Xiang Liu
2010/06/10
assignment 2
My view On the Internet
The essay "Isolated by the Internet" is a section from Mind Readings by Clifford Stoll. In this essay, Stoll mainly talks about people becoming isolated because of the wide-use of Internet. Stoll believes that the internet made people's lose their basic social skills and negatively affect people's relationships. Also, there is another essay "Who Am Are" by Sherry Turkle, which shows the people have lots of dimensions in their lives, and the Internet was just one of these dimensions. I disagree with both of these views. In my opinion, using the internet is a very personal thing, and it is up to the users to determine how internet affects their lives.
To counter Stoll’s point, I believe that the Internet is just an additional way of communication, and it will not replace people’s social skills. Nowadays, it is easy to chat with somebody from the Internet or send texts without talking face-to-face. Like Stoll says, "those weaned on computer communications won't learn basic social rules of conversation . How to interrupt. How to share time with another. How to speak to an audience. When to quiet." (651) Stoll believes that the Internet is dangerous, which will caused lots of serious problems. Admittedly, using internet will limit people’s face-to-face meeting opportunities. However, I still believe Internet is just a product of advanced technology; it is still controlled by the people's minds. In other words, peoples’ minds can still tell them how to deal with people in the real world, rather than losing their basic social skills due to the use of computers.
As for Turkle’s idea, I believe that the virtual world is just as important as the real world for people's lives. In the essay "Who Am We", Turkle shows a couple of MUD players who felt much better in the virtual world than in the real world. To some extent, I agree that people need to escape from the real world into the virtual world sometimes, because there are too many things that we cannot fulfill in the real world, so the virtual world is a good place to relieve these pressures. However, I want to say that people cannot become addicted to the virtual world. People still need to face the real world; for example, we need to eat, and we need the real love which we cannot receive from the virtual world. Therefore, I think that people need to understand how to balance both worlds and understand that each of the worlds can bring you a different experience.
In conclusion, people should not only focus on whether internet will replace social networking or whether the virtual world is insignificant. The main thing that people should know is to believe in the power of their mind to help them differentiate which world they live in and act accordingly. In the real world, people should socialize and take advantage of face-to-face meeting opportunities; in the virtual world, people should let it be a factor in enriching their real world experiences.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Find Youself in Virtual World
Guiyan Zhang
English 102
Assignment #2
06/10/2010
Assignment 2
Find yourself in the virtual world
Sherry Turkle says that real life is just one more window. It means people are addicted to the virtual worlds. They have so many different and ideal roles in cyberspace. They can build identification in MUD, which is restricted by physical shortages and hard to achieve it in the real worlds. Like the Doug, MUD player said in this article:“I’ll get a real-time message that flash on the screen as soon as it is sent from another system user, and I guess that’s RL. RL is just one more windows, and it’s not usually my best one”.( 679) It is just the place where the role transformation has to return.
I partly agree with Sherry Turkle. The author said:“we are using life on computer screens to become comfortable with new ways of thinking about evolution, relationships, sexuality, politics, and identity.”（676）whether this way is right depends on different people. For people who are born with physical problem, they are less confident for the real lives. Therefore, they want to create a better life through MUD and make their dreams come true. It is reasonable for them to use this way to build identity. However, some common people just pursue this fantastic world and lost themselves, which make them more vulnerable to face the real world. Thus they are not suitable to do the same thing.
The social phenomenon proved that we are isolated by the Internet. Dr. Kraut, who thinks that Internet use is“building shallow relationships, leading to an overall decline in felling of connection to other people.”(650) Once people spend too much time on the Internet, they will become shy to socialize with people in reality. The reason is that the friends in the Internet are more flexible. People can easily develop good friendship during just few days. They can find the confidence from the cyberspace. Therefore, they gradually lose social skills and become more awkward. However, Katza and Aspden happily conclude that:“The Internet is creating a nation richer in friendships and social relationships”( 650 ) Generally speaking, it is true that we can keep in touch with our friends through Facebook, MSN, E-mail, chatting room, etc. No matter where we are, we can always share our thought and emotions with our friends. The use of Internet to warm friendship has become one kind of tendency in this society.
In conclusion, people cannot avoid using Internet to keep in touch with friends, apply it to the study and work. It is a convenient way to share concerns. Just be careful, do not be addicted to it. Take advantages of Internet in the proper way.
English 102
Assignment #2
06/10/2010
Assignment 2
Find yourself in the virtual world
Sherry Turkle says that real life is just one more window. It means people are addicted to the virtual worlds. They have so many different and ideal roles in cyberspace. They can build identification in MUD, which is restricted by physical shortages and hard to achieve it in the real worlds. Like the Doug, MUD player said in this article:“I’ll get a real-time message that flash on the screen as soon as it is sent from another system user, and I guess that’s RL. RL is just one more windows, and it’s not usually my best one”.( 679) It is just the place where the role transformation has to return.
I partly agree with Sherry Turkle. The author said:“we are using life on computer screens to become comfortable with new ways of thinking about evolution, relationships, sexuality, politics, and identity.”（676）whether this way is right depends on different people. For people who are born with physical problem, they are less confident for the real lives. Therefore, they want to create a better life through MUD and make their dreams come true. It is reasonable for them to use this way to build identity. However, some common people just pursue this fantastic world and lost themselves, which make them more vulnerable to face the real world. Thus they are not suitable to do the same thing.
The social phenomenon proved that we are isolated by the Internet. Dr. Kraut, who thinks that Internet use is“building shallow relationships, leading to an overall decline in felling of connection to other people.”(650) Once people spend too much time on the Internet, they will become shy to socialize with people in reality. The reason is that the friends in the Internet are more flexible. People can easily develop good friendship during just few days. They can find the confidence from the cyberspace. Therefore, they gradually lose social skills and become more awkward. However, Katza and Aspden happily conclude that:“The Internet is creating a nation richer in friendships and social relationships”( 650 ) Generally speaking, it is true that we can keep in touch with our friends through Facebook, MSN, E-mail, chatting room, etc. No matter where we are, we can always share our thought and emotions with our friends. The use of Internet to warm friendship has become one kind of tendency in this society.
