Distance Meaningless

The passage I chose was written by Kevin Robins on page 228. He talks about the elimination of distance that we now seem to have. Because of the new virtual technologies of today we can communicate with others wherever they might be, instead of being stuck with whoever our neighbors might be, or whoever lives in the same town as we do. Robins considers the arguments of William Mitchell who tells us that we will finally be "freed from the constraints of physical space", and that new vision technologies seem to make distance meaningless. He helps us to think about the limitations that we all have on us by geographical separation and hopes we will all be empowered to make contact with anyone we want, anywhere in the world, and when we want.

I don't think that the new virtual technologies of today make distance completely meaningless, but I do however appreciate how it has benefited me and my family. My husband works in Alaska, he works three week there and then is home for three weeks. I am constantly being asked "How can you be away from your husband for so long?". Well, the answer is simple, we talk on our cell phones, e-mail, Facebook, and send pictures back and forth several times a week. I have to say that we probably communicate more when he's gone than when he's home. I do feel that Mitchell is right on with his ideas of distance being meaningless other than the one thing that we don't have which is physical touch. I do miss hugging my husband and sitting next to him watching TV, but it's all worth it when he does get home.

I also feel that I'm not as far away from my family in Utah. I actually communicate with them more than I did when I lived in the same town. It's easier to communicate although I don't enjoy the camera phones, I do enjoy sending pictures that are almost right in the moment. It feels as though we are there with them, or that they are here with us. Technology is great!

Virtual Communities

One of the virtual communities that I recently became a part of is Facebook. I actually became a member over a year ago because of the pressure from friends and family, but I didn't become an active participant until a few months ago.
When I first started Facebook I was constantly on it. About a week into it, I started to get a little nervous thinking that I may have a huge problem on my hands. It was taking time away from pretty much everything in my life. The things that suffered while I put Facebook as my priority were my time with my kids and husband, the house cleaning, my homework, and working out. I noticed some weight gain, lots of clutter, and the kids taking advantage of my one track mind. As I became more involved in Facebook my kids played more video games than you could imagine.
However, despite all the negative things that were going on because of my new found community my relationships on Facebook were flourishing. I was interacting with friends I hadn't seen or talked to since high school. I have many friends and family that live in another state and I am able to communicate on a daily basis if I want to with them. I love being able to show off pictures to all my family and friends, especially the friends that normally I wouldn't send pictures to.
I feel the way I interact with my friends and family on Facebook is very similar to how I would act in person. I may hold back on talking about boring or negative issues, although some of my friends feel the need to tell us every boring detail of their life. I feel I have renewed old friendships and I enjoy this new addition to my life. I try to work on balancing and prioritizing my day so that Facebook doesn't consume it. I usually log on for a few minutes each day now, and sometimes I've even miss a day. But that's OK, it doesn't seem to bother anyone.
The biggest barrier with my Facebook community is the barrier of religion. Many of my friends and family are a specific religion, and believe me you can't miss it. They will talk about this religion as if everything revolves around it, which it does! I am no longer part of that religion and I know that if I said what I wanted to say about it, that I may lose some friends. So I refrain, along with some others who think the same way I do from speaking up. I try to look past this issue because I enjoy conversing with old friends. But this does limit the relationship I have with many of them. I have found other communities that think the same way I do about religion and I get to say what I think there. This seems to work for me, although I know that some people say what they think regardless of other peoples feelings and this causes people to drop out of the community or drop that person off of their friends list. Sad but true.....

First Steps DTC 475

After reading all ten descriptions of cyberspace the one that resonated the most with my preconceived notion of "cyberspace was the fourth one listed. I've never really thought about what my description of "cyberspace would be and I loved how this one was worded. What I really liked was the part about a million voices and two million eyes in a silent, invisible concert to enquiry.
It's almost scary to think that so many people are listening and looking at you, yet comforting knowing that we're all part of the same group. What makes it so wonderful is that we all work together doing our own thing to make it work, just like a concert. A silent, invisible concert........well put!

Boardgirl Introduction DTC 475

Hi everyone!
I am new to the whole blogging thing, this is officially my first blog. My goal is to graduate from WSU with my bachelors in Psychology. I then plan to move to Oregon to work on my masters in Clinical Psychology and eventually move on to get my Psy.D. degree. I love spending time with my family. We do many things together, my favorite is snowboarding and 4 wheeling in the Oregon sand dunes. I love to play softball, waterski, and mountain bike. I really enjoy school and I'm looking forward to all my classes this semester.