Hiding Behind A Computer Essays (1481 words) - Virtual Reality

Hiding Behind A Computer Are computers and the Internet redefining human identity as people explore the boundaries of their personalities, adopt multiple selves, and form online relationships that can be more intense than real ones? Is the World Wide Web redefining our sense of community and where we find our peers? The answer is simple. An individual should not use a false identity to produce a life on the Internet. They should also avoid using an online life to influence their identity in real life. Gender swapping is one way which the Internet has the ability to change ones identity. There have been many cases where someone has logged onto the Internet, and they have presented their identity as the opposite sex from what they really are. There is no way of knowing what sex someone is when he or she is logged in. The net is made up of hundreds of thousands of separate communities, each with its own special character. It is difficult to eliminate a certain sex from a specific community when people have the power to disguise themselves. Communication in cyberspace lets people explore their personalities by creating new on-line personae. This seems to be the main concern for frequent Internet users. A significant observation is the amount of men that will log on as women. Jodi Obrien put it best when she states, Many men say that a common motivation for logging on as a female is because they are fascinated by the unusual amount of attention they receive from other men when they are perceived as women (http://www.echonyc.com/~women/Issue17/art-obrien.html). The one major concern that comes to mind is cyber-rape. It is apparent what kind of effect this has on people when Amy Bruckman, a doctoral student in the MIT Media Laboratory, states, Unwanted attention and sexual advances create an uncomfortable atmosphere for women in MUDs, just as they do in real life (Bruckman, 101). A MUD is defined as a multi-user dungeon or a multi-user Domain. It is a text-based multi-user virtual-reality environment. This is one of many virtual communities which users can enter. When a person first logs onto a MUD, he or she creates a character's name and gender, and writes a description of what the character looks like. It is possible for a character to be male or female, regardless of the gender of the player (100). For instance, several players have observed that MUDs complaints of harassment are routinely dismissed with the logic that this is a fantasy space so anything goes. This displays how easy it is to perform cyber-rape on an individual. An intere sting point is made by Jodi O'Brien in her article when she says, Although the prevalence of gender switching online is not readily knowable, it is the case that gender policing is considerable. The tactic agreement seems to be that crossing is acceptable-after all, this is a space in which one is supposed to experiment-but the motives for crossing must not involve an intent to deceive. Women who cross as men in order to avoid harassment or dismissal are just being reasonable (http://www.echonyc.com/~women/ Issue17/art-obrien.html). In another argument, one could say an individual provokes the cause of sexual harassment on the Internet. Our romantic energy is carried by standard electronic impulses across wires we will never see. With fantasy aside, just how elastic is the institution of gender? How likely is it that cyberspace will be a site for complicating the customary gender dichotomy? How likely is it that we can interact without differentiating characteristics to provide a gu ide for whom to be and how to act? What is reality where ones emotions, future plans, and recipes for interaction are concerned? Much of the current hype about cyberspace implies that the body is a barrier to experiencing a wider range of interactions. Gender is one of the first means by which persons introduce and represent themselves to others in electronic communications. For instance, one of the most frequently asked questions on bulletin board systems is are you male or female? Individuals who evade this question are not considered to be creative mavericks; they are assumed to be hiding something. If someone persists in maintaining a gender-neutral position, others online will inquire of

Social Darwinism in American History essays

Social Darwinism in American History essays Social Darwinism in American History Toward the end of the 19th century, the United States entered a period of growth and industrialisation. An abundance of natural recourses, cheap labour supply, and a self-sufficient food supply contributed to the industrialisation of the United States. This time was known as the American Industrial Revolution. Due to the growing prosperity of the United States, the American people, in general, adopted a heavily opportunistic and an excessively materialistic view towards life. Charles Darwin, a British naturalist, developed a theory of evolution through the process of natural selection. His ideas were presented to the public through several manuscripts that he wrote towards the late 19th century. The Origin of the species was one such manuscript, in which Darwin presented his idea that species evolve from more primitive species through the process of natural selection. When Charles Darwins The Origin of Species reached the United States following its publication in 1859, the reading public quickly gave it a popular reception. The Americans had observed the disarray over political issues in the period before and during the Civil War, and had experienced many hardships later during the Reconstruction in the South. They were now ready to listen to theories that allowed them to enjoy their great, recently settled continent and the new industries that sprang up within it. It was during this age of rapid and remarkable change that Darwins theories were pop ularised in the United States. Darwin developed a theory of evolution through natural selection, in which only the fittest would survive. Although Charles Darwin himself did not write about social factors such as human behaviour in society, his theories were open to interpretation. His ideas were moulded and eventually evolved into a theory known as Social Darwinism. Social Darwinists believed that people, like animals, compet...

Two topices you can choice (The finance of public transportation or Essay

Two topices you can choice (The finance of public transportation or The implementation of recycling programs) about ubran studies - Essay Example What the core problem is that a society in which a recycling program is considered ineffective; actually lacks experience, for these programs provide better and better results with proper development with time. What happens with a common household ‘dustbin’ or a ‘garbage-can’, as most people would refer it to, is that after being filled to its brim it starts to spill the waste out, evidently due to the limited space it has for the purpose of storing garbage. But space doesn’t matter nowadays, does it? One can clearly incinerate the garbage and use the dustbin for collecting more garbage and then incinerate that too, but would the ‘effects’ of that burning garbage be healthy for the environment? Of course most people don’t tend to care about it and consider using their resources to better purposes than caring about the environment, but would the ‘cost’ of constantly burning that garbage, the ‘energy’ used in clearing the bin and the transportation of that garbage be so minor to be easily sacrificed? Our planet is the metaphorical ‘dust bin’ and clearly we (humans) have polluted it for long, but it is only now that emphasis is being laid on the preservation of our resources and our environment; reflecting that our environmental condition has reached a critical point. The latest effort to preserve what’s left of our once rich environment and to clean what we have messed up, includes recycling; the reprocessing of materials to save fresh raw materials, energy and save the environment from numerous pollutants. Recycling programs are methods or ways we adopt which consequently help us recycle. To address the issue of their implementation in urban areas we must first consider the importance and the need of recycling programs in urban areas. Developed cities tend to be more artificial with respect to the natural environment and the more different they are the more harm they cause. Take a big metropolitan