Page 80 - Cyberculture and New Media

Mahmoud Eid 71
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Cyberspace is a global network of computers, linked through
communications infrastructure that facilitates interaction between remote
actors. Cyberspace is hardware and software, and it is images and ideas;
these are inseparable. Cyberspace can be divided generally into three
domains: the Internet, intranets and virtual reality. The Internet is a vast
collection of computers linked to networks within larger networks spanning
the globe. It is a huge, anarchic, self-organizing and relatively un-policed
system, which allows unlimited access to other connected people, and the
information stored on public databases and computer sites. The Internet
consists of several separate but interconnected networked spaces, each
consisting of thousands of individual networks. These spaces are all linked
through common communication protocols (i.e., ways of exchanging
information). Intranets have the same general architectural form as the
Internet, allowing the transfer of multimedia data, but are private, corporate
networks linking the offices, production sites, and distribution sites of a
particular company or group of linked institutions around the world. These
are closed networks; using specific lines leased from telecommunications
providers, with no, or very limited, public access to files. Virtual reality
technologies partially or totally immerse users in an interactive, visual,
artificial, computer-generated environment. Instead of being spectators
watching a static screen, users participate in an environment that responds.
Virtual reality has three essential components: it is inclusive; it is
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interactive; and the interaction is in real time.
Through social interaction in the electronic environment of
cyberspace, a new kind of culture has developed, referred to as
“cyberculture.” The concept of cyberculture refers to the unique culture
associated with computer-mediated communication (CMC) and online
interaction. This includes the emergence of special forms of language and
symbols, and the development of rituals, conventions, norms, and rules of
conduct for CMC. Cyberspace technologies not only constitute a site for new
cultural formations, but also affect pre-existing elements of culture, situated
in other kinds of spaces; more and more, we are likely to find mainstream
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culture mimicking cyberculture in a variety of ways.
Given that cyberspace provides new kinds of human interactions
that do not always fit with non-cyber interactions and that require a new,
broader perspective on what constitutes reality, the very existence of
cyberspace necessitates a re-definition of human values and assumptions
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about people’s moral perspectives. Human values and assumptions are part
of the cultural context we live in. Therefore, Bell argues that “setting up a
distinction between cyberspace and cyberculture is a false dichotomy”
because “cyberspace is always cyberculture, in that we cannot separate
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cyberspace from its cultural contexts.”