No Cell Phone. . NO LIFE!

No Cell Phone. . .No Life

What was I thinking? I knew I couldn’t do it. Why would I even try? The fact is I hate life without a cell phone. As pathetic as it may sound it has become a necessity. I tried the tech challenge, but couldn’t’ handle it for long. Without my phone I wasn’t able to ask anyone after class to meet me for lunch. Therefore I ended up having lunch by myself. I couldn’t take it back to the room because I had to head to work. As I sat there all alone I was so sure that everyone was snickering under their breath as they chewed on their food, WITH their friends I might add. “What a loser.. . “ “HA!!. . guess that kid doesn’t have any friends.” Not so much fun. When I got in the mood to head to the gym all my friends on the floor were out and about and I couldn’t text them to see if they wanted to go with me. Oh. . .another place I had to go alone. I don’t understand how things were done in the past. For example if you had to meet someone somewhere what would happen if you got stuck somewhere or if they for whatever reason was running late? What if for some reason you couldn’t even make the meeting? How did people manage when they couldn’t call the person or text them? I guess they just sat around waited a couple hours and finally gave up. When it came to the point that I needed to call someone about an assignment we had to do for homework I gave up. The fact is the cell phone has become an invaluable tool of life. You are cut off from the world without one. You can’t make plans, you can’t let people know if plans change, you can’t ask for help, you can’t do anything. There is no reason to not take advantage of the technology if it is so accessible. I text throughout the day. I text my girlfriend, my brother, best friend/roommate, friends from class, friends in general, my mother, my grandmother. I text everyone. I feel like without my cell phone without the ability to communicate with them at the movement of my fingers is the equivalent to losing them. Losing the phone means losing existence. Some people can do it. For example I know Rachael Scott from class can go a month without a cellphone no problem. She never answers my texts, although perhaps that’s for a different reason. But from what I hear she is like that with everyone. She just simply doesn’t take her phone places and doesn’t check it that often. I think I would have a panic attack. Next time a tech challenge comes around I don’t think I’m going to even try. I would definitely need an incentive, something like an automatic A on a paper.

Community

A community’s formula is not always concrete and can be composed of a variety of ingredients. For our purpose of discussion the main ingredient is clearly the people. The reasons behind the social connections made are diverse, varying among the communities. The individuals of a community share a common bond, camaraderie, and are brought together by a collective force or forces. The members have a sense of belonging and acknowledge that there exist common interests that drive them to be apart of the group even if at times they are unable to distinctly recognize them. The common interests can be a mixture of “forces” or simply rely solely on one attribute. Communitys are bonded through religion, morals and beliefs, education, economic status, hobbies, and others. While you may be apart of a community this doesn’t prevent your acceptance into another one. People can be apart of multiple communities. While I am apart of the University of Maryland Community there are many sub communities within UMD. My involvement can be broken down from someone at UMD to the student community, Undergrad community, Freshman Community. Honors Program community, Denton Hall community. Bio Major community. The bonds holding a community together don’t require any particular significance. They don’t need to be spiritual or complex. If there is something shared among a population there exists a potential for a community. My floor is a community for what are the most obvious reasons. . We are bonded by the mere fact that we live together, share the same bathrooms, hallway, lounge, elevators.

Cyberspace Identity

When I turn on my computer and I hop on to the Internet am I still Victor? Am I still myself, the outgoing, social, laid back, friendly, kid I am on any given day? Yeah, I think so. I think who I am out of the cyberspace world aids in formulating my identity on it. I still make the same sarcastic remarks, still like to laugh, talk with my friends, and have a good time. I don’t really seem to change all that much. Now, perhaps my consistency in my real life personality and the online one lies in the fact that I don’t get involved in a lot of the activities that other online users do. Besides, the typical search for news and information my participation online extends to maybe Facebook, instant messaging such as iChat or Skype, and obviously email. All of these rely on the people knowing exactly who I am and whom they are interacting with. There really isn’t opportunity to disguise myself or even the necessity to. On Facebook people see my pictures, whom my friends are, and some of the activities I have been involved. They can generate an overall representation of who I am. However, when you begin to examine other Internet activities such as public chat rooms, the gaming world, avatars individuals use to symbolize themselves you begin to realize that maybe people aren’t always who they are outside the protection of the cyber fortress. Maybe people do change, maybe all some people need to become a hacker, a criminal, a sexual predator, is the protection of a computer screen, and a hook up to the Internet world.

