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.