In conclusion, people cannot avoid using Internet to keep in touch with friends, apply it to the study and work. It is a convenient way to share concerns. Just be careful, do not be addicted to it. Take advantages of Internet in the proper way.
WHAT WILL PEOPLE LOSS?
Yuan Sun
English 102E
Assignment #2
06/10/2010
When personal computer became popular, internet has been familiar with most of people, especially for the young generation. As Clifford Stoll said at the beginning of the article “Isolated by the Internet”—“For all my grinching about the soul-deadening effects of the Internet, most Internet users speak positively about it.” (648) Internet is popular now. I think to individual, through internet, people can get a large numbers of information, database and gain their knowledge in any aspects they want; make friends and often connect with them online. At school, teachers can use internet quickly to find more resources; link with online video to make the course more interesting. People who work in a company can use computer to store and analysis data; doing market research through internet.
However, this is just an obvious part of internet. Every coin has two sides. Internet is also the same with coin. At the beginning, people may all thought that internet is amazing and it must be benefit for the development of our society. But disadvantages just hide behind the “beautiful appearance”. With the passage of time, people will find the different side of internet. “According to Carnegie Mellon University psychologists Robert Kraut and Vicki Lundmark, there are serious negative long-term social effects, ranging from depression to loneliness” (684). Maybe many years ago if people who mentioned this opinion will not be accepted, but now it is more and more obvious and becoming a common phenomenon.
Many people fell that use internet to connect with others is very convenient. E-mail, charting room, MSN, OICQ, facebook all these things are a tool for communication. They instead of face-to-face communication and phones gradually. People can make friends through them, and all the people who connected with internet may be treat as in a society. But this world is virtual; in fact, they all get away from the real world. “Kraut and Lundmark concluded that ‘greater use of the Internet was associated with small, but statistically significant declines in social involvement as measured by communication within the family and the size of people’s local social networks, and with increases in loneliness, and depression” (650). I have heard people say that this generation is a lonely generation. The “digital generation” live with internet, attracted by internet and addicted to it. It makes them lose of social skill. In the virtual world, they can talk with people confident, but in the real world , they becomes shy and nervous. Meanwhile, always rely on internet, especially young people, they spend less time with their families. If the time is long, they will become lonely, doesn't know how to communicate with parents and feel lack of love. I agree with Clifford Stoll, internet is really can make people loneliness and depression. Everyone should think of it carefully and control themselves.
In Sherry Turkle’s article “Who Am We”, she mentions that today “real life” is quickly becoming “just one more window” (687). Because on the internet, a person can play or even really think himself are many different persons. “The life practice of windows is that of a decentered self that exists in many worlds, that exists in many worlds, that plays many roles at the same time” (677). I agree with Turkle, nowadays people who addicted to internet is totally cannot be aware of what is real world and who the person self is. In their eyes, real life is become “windows”, they can own many different “real life”. They all get lost in the virtual worlds. They don’t know who is behind the screen or we can say that they don’t care. All of them just want to play a perfect self in this virtual world.
Why people don’t use their time which is spent in the virtual world to consider about who I am? They all have to face real life, have to study and work. When they get out from the virtual world and face real world every day, they must feel a huge loss. It is really bad for a person, so wake up from the virtual is an emergency. The opportunity cost for the unreal happiness which they owned from the virtual world is not only their time, even their real precious characteristics.
English 102E
Assignment #2
06/10/2010
When personal computer became popular, internet has been familiar with most of people, especially for the young generation. As Clifford Stoll said at the beginning of the article “Isolated by the Internet”—“For all my grinching about the soul-deadening effects of the Internet, most Internet users speak positively about it.” (648) Internet is popular now. I think to individual, through internet, people can get a large numbers of information, database and gain their knowledge in any aspects they want; make friends and often connect with them online. At school, teachers can use internet quickly to find more resources; link with online video to make the course more interesting. People who work in a company can use computer to store and analysis data; doing market research through internet.
However, this is just an obvious part of internet. Every coin has two sides. Internet is also the same with coin. At the beginning, people may all thought that internet is amazing and it must be benefit for the development of our society. But disadvantages just hide behind the “beautiful appearance”. With the passage of time, people will find the different side of internet. “According to Carnegie Mellon University psychologists Robert Kraut and Vicki Lundmark, there are serious negative long-term social effects, ranging from depression to loneliness” (684). Maybe many years ago if people who mentioned this opinion will not be accepted, but now it is more and more obvious and becoming a common phenomenon.
Many people fell that use internet to connect with others is very convenient. E-mail, charting room, MSN, OICQ, facebook all these things are a tool for communication. They instead of face-to-face communication and phones gradually. People can make friends through them, and all the people who connected with internet may be treat as in a society. But this world is virtual; in fact, they all get away from the real world. “Kraut and Lundmark concluded that ‘greater use of the Internet was associated with small, but statistically significant declines in social involvement as measured by communication within the family and the size of people’s local social networks, and with increases in loneliness, and depression” (650). I have heard people say that this generation is a lonely generation. The “digital generation” live with internet, attracted by internet and addicted to it. It makes them lose of social skill. In the virtual world, they can talk with people confident, but in the real world , they becomes shy and nervous. Meanwhile, always rely on internet, especially young people, they spend less time with their families. If the time is long, they will become lonely, doesn't know how to communicate with parents and feel lack of love. I agree with Clifford Stoll, internet is really can make people loneliness and depression. Everyone should think of it carefully and control themselves.
In Sherry Turkle’s article “Who Am We”, she mentions that today “real life” is quickly becoming “just one more window” (687). Because on the internet, a person can play or even really think himself are many different persons. “The life practice of windows is that of a decentered self that exists in many worlds, that exists in many worlds, that plays many roles at the same time” (677). I agree with Turkle, nowadays people who addicted to internet is totally cannot be aware of what is real world and who the person self is. In their eyes, real life is become “windows”, they can own many different “real life”. They all get lost in the virtual worlds. They don’t know who is behind the screen or we can say that they don’t care. All of them just want to play a perfect self in this virtual world.
