2 posts tagged “culture of the net”

I don't get why any rational human being would send out those mass email forwards that parasitically overtake normal email communication.

I have gotten several warnings to avoid sample perfume offered by strangers - it is probably ether, and many innocent women have gone missing because no one loved them enough to 'pass on this email to 10 women who are important to you'. I want to know who is dumb enough to sniff something given to them by a stranger in a gas station parking lot. Why is it that we only hear about these attacks via email, and not on the news? Perhaps it isn't true. 

Let's settle some of these spam legends once and for all:

• Ever heard about 'progesterex', the date rape drug that renders each and every victim sterile? That's because it only exists in junk email that your friends send to you. If you don't believe me, go ask alice.
• The first email urban legend I remember reading was insect lays eggs in cheek. There are several versions of this story, most of which I believed at age 13.
• I can't remember where I saw this letter, but it fooled me.
• Bill Gates, Microsoft, and AOL are not planning on giving you anything!
• Do people ever tell you not to reuse plastic water bottles? I've heard and read emails about it but it isn't based on very good information.

True ones that I like but won't ever feel the need to email to anyone

• Dr Ruth served as a sniper in Israel
• Cynical job posting.
• Church of Christ minister tries to stop speedy drivers for the Lord: by jumping in front of fast cars in his neighborhood, sticking brooms in their way and backing his own car in front of other drivers. story

This song seems to fit:

Allow myself to introduce...myself.

 

Actually, allow myself to bring up something that I have wanted to articulate for several months. Where do you draw the line with 'easy familiarity' when it comes to communicating through the internet? This includes Facebook, Flickr, emails, instant messaging, blogs, myspace, and all of the other wonderful services that enable us to stay connected.

There is a certain sense of anonymity, which may make it seem innocent, but I don't know that it is. In North America youth culture is being shaped so heavily by interactions over the internet. There is no precedent for a lot of what we're seeing, like recruiters looking through profiles on Facebook before deciding to hire and people posting pictures of others without their permission (which I just did below).

Maybe this is just developmental - characteristic of the stage of growth that mankind is at. A 'netiquette' is emerging, but when I look around it seems like there is a general lack of maturity in the way we use the internet as a society to communicate with each other - and the way the internet has been set up to enable this communication is reflective of our being at this stage of maturity. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing how we'll use it in the years to come!