawn up by someone to give directions, would be significantly different to that of the actual street map of the place the person wishes to go.
Although they
discuss the physical relation of maps in the real world, such as that of Mappa
Mundi (Hereford Cathedral, 1285), they don’t take into consideration the
entirely different world of cyber space. Because the creators of the site link many
other social networks to their community, they in turn add to the “huge quantity of utterly unstructured information” (Enikeev,n.d.), which is continually linked within the internet and continuously
disregarded by the user of the websites. This in turn, forms a seemingly
complex mapping of cyberspace, from which we can never entirely understand, only
conceptualise those truths in which we believe exist.
Reference List:
Enikeev,R.
(n.d.) The Internet Map. Retrieved from: http://internet-map.net/
Kiderra, I. (2015). Network News: Relationships are Vital to School Reform [image] Retrieved
Pauwels & Hellriegel. (2009).
“Strategic and tactical
uses of internet design and infrastructure: the case of YouTube” In Kuttainen, V. (2017). BA1002:
Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 4 notes
[PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/
Prouty, R. (2009). A
Turtle on a Leash. Retrieved from: http://www.onewaystreet.typepad.com/one_way_street/2009/10/a-turtle-on-a-leash.html
Reference to
image of Mappa Mundi. In Kuttainen,
V. (2017). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place,
week 4 notes [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/
Wood, D. et al (2006) ‘Chapter 1: The
Multiple Truths of the Mappable World’. In Seeing Through Maps: Many Ways to
See the World. (p.p 1-12). Oxford, UK: ODT Inc
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