Why people don’t use their time which is spent in the virtual world to consider about who I am? They all have to face real life, have to study and work. When they get out from the virtual world and face real world every day, they must feel a huge loss. It is really bad for a person, so wake up from the virtual is an emergency. The opportunity cost for the unreal happiness which they owned from the virtual world is not only their time, even their real precious characteristics.
Debate about Internet
Yu Zhao
English 102E
June 10, 2010
Assignment 2
Nowadays, Internet is playing increasing important role in the contemporary society and brings profound impact on people’s life. In the meantime, whether the Internet is good or bad has sparked spirited debate. Some people argue that Internet has fundamentally beneficial influence on our lives like the author—Sherry Turkle, while many others contend that the Internet has detrimental effect as well like the author Clifford Stoll. In my opinion, I disagree with Stoll.
In article, “Isolated by the Internet”, the author is talked about how Internet was badly to influence people’s lives. At the beginning of this article, he is describing the advantages of Internet. From the second paragraph, he started to talk about the drawbacks that Internet generates. Stoll is believed that Internet is so danger, and it damages the relationship with friends and families. He thinks that Internet makes people feel depression and loneliness, also lost the normal ability to socialize with other people. Although, the author does a lot examples to support his ideas, for example, After following the study group, the psychologists found an average increase in depression by about I percent for every hour spent online per week.(649)He thinks internet made people loss real interaction with real problems. People will face the difficult real life problem and they don’t know how to deal with them.
According to the article, “Who Am We?” which written by Sherry Turkle. She talked a lot of similarities with Stoll. Both them are talked about the MUDs, but they talked about the thing which from different position. Both of them are talked about the Internet and the real life, but they give a different definition about these two things. Sherry thinks that we have a lot of aspects of real life, Internet only a part. It is not so worry about it. For example, Sherry talked about a person who used Internet very well, and that person can talk with other people use Internet. Other people are respected him. But, that people changed to another person. He cannot do something well. About the example, I think it is personality, not the Internet’s fault. Sometime, people can show different themselves in different situation.
I don’t agree with Stoll, after all Interest is a new technology; it can help the whole world better. For example, for international students, we left home and left our countries to go abroad to study. Thanks to the Internet, we can chat with our parents and friends. We can tell them so many fresh things were happened in America, and also they can talk so many things were happened China. We don’t lose something because of the Internet. We can see the parents and friends through the Internet. In my opinion, everything has two sides, but we should consider which side is better. I think the advantages of widespread of Internet are outweighing the disadvantages.
English 102E
June 10, 2010
Assignment 2
Nowadays, Internet is playing increasing important role in the contemporary society and brings profound impact on people’s life. In the meantime, whether the Internet is good or bad has sparked spirited debate. Some people argue that Internet has fundamentally beneficial influence on our lives like the author—Sherry Turkle, while many others contend that the Internet has detrimental effect as well like the author Clifford Stoll. In my opinion, I disagree with Stoll.
In article, “Isolated by the Internet”, the author is talked about how Internet was badly to influence people’s lives. At the beginning of this article, he is describing the advantages of Internet. From the second paragraph, he started to talk about the drawbacks that Internet generates. Stoll is believed that Internet is so danger, and it damages the relationship with friends and families. He thinks that Internet makes people feel depression and loneliness, also lost the normal ability to socialize with other people. Although, the author does a lot examples to support his ideas, for example, After following the study group, the psychologists found an average increase in depression by about I percent for every hour spent online per week.(649)He thinks internet made people loss real interaction with real problems. People will face the difficult real life problem and they don’t know how to deal with them.
According to the article, “Who Am We?” which written by Sherry Turkle. She talked a lot of similarities with Stoll. Both them are talked about the MUDs, but they talked about the thing which from different position. Both of them are talked about the Internet and the real life, but they give a different definition about these two things. Sherry thinks that we have a lot of aspects of real life, Internet only a part. It is not so worry about it. For example, Sherry talked about a person who used Internet very well, and that person can talk with other people use Internet. Other people are respected him. But, that people changed to another person. He cannot do something well. About the example, I think it is personality, not the Internet’s fault. Sometime, people can show different themselves in different situation.
I don’t agree with Stoll, after all Interest is a new technology; it can help the whole world better. For example, for international students, we left home and left our countries to go abroad to study. Thanks to the Internet, we can chat with our parents and friends. We can tell them so many fresh things were happened in America, and also they can talk so many things were happened China. We don’t lose something because of the Internet. We can see the parents and friends through the Internet. In my opinion, everything has two sides, but we should consider which side is better. I think the advantages of widespread of Internet are outweighing the disadvantages.
Commentary on Internet
Yanan Niu
2010-6-9
Assignment#2
As the birth of Internet, humans’ social interaction becomes more and more convenient and efficient than before. Nowadays, software houses have produced many interaction tools, servicing the users for communications. Compared the old medias, such as newspaper and TV, Internet clearly has too more benefits. That is the reason why people would like to use Internet in making friends, having fun, studying, even doing business. However, at the same time when people are enjoying the advantages that Internet brings to us, it also harms humans to some extent.