We are forced to propose the question, do people change who they are when they use the internet from who they are in reality? Although they might change in their usual behavior I feel they do not change in personality. As stated by Chester and Breton (2007), “What we do and who we are online are shaped consciously and unconsciously by who we are. . .” I have to agree with the point they are trying to get across. It is not the people and their personality that changes when provided with a convenient method of disguise, but actually the character traits that are being emphasized. Something inside the individual, something unobtainable, a need met unfulfilled, at least in the real world, is being unleashed in cyberspace. Attributes within an individual, some of which the person is completely unaware to their existence, are hiding somewhere in their subconscious. Through the Internet’s direction they are able to be brought out of captivity and set free into the wild. Only on the Internet can the individual express these fractions of their personality.

The stalkers, the sexual assaulters, the hackers, even the unusually good people are still these things in real life even though they perhaps might not reflect that behavior normally. The only difference is behind the walls and barriers the Internet provides they are able to express themselves and these characteristics that they may or might not know they have.

Internet Experiences

Victor Perez

Dr. Katherine Robinson

Section: 0801

The Many Facets of the Internet

The Internet’s capabilities are constantly being improved upon. We ask ourselves what can’t we do with the Internet? By the time we think of an answer it has already been accommodated to perform that task as well. As we are enveloped by the flourishing technology that occurs at the very edge of our typing and clicking fingertips, we cannot possibly be blind to all the appealing attributes the Internet exhibits, all that it allows us to do, all that it has to offer. It serves its purpose so effectively in a variety of departments such as entertainment, communication, information, and so on.

The biggest social network to hit today’s stage is the famous, or infamous depending on the perspective, Facebook. I have to admit I am an avid user and find myself signing on every day religiously. Although, I do not over dramatize my presence as many users these days do, constantly changing my status, commenting on this picture and that wall post, friend requesting at a whim or sifting through pages and pages of photo albums. In all honesty, Facebook’s appeal simply lies in my ability to stay in contact with friends and family. Yes, it sounds lazy, but there is no denying the fact that Facebook allows you to communicate with multiple people and see where they have been lately, what they have been doing, and how they are. In today’s fast paced world it is important to be able to reach someone. Your phone breaks (happened to me numerous times), it is dead, lost, it does not matter. We all know we have that Facebook security net to fall into. If we can’t call or text someone we’re only clicks away and sure enough they are on Facebook or will be momentarily. It is argued that Facebook is a distraction, another device along with video games and iPods that prevent people, specifically students from getting their work done. Facebook’s usage rule is just like that of any other thing that is good, only in moderation.

While it is convenient to be able to talk to a lot of your friends all at once, there are those special times or rather those “special someone’s” that demand a more personal touch. Something that Facebook has yet to offer its clients is the ability to see the person your talking to. A phone call is nice. Being able to hear the voice of the person you wish to talk to, hear them laugh, here the vibrancy of their happiness or the gloominess of their sadness. However nothing beats actually seeing them and if you can’t see them in person than seeing them through video chatting is the next best thing. My girlfriend and I are going to school an hour apart. We went to High School together and live about a three-minute walk apart. We got accustomed to seeing each other every day if not every other. Video chatting allows us to continue that contact. We try to video chat every other day and I think it’s really helpful. There is a huge difference between hearing a “hahah. . . snort. . haha” then just reading a “lol.” Just like there is a difference between seeing the crack of a smile than a yellow smiley face. Video chatting provides a more intimate and meaningful social interaction. Of course it is not only helpful for long distance relationships, it allows you to see old friends see their reactions to stories and memories “face to face”.

Although its popularity has died down with the creation of Myspace and Facebook, AIM was the biggest host for instant messaging. Every day kids would sign on. I have mentioned the benefits of close interaction, however I recognize that there exist some pros to only seeing a text box with a message. A few years ago my best friend and I got into a fight. We exchanged some grueling insults and made some definite points about the friendship in general. A lot of the things we said would not have been exchanged had we been in person. Without the opportunity to look at each other we would have been to hesitant to say the things we did and probably would not have resolved the problem. Thanks to only being able to see our words and not hear each others’s voices or see each other’s reaction we were able to open up and unravel some of the kinks we had. Eventually it led to things being a lot better and we gradually were able to talk our problems without the help of a messenger program.

The Internet is only going to keep getting better and better and expand its vastness of abilities. As long as we continue to request for it too absorb a new capability we will find a way to develop it and make it happen.