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[personal profile] twilight33
I found myself in a desert called Cyberland. I woke up this morning to the sound of footed pajamas on a hardwood floor & 'Mama? Drink of milk please?' and realized that anthropology is fun but not where I'm supposed to be headed. Class back in February brought a hint of what was in store for me yesterday.

This week's readings were all about online identity, the good the bad & the addicted. I saw elements of myself, people I knew in the past, my husband, and many others in all of them. Predictably, most of the class who use AIM and the like to keep in touch with their already established RL friends expressed the typical disbelief of 'but it's just online with people you don't know, how can it be that real?' 'what's the point?' blah blah blah. I expected to have a class discussion that I'd mostly tune out then go home.

Oh no. Our prof decided to have us log on to a MOO during class so we'd 'see what they're like and maybe make the readings seem more real.'

*hand staple forehead*

The combination of IRC flashbacks and nearly exploding with repressed laughter overhearing my classmates' verbal reactions while reading their online arguments with bots was just too much combined with the fact that I was sitting in a computer lab instructed by my professor to do something that I either missed class because of or hid in another window during class a decade ago.

Of course the whole experience further solidified the general class perception of 'what's the point?', and I realized that no matter how much you read and research, how much you think you know, and even if you 'experience' it... you don't know jack unless you've been so deep in it that it is a part of your lifeblood and worldview, even if you think you've left by choice.

That applies to just about everything in sociocultural anthropology, and I never want to put someone in that position. How can an outsider truly understand that even the sight of a nick after years of silence can still bring feelings ranging from overwhelming love to infuriating rage?

Date: 2005-07-20 08:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] savannarama.livejournal.com
Every once in a while I realize my level of involvement in and experiences with IRC were unusual, impactful and will never be repeated.

I have a lot of nostalgia and appreciation for the subculture I so accidentally fell into.

Date: 2005-07-21 02:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sunneyone.livejournal.com
aaah, former IRC addict myself. lol.
"i gotta go soon, class is in 10 minutes."
"oh man, i gotta go in a minute, class is starting in 5 minutes."
"i can be a few minutes late."
"damn, i'm 10 minutes late, what's the point?"
hehehehehehehe yea.

i don't think people CAN understand unless they've done it. and even those who have done it don't always understand.

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