According to the article Isolated by the Internet, the writer Clifford Stoll discussed how does Internet influence people’s social lives. He thought that the relationship with families and friends had been hindered by high technology for many years. In his essay, some people thought being on internet had developed their social positions. They thought through internet, they could make more friends and consolidate friendships. Yet, Clifford Stoll deemed that this special way of communication would stunt human’s normal ability to socialize. Moreover, he had listed some clearly examples to state his points. In my opinion, I don’t really agree with him. Although it seems that internet had affected human in social interaction, I don’t think this is all internet’s fault. For some people, they are of few words and shy to speak. Internet gives them a chance to be a person, who they want to be and hard to be in reality; it gives people a chance to change themselves and practice. I think it is a kind of way to blend into social group and fit in. It is a good way to release pressures and make people to be honest. However, the more important thing is that relying on internet can easily lead to people distort personalities. That is why we have seen so many examples in a similar negative situation. I think it depends on different people’s self-control ability and ability of resolving truth and false mostly. Just as Robert Kraut and Vikki Lundermark concluded that people should to be responsible mostly for making themselves involve into the results that Internet may bring to human rather than Internet itself. In the article “Who Am We?”, which was written by Sherry Turkle, she listed many examples as Stoll did. Talking about how has the Internet changed the way we look at the self, she discussed, “Windows have become a powerful metaphor for thinking about the self as a multiple, distributed system, the self is no longer simple playing different roles in different settings at different times. The life practice of windows is that of a decentered self that exists in many worlds, that plays many roles at the same time…Now real life itself may be, just one more window” (Turkle p. 676). She thought for many people, the virtual world became as real as our daily life because they did almost everything on Internet, including studying, shopping, entertainment, even working and doing business. Internet had given people many benefits and gain in reality so it became closer and closer to users, at least no longer a world completely in mind. This thought made me interested in; to some extent, I agree and admit the advantages and changes of property of Internet. However, I feel sad about the people like Stewart, who was a college student Turkle had illustrated in her article. It was hardly for him to handle the problem of social interaction and fitting-in in the reality. The reason was he has two identities. In the illusory game world, he was Achilles. However, as Turkle puts it, “he let his MUD friends call him his real name because he wanted to feel that his real life existed between his persona and real identity; he wanted make MUD as a real part of his life”. Yet, that didn’t help him at all. “He still lived life in a small compass” (Turkle p. 680). Yes, compared what Turkle had said, Stewart was playing two different roles at the same time, however, it seems that was not a good thing. Different reactions in different worlds made his disposition become even more extreme. Different roles made him even more confused and lonely in life. Therefore, personally I don’t agree the author’s thought about “real life is just one more window”. I think that her opinion should be discussed in different groups of people and I believe that will make much more sense.
Personally, I won’t treat real life as just a window in virtual world because nowadays, facial expressions, body languages, face-to-face conversations and really participated in life what are ignored by humans are exactly more and more important. I enjoy go outside, drinking juice and chatting with my best friends; I enjoy travel, seeing beautiful scenery in nature; I enjoy find books that I want, spending a whole afternoon in library and so on. I won’t treat real life as a mere window and I think it is worth to hold my opinion rather than pay all my attention, relying on Internet.
2010-6-9
Assignment#2
As the birth of Internet, humans’ social interaction becomes more and more convenient and efficient than before. Nowadays, software houses have produced many interaction tools, servicing the users for communications. Compared the old medias, such as newspaper and TV, Internet clearly has too more benefits. That is the reason why people would like to use Internet in making friends, having fun, studying, even doing business. However, at the same time when people are enjoying the advantages that Internet brings to us, it also harms humans to some extent.
According to the article Isolated by the Internet, the writer Clifford Stoll discussed how does Internet influence people’s social lives. He thought that the relationship with families and friends had been hindered by high technology for many years. In his essay, some people thought being on internet had developed their social positions. They thought through internet, they could make more friends and consolidate friendships. Yet, Clifford Stoll deemed that this special way of communication would stunt human’s normal ability to socialize. Moreover, he had listed some clearly examples to state his points. In my opinion, I don’t really agree with him. Although it seems that internet had affected human in social interaction, I don’t think this is all internet’s fault. For some people, they are of few words and shy to speak. Internet gives them a chance to be a person, who they want to be and hard to be in reality; it gives people a chance to change themselves and practice. I think it is a kind of way to blend into social group and fit in. It is a good way to release pressures and make people to be honest. However, the more important thing is that relying on internet can easily lead to people distort personalities. That is why we have seen so many examples in a similar negative situation. I think it depends on different people’s self-control ability and ability of resolving truth and false mostly. Just as Robert Kraut and Vikki Lundermark concluded that people should to be responsible mostly for making themselves involve into the results that Internet may bring to human rather than Internet itself. In the article “Who Am We?”, which was written by Sherry Turkle, she listed many examples as Stoll did. Talking about how has the Internet changed the way we look at the self, she discussed, “Windows have become a powerful metaphor for thinking about the self as a multiple, distributed system, the self is no longer simple playing different roles in different settings at different times. The life practice of windows is that of a decentered self that exists in many worlds, that plays many roles at the same time…Now real life itself may be, just one more window” (Turkle p. 676). She thought for many people, the virtual world became as real as our daily life because they did almost everything on Internet, including studying, shopping, entertainment, even working and doing business. Internet had given people many benefits and gain in reality so it became closer and closer to users, at least no longer a world completely in mind. This thought made me interested in; to some extent, I agree and admit the advantages and changes of property of Internet. However, I feel sad about the people like Stewart, who was a college student Turkle had illustrated in her article. It was hardly for him to handle the problem of social interaction and fitting-in in the reality. The reason was he has two identities. In the illusory game world, he was Achilles. However, as Turkle puts it, “he let his MUD friends call him his real name because he wanted to feel that his real life existed between his persona and real identity; he wanted make MUD as a real part of his life”. Yet, that didn’t help him at all. “He still lived life in a small compass” (Turkle p. 680). Yes, compared what Turkle had said, Stewart was playing two different roles at the same time, however, it seems that was not a good thing. Different reactions in different worlds made his disposition become even more extreme. Different roles made him even more confused and lonely in life. Therefore, personally I don’t agree the author’s thought about “real life is just one more window”. I think that her opinion should be discussed in different groups of people and I believe that will make much more sense.
Personally, I won’t treat real life as just a window in virtual world because nowadays, facial expressions, body languages, face-to-face conversations and really participated in life what are ignored by humans are exactly more and more important. I enjoy go outside, drinking juice and chatting with my best friends; I enjoy travel, seeing beautiful scenery in nature; I enjoy find books that I want, spending a whole afternoon in library and so on. I won’t treat real life as a mere window and I think it is worth to hold my opinion rather than pay all my attention, relying on Internet.
the problem of networking
Congmin Liang
June 09,2010
Assignment #2
the problem of networking
More people can feel succeed when they at the virtual world, they can play many different kind of character and also they can have different experience when they doing something online. Play different character may let people have different experience, and they also can play a brand new character that they have never been in contact. The real life is means one of the characters that they play, if they don’t want play one of the characters they can stop it, but the real self cannot stop when they want. And also they won’t feel the harsh reality if the real life is one of the character that they play. For example, they will find someone in love as the real couple in real life, and they can let them dream come true that they may not make it happen at reality. That’s why people want to see the monitor and feel their “real life”. But I don’t think the real life is “just one more window” (Para .6). Because the real life cannot replace by other avatar, I don’t think the character that they play has the real feeling that they lives in the reality. I don’t agree with Turkle.For me, I prefer the Stoll‘s idea. We cannot spend our limited time on the internet staff. Nowadays, people lose their opportunities to contact others face to face; no matter who they want to contact with they usually send E-mails or messages to interaction, and phone calls. I prefer face to face contact between people, rather than networks. How can we keep our relationship with others using network? We just need to send them e-mails and messages, or chat with them online? Most people spend a lot of time online so that they cannot contact their friends and family, as Stoll said in “Isolated by the Interent”, “Hardly anyone’s going to tell a stranger on the phone, ‘Oh, I’ve lost friends because I spend too much time online’” (Para .16 Stoll). I think it is true, if you spend too much time online, you will lose more opportunities to get together with your friends. Maybe someone will say he or she has a lot of friends and he or she contact them online such as send them e-mails and messages, or make a phone call. But have you ever think if you are sick or feel lonely you really want someone to get together with you, but they just talk to you online as you do as usual. What are you feeling at that time? As Stoll puts, “Professor Mary Baker of Stanford reports that while she was expecting, she exchanged five e-mail messages a day with a friends across the country… a woman she’d never met. Yet e-mail pen pals can hardly provide the social support of a nearby friend or family member—if Professor Baker had to rush to the hospital, she could hardly get a ride from her e-mail friends” (Para .43, Stoll).
The online friendship may help someone who has some mental illness problems, or shy to communicant with others face to face. More people wanted to use the internet to contact others because they are too shy to face others. As Stoll puts, “In 1978, Dr. Zimbardo found that some 40 percent of undergraduates said, ‘I think of myself as shy.’ By 1988, this number had reached 45 percent. And by 1995, some 50 percent of undergrads saw themselves as shy; some research suggests that 60 percent of the population now suffers from shyness” (Para.19, Stoll). Even though those people are shy to face others the internet can help them to contact with people better than the reality, but it is just work on the shy people and who has mental illness problems. If other people spend too much time, they will confuse the real world and virtual world, and they will lost their opportunity to keep their friendship at the same time.The internet is stolen our real life, we will lose too much things because of the internet. As the end of “Isolated by the Internet”, Stoll said: “The opportunity cost is our time, and it is taken out of our individual lives and our very real neighborhoods. The time you spend behind the monitor could be spent facing another person across a table or across a tennis court” (Para .47, Stoll). We don’t need to spend too much our limited time on the internet so that we will lose our more important things and people, such as our friends and family.
June 09,2010
Assignment #2
the problem of networking
More people can feel succeed when they at the virtual world, they can play many different kind of character and also they can have different experience when they doing something online. Play different character may let people have different experience, and they also can play a brand new character that they have never been in contact. The real life is means one of the characters that they play, if they don’t want play one of the characters they can stop it, but the real self cannot stop when they want. And also they won’t feel the harsh reality if the real life is one of the character that they play. For example, they will find someone in love as the real couple in real life, and they can let them dream come true that they may not make it happen at reality. That’s why people want to see the monitor and feel their “real life”. But I don’t think the real life is “just one more window” (Para .6). Because the real life cannot replace by other avatar, I don’t think the character that they play has the real feeling that they lives in the reality. I don’t agree with Turkle.For me, I prefer the Stoll‘s idea. We cannot spend our limited time on the internet staff. Nowadays, people lose their opportunities to contact others face to face; no matter who they want to contact with they usually send E-mails or messages to interaction, and phone calls. I prefer face to face contact between people, rather than networks. How can we keep our relationship with others using network? We just need to send them e-mails and messages, or chat with them online? Most people spend a lot of time online so that they cannot contact their friends and family, as Stoll said in “Isolated by the Interent”, “Hardly anyone’s going to tell a stranger on the phone, ‘Oh, I’ve lost friends because I spend too much time online’” (Para .16 Stoll). I think it is true, if you spend too much time online, you will lose more opportunities to get together with your friends. Maybe someone will say he or she has a lot of friends and he or she contact them online such as send them e-mails and messages, or make a phone call. But have you ever think if you are sick or feel lonely you really want someone to get together with you, but they just talk to you online as you do as usual. What are you feeling at that time? As Stoll puts, “Professor Mary Baker of Stanford reports that while she was expecting, she exchanged five e-mail messages a day with a friends across the country… a woman she’d never met. Yet e-mail pen pals can hardly provide the social support of a nearby friend or family member—if Professor Baker had to rush to the hospital, she could hardly get a ride from her e-mail friends” (Para .43, Stoll).
The online friendship may help someone who has some mental illness problems, or shy to communicant with others face to face. More people wanted to use the internet to contact others because they are too shy to face others. As Stoll puts, “In 1978, Dr. Zimbardo found that some 40 percent of undergraduates said, ‘I think of myself as shy.’ By 1988, this number had reached 45 percent. And by 1995, some 50 percent of undergrads saw themselves as shy; some research suggests that 60 percent of the population now suffers from shyness” (Para.19, Stoll). Even though those people are shy to face others the internet can help them to contact with people better than the reality, but it is just work on the shy people and who has mental illness problems. If other people spend too much time, they will confuse the real world and virtual world, and they will lost their opportunity to keep their friendship at the same time.The internet is stolen our real life, we will lose too much things because of the internet. As the end of “Isolated by the Internet”, Stoll said: “The opportunity cost is our time, and it is taken out of our individual lives and our very real neighborhoods. The time you spend behind the monitor could be spent facing another person across a table or across a tennis court” (Para .47, Stoll). We don’t need to spend too much our limited time on the internet so that we will lose our more important things and people, such as our friends and family.
Internet: Use with Caution
The Internet is a very useful modern tool. It broadens horizons, shortens distances, educates, informs and supplies people with all kinds of experiences. However, the over-use of computers is a new social problem. The lack of human contact creates a population of depressive and lonesome individuals. Like most things, the Internet has a bright and a dark side. It all depends on the user. Computers are extremely positive when used properly and with moderation.
The Internet shrunk the world connecting people from one side to the other of the globe. One of the troubles of being an immigrant is that most of my family lives in another country. It is very hard to live abroad. I do not have immediate family or childhood friends around to support me. My computer, with a web cam and a built-in microphone, enables me to speak and see my parents as if we are sitting across the table from each another. Of course, I miss hugging my parents and friends but seeing them helps a lot with the feelings of loneliness. It made crossing an ocean feel like crossing the street.
Maybe because is so easy to “connect” online, people are refrain from doing it in person. Clifford Stoll in Isolated by the Internet claims that the Internet isolates and dehumanizes frequent users. Sherry Turkle in Who Am We encountered people like Stewart that created a “living environment suitable to his ideal self” in a fantasy Internet game called Multi-User Dungeons or MUD (Turkle, 680). Stewart’s loneliness and dependency on his artificial life confirms Stoll’s theory. However, Turkle also met people like Case, a married man that is currently playing a woman in a MUD. Case’s involvement with the character is bringing him some life lessons he would not have otherwise (Turkle, 683). Turkle also met Zoe that “credits MUDs with enabling her to reach a state of mind where she is better able to speak up for herself in her marriage.”(Turkle, 684) Zoe is playing a man on a MUD and benefiting from it. She is learning how to not feel “like a bitch” whenever she needs to be more aggressive and display authority.
Stoll claims that people who use the Internet lose valuable social skills. In Turkle research, she found out that it is not always the case. Stewart is an extreme case of withdraws from real life. He is twenty-three years old and the only girlfriend he has ever had was on a MUD. He claims being awkward around woman in real situations and this is an ability that he did not developed or lost. In the other hand, Case and Zoe are developing skills through life experiences they would never have if it were not for the MUDs. In short, Stoll’s arguments are not totally right but cannot be dismissed either.
Everything in excess is prejudicial. I never hear anyone talk badly about books. On the contrary, people usually say great things about those who like to read a lot. Yet, excessive reading could have been used to avoid real life in the days before TV and Internet. Plus, when a person reads a novel, just like in MUDs, he or she starts living vicariously through the characters. A novel book that I really enjoyed was Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I became so involved with the lives of the characters that I dreaded the end of the book. I missed Elizabeth, Jane and all other characters for weeks! Of course, the Internet took it to the next level. MUDs provide the possibility to create your own persona, situations and “interact” with other people. The moderate use of life simulation provided by the Internet could be a constructive exercise of creativity. I agree that the disproportionate reliance on the Internet is a problem but I do not believe that the Internet is “the problem.”
Mohandas Gandhi said, “Commonsense is the realized sense of proportion.” Even the most essential things in excess could be harmful. The Internet is wonderful. It has an unlimited amount of properties to use, people to “meet,” and information to research. So, it is easy to exaggerate and stay in front of the screen longer than what would be considered healthy. According to Stoll, psychologists started to evaluate the obsessive use of Internet as an addiction like alcoholism. Maybe there will be an epidemic of loneliness in the world. The cure for that needs to be taught by parents and in school: commonsense.
Window?
Yifan Zhao
English 102
Assignment #1
June 8th
Window?
I have been heard some people said that there are several parts of our life, not only just the part you live, but also includes the spiritual part, material part or something also. Just like Sherry Turkle mentioned in "Who Am We?" that there are multiple windows have been created through the use of computers, and it is possibility that real life is just one part of those windows. I think that thought is interesting and can be believed; however, I am not totally agreed with Turkle.
By the time I see the title of Clifford Stoll's article -- "Isolated by the internet", I was nod my head. I always believed what Stoll showed in "Isolated by the internet" which is internet have hindered our relationship with friends and families, and it affected our generation and next generation's ability to communicate. Because when we use online chat software, we do not need to face a person maybe we never meet before. We do not know what he or she looks like, or what his personality. Those things we do not need to consider about, the only thing we have to do is using your hand to type the letter about what you want to say to others. As Stoll put it:" Those weaned on computer communications won't learn basic social rules of conversation. How to interrupt. How to share time with another. How to speak to an audience. When to be quiet"(p. 651).
In addition, although some people meet many new friends by this way, but those friends are just your friends in the internet. When you have some problems in daily life, they just could say something to you, no the real sense of helping. Your real life friends and families are the people who could help you; however, because you are addicted in internet, you already lose them.
Furthermore, both of Stoll and Turkle use MUD player as an example. Both of them are found that MUD player have the different personality in real life and MUD life. For instance, Turkle wrote a boy named Steven. He is the best example of different personality between the real world and virtual world. In real life, Steven is unhappy, because he is low self-esteem. Shy and awkward around people, and he is uncomfortable around women and believes he des not fit in school. That his real life identity. On the other hand, In the MUD game, he described himself as a god. He is successful in a romantic relationship; there is something Steven has never done in real life. I have heard one of my friend said that most of online game player would like to found something, or becoming someone which he do not have in real life. I used to play online game, and I found what my friend said is exactly correct. Even Steven is the god in MUD, but he can do nothing without the game. If he gets an ill, he cannot cure in the game. He has to go to the hospital, and communicate with others by talking. Maybe he could make money in the game, but it is not enough to support his life. In that way, Turkle be likely to agree with Stoll that people who use the Internet lose valuable social skills. However, Turkle's research complicate Stoll's claim that the Internet isolates and dehumanizes frequent users.
In my opinion, I agree with Stoll. Although high technology brings many benefits to us, there do still exist many disadvantages. People have to learn how to distinguish which is real life and which is virtual life. Those two lives cannot exchange primary and secondary. So, I do not like viewing real life as a mere window in a virtual world. Real life is more important to people. And I totally understand that different people enjoy different things, like those people enjoy in online games. But I think they have to solve their real life problem first instead of hiding in the virtual world. Those things in virtual world can not replace real life or become real life.
English 102
Assignment #1
June 8th
Window?
I have been heard some people said that there are several parts of our life, not only just the part you live, but also includes the spiritual part, material part or something also. Just like Sherry Turkle mentioned in "Who Am We?" that there are multiple windows have been created through the use of computers, and it is possibility that real life is just one part of those windows. I think that thought is interesting and can be believed; however, I am not totally agreed with Turkle.
By the time I see the title of Clifford Stoll's article -- "Isolated by the internet", I was nod my head. I always believed what Stoll showed in "Isolated by the internet" which is internet have hindered our relationship with friends and families, and it affected our generation and next generation's ability to communicate. Because when we use online chat software, we do not need to face a person maybe we never meet before. We do not know what he or she looks like, or what his personality. Those things we do not need to consider about, the only thing we have to do is using your hand to type the letter about what you want to say to others. As Stoll put it:" Those weaned on computer communications won't learn basic social rules of conversation. How to interrupt. How to share time with another. How to speak to an audience. When to be quiet"(p. 651).
In addition, although some people meet many new friends by this way, but those friends are just your friends in the internet. When you have some problems in daily life, they just could say something to you, no the real sense of helping. Your real life friends and families are the people who could help you; however, because you are addicted in internet, you already lose them.
Furthermore, both of Stoll and Turkle use MUD player as an example. Both of them are found that MUD player have the different personality in real life and MUD life. For instance, Turkle wrote a boy named Steven. He is the best example of different personality between the real world and virtual world. In real life, Steven is unhappy, because he is low self-esteem. Shy and awkward around people, and he is uncomfortable around women and believes he des not fit in school. That his real life identity. On the other hand, In the MUD game, he described himself as a god. He is successful in a romantic relationship; there is something Steven has never done in real life. I have heard one of my friend said that most of online game player would like to found something, or becoming someone which he do not have in real life. I used to play online game, and I found what my friend said is exactly correct. Even Steven is the god in MUD, but he can do nothing without the game. If he gets an ill, he cannot cure in the game. He has to go to the hospital, and communicate with others by talking. Maybe he could make money in the game, but it is not enough to support his life. In that way, Turkle be likely to agree with Stoll that people who use the Internet lose valuable social skills. However, Turkle's research complicate Stoll's claim that the Internet isolates and dehumanizes frequent users.
In my opinion, I agree with Stoll. Although high technology brings many benefits to us, there do still exist many disadvantages. People have to learn how to distinguish which is real life and which is virtual life. Those two lives cannot exchange primary and secondary. So, I do not like viewing real life as a mere window in a virtual world. Real life is more important to people. And I totally understand that different people enjoy different things, like those people enjoy in online games. But I think they have to solve their real life problem first instead of hiding in the virtual world. Those things in virtual world can not replace real life or become real life.
The Dangers of The Internet
With the invention of the Internet the way we connect to others in their social world has changed forever. Internet brought us new ways of communication, learning and shopping. Now we can get to any part of the world with just a couple of clicks. The internet made our life in many cases so easy and much more convenient. But on the other hand, did it make it better? I doubt it. More and more people suffer from the bad influence of World Wide Web every day. There are serious negative long-term social affects, ranging from depression to loneliness (Stoll,648).
A lot of people claim that communication became more frequent in their lives as they don’t need to leave their houses to talk to friends or look for a romantic love in the bars and nightclubs. All you have to do is just open AIM or ICQ and all 100 friends of yours are there, waiting for your message. But obviously when the quantity grows the quality lowers. The overwhelming majority of online friendships aren’t deep (Stoll,650). You can’t replace face-to-face conversation with messages on the screen. There are no emotions, no real eye-contact оn the Internet. And without all these there is no real conversation. Indeed, Stoll pointed in his article “Isolated by the Internet” that by spending more time in a virtual reality we are losing social skills, and some ordinary situations become awkward to us.
The other thing that Internet gave us is the ability to create a separate virtual life, virtual identity. In the virtual life you can be whoever you want to be: a superman, or a super sexy model, or maybe a billionaire with a Bentley parked in a driveway. Sherry Turkle takes a closer look at the people leaving in a virtual reality. By using the examples from MUD – new kind of virtual parlor game and a new form of community (Turkle,677) she tries to find out how the Internet changes us, and creates multiple various identities.
Sherry introduces us to a couple of MUD players, and all of them feel more comfortable in a virtual life than in a real one. However, I think that we all need to escape from our real lives from time to time. But will you prefer to be a superman with a Bentley or just a regular worker from the factory? I think the answer is obvious. After some time spent in your imaginary dream-world you eventually get hooked. Especially teenagers who didn’t find themselves yet in the real life are more likely to be the victims of the beautiful virtual life. They fall in love with their dreams, become addicted to them (Turkle, 686). Like Stewart, Andrei and Zoe they succeed in a virtual world and fail in the real one. But if we have lost reality in the process, we shall have struck a poor bargain (Turkle, 686).
So the Internet has transformed our lives a lot. But together with all the good things, it brought a lot of negative factors into them as well. And right now people are so excited by a fast developing of the technologies that these factors have just being pulled aside and ignored. While this is not right, as if we don’t take care of it today, and don't find the balance between the virtual and real life, tomorrow maybe too late.
Assignment #2
Congmin Liang
June 09,2010
Assignment #2
June 09,2010
Assignment #2
the problem of networking
More people can feel succeed when they at the virtual world, they can play many different kind of character and also they can have different experience when they doing something online. Play different character may let people have different experience, and they also can play a brand new character that they have never been in contact. The real life is means one of the characters that they play, if they don’t want play one of the characters they can stop it, but the real self cannot stop when they want. And also they won’t feel the harsh reality if the real life is one of the character that they play. For example, they will find someone in love as the real couple in real life, and they can let them dream come true that they may not make it happen at reality. That’s why people want to see the monitor and feel their “real life”. But I don’t think the real life is “just one more window” (Para .6). Because the real life cannot replace by other avatar, I don’t think the character that they play has the real feeling that they lives in the reality. I don’t agree with Turkle.For me, I prefer the Stoll‘s idea. We cannot spend our limited time on the internet staff. Nowadays, people lose their opportunities to contact others face to face; no matter who they want to contact with they usually send E-mails or messages to interaction, and phone calls. I prefer face to face contact between people, rather than networks. How can we keep our relationship with others using network? We just need to send them e-mails and messages, or chat with them online? Most people spend a lot of time online so that they cannot contact their friends and family, as Stoll said in “Isolated by the Interent”, “Hardly anyone’s going to tell a stranger on the phone, ‘Oh, I’ve lost friends because I spend too much time online’” (Para .16 Stoll). I think it is true, if you spend too much time online, you will lose more opportunities to get together with your friends. Maybe someone will say he or she has a lot of friends and he or she contact them online such as send them e-mails and messages, or make a phone call. But have you ever think if you are sick or feel lonely you really want someone to get together with you, but they just talk to you online as you do as usual. What are you feeling at that time? As Stoll puts, “Professor Mary Baker of Stanford reports that while she was expecting, she exchanged five e-mail messages a day with a friends across the country… a woman she’d never met. Yet e-mail pen pals can hardly provide the social support of a nearby friend or family member—if Professor Baker had to rush to the hospital, she could hardly get a ride from her e-mail friends” (Para .43, Stoll). The online friendship may help someone who has some mental illness problems, or shy to communicant with others face to face. More people wanted to use the internet to contact others because they are too shy to face others. As Stoll puts, “In 1978, Dr. Zimbardo found that some 40 percent of undergraduates said, ‘I think of myself as shy.’ By 1988, this number had reached 45 percent. And by 1995, some 50 percent of undergrads saw themselves as shy; some research suggests that 60 percent of the population now suffers from shyness” (Para.19, Stoll). Even though those people are shy to face others the internet can help them to contact with people better than the reality, but it is just work on the shy people and who has mental illness problems. If other people spend too much time, they will confuse the real world and virtual world, and they will lost their opportunity to keep their friendship at the same time.
The internet is stolen our real life, we will lose too much things because of the internet. As the end of “Isolated by the Internet”, Stoll said: “The opportunity cost is our time, and it is taken out of our individual lives and our very real neighborhoods. The time you spend behind the monitor could be spent facing another person across a table or across a tennis court” (Para .47, Stoll). We don’t need to spend too much our limited time on the internet so that we will lose our more important things and people, such as our friends and family.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
This is my first time to have class blog. Previously, we just get information such as class notes, review materials and homework due day from professors' blogs. It is not so open.For this class blog, we can easily acquire information from different links. No matter waht time, you can choose what you are interested, learn new skills and improve English from here. It is not restricted by space and time. Furthermore, this way can help us keep in touch with classmates. Everyone is free to their own opinions. Through posting things on it, we are not so nervious to express ourselves like in class discussion. And then we can share others' thoughts and become more creative.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
This is class blog
I think having a class blog is very well. All the students in our class can post their assignments and comment others’. It is a useful way to make students communicate with classmates and share their feelings or thoughts. Compare with class discusses, blog has its own advantage—flexible. We can post any time. Except for connect with others, class blog also contains a lot of studying resources which will benefit for our reading and writing. There have a lot of reading resources; and I think the “Links to tutorials” is really a useful part to let us understand and know more things about academic writing and how to do research papers. Everyone should take advantage of class blog to practice and improve English.
TECHNOLOGY
Using blog is a high technologcial work. It is sameilar to the main theme for this course which is technology and how it affects our lives. Although using blog is not my first time, posting homework on the blog is my first time. I have a Chinese blog, but on that blog, I only post some pictures and mode. Also, this is my first English blog. I think this will be very interesting. One more thing is that we do not need to rush to school lab and print our paper in the early morning. The only thing we need is click the mouse on publish post, everything is sloved.
Advantages of using blog
This is my first class blog, and I think it is very interesting. Blog is a good chance to communicate with other classmates. Everybody thinks the same questions, but everyone doesn’t have the same opinion. Sometimes, it is totally different opinion. I think it is very useful to share ideas. Moreover, blog is very convenient to get connection with other classmates because everyone are busy and have their own schedule. Fianlly, I think blog is a good platform to understand other classmates better.
Benefit of blog
I like the class blog. It is make us covered in a big group. We would more convenient to connect for after class communication and far communication. Our speaking is not very good, we can write on blog to make other people understand. If shy to speak, we can write. Thus it has advantage to our process in writing. Then it would help us known the level of others and learn from them.
My First Ever Blog!
A class blog is a new experience to me. I love innovations and I feel very much up to the challenge of learning how to make the best of this kind of channel. I believe that the possibility of staying always in touch with the lectures and with classmate opinions will enrich the class debate. Also the informal format of a blog gives us the chance to express ourselves in a more sincere manner. We can only benefit from having an extra communication tool such as a blog. So I am very excited. Here it goes… my first ever blog!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Benefits of Having a Blog
I think that having a class blog will be a great addition to the lectures. First of all, it is a great way to express thoughts and ideas freely, with no fear that someone will not understand your accent. i think that especially for ESL class this is very important, as we don't speak "perfect" English and don't always feel comfortable to speak up in public. Second of all, blog is very flexible. We can discuss class materials and post follow-ups at any time of thе day, and it doesn't have to be as official as emails. You can always add personal touch to the look and feel of your blog.
So as a result of these two features listed above, blog will encourage students' interaction and will help to express thoughts and ideas freely.
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