Internet Communities

I have been part of an online gaming community now for several years. I realize I should have picked a new community, but I feel the information and friendships that I've made inside this community is worth altering the assignment a bit.

Natural Selection is a first-person shooter game developed several years ago that pits futuristic human marines against varying lifeforms of the aliens. Players can choose to play either side, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. A typical game lasts 45 minutes.

I have been playing on the same game server for the last couple years. I have come to know a majority of the regulars that play there, and as such I have become one as well. The game is very team-based, so communication is essential with your teammates. The game employs text-based communication as well as voice communication. However, annoying players spam music and other soundfiles over the microphone, making communication difficult, luckily there is an option to mute by player.

Now because I've spent a lot of time over the years playing on this same server, I've come to know certain people. I've met people from the Netherlands, Bolivia, Australia, France, and Canada. I have even met a student from Oregon State University inside this server. He and I actually knew a lot of the same people too. One of the ways to get to know people is to earn their respect and not be a moron; anyone can talk trash over the Internet. The way I have done this is to pretty much be friendly to everyone. When the server is at capacity, there is about 30 people inside; and as soon as I join, a flood of "what's up reflex?" (my game handle) hits me. I typically say hi to 5-6 people every time I join; and people literally beg me to join their team and help them win. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but its important to know that I'm really good at this game. I was in the Top 10 best players out of ten thousand players on the server. When I get on a roll, say 250 kills and only 25 deaths, non-regulars start accusing me of cheating. Without even having to say a word, the regulars will stick up for me and trash talk the kid because they know I am a legit player. That is how I know I'm accepted by this community, when one person says something, ten people hop to my defense, and I just don't even respond to the original person, I don't give them the satisfaction of acknowledgment by me.

The reason this is important is because the server has a website for forum discussion. Many things that happen in game, from trivial arguments to gameplay mechanics are discussed in detail on their forums. So whereas the actual gameplay might be the field for short, meaningless conversations, its counter-balanced by the discussions on the forums. When I bring something up on the forums, the people that have seen me play and know me after years of talking with them, the players take my words with weight because they know, that I know what I'm talking about.

So while yes it is only a gaming community, and it may not have important world implications, it still reflects the attributes of a community of people that cares and respects the people who put the time in.

Influences

Choose two people that have had an influence on you. Write a letter to each thanking them for their contributions to your life. Write one in long-hand (you know, pen, paper, stamp, that kind of thing) and one via email. Think and write about how you chose which one to send the message via snail mail and which via email. Also, write about the differences in the language, length, tone, etc. Are there any differences? What kind of responses to you get?

I decided to write my long-hand letter to my mom, and the email to my dad. The reason being that my mom would appreciate the gesture of taking the time to write it; whereas my dad would appreciate it the same from either method.

My initial strands of thought hovered around why my mom would appreciate the snail mail version more than my dad. I think because women are seen as the more caring gender, they can better understand the time it took to write. With my dad, it's always truthful, I say what I mean and he takes my words with weight. There is no need to make a big deal of it, we both understand each other, it's just not how he and I are wired. So sending him an email version, he appreciates it just as much. He's a very business oriented kind of person, so say what needs to be said and be done with it.

With my mom I wrote more emotional filled information, and she usually likes to know what's going on in my day to day life, so I wrote about some of the current things going on in my life after thanking her. In my opinion, I actually think she would care more about what's going on in my life rather than to hear me her thank her. Not that she's ungrateful, it's just that I've already done this assignment a few times before, and I think she gets the point. Nonetheless, I wrote about how she has helped me in my life and thanking her for everything she has done.

In regards with the letter to my dad, it was fairly light and simple. Simple how I'm doing, what's going on, new things I've learned, thanking him(obviously) for what how he has contributed to my life. It was short, just a couple paragraphs.

I unfortunately didn't start this assignment early enough, and have not had time to receive a response. I expect that my mom will call me and thank me, ask about why I wrote it, and probably offer words of encouragement in my finals terms here at OSU. My dad more than likely will respond via email, simply because thats the form of contact I used to contact him.

Social Networking

I have been participating in social networking for several years. I have an account with Facebook, Myspace, and the now outdated XuQa. For period of several months, I was addicted to scouring profiles and checking up on people. I started off creating a profile among these three sites that reflected the person I wanted to be. We all know that first impressions are critical, and whether or not social networking is the initial mode of contact, it's still important to make a good impression.

A majority of people try to create a profile that reflects how they want to be seen by other people. I know both types of people, people that perfectly reflect their personality and character in their profiles; and the type of people that fill their profiles with garbage and unnecessary clutter because they think it helps express themselves.

I think that anyone can manipulate their social networking profiles to fit whatever persona they see fit. Think about it, how many times have you learned something about someone from their Facebook profile? All you need to do is spend some time carefully creating the illusion and you can become anyone online.

I think the fact that employers sometimes check out a potential employee's Facebook is completely a dumb idea. You HAVE to know the person to get a true sense of their Facebook page. It is so incredibly easy to "forge" a profile. You can make yourself out to be whoever you want. Why should employers consider a Facebook profile credible material in making a hiring decision?

I think the level of control you have over your profile makes it extremely easy to show whatever side of yourself that you want. For example, you can show only your "Information" to unknown friends, only show photos to friends, or completely disable parts of your profile to everyone. The level of control makes it a great system. When people aren't smart enough or motivated enough to comb through their profile and make sure that it is set up in a professional manner, they are only hurting themselves.

I don't think there is any issue or problems whatsoever with social networking. I believe its up to the users to fix any problems they have with it; because quite frankly there is no excuse for people to have problems with such methods of communication.

WALL-e

Well I watched WALL-e for the second time so I could have a fresher view of the movie. After watching this movie with a critical eye, I noticed many complex social structures taking place.

The robots in this movie take on the traits of a human persona, but they are severely limited in their communication. They use non-verbal communication much more than oral communication. I'd estimate a total of six "English" words are said throughout the movie by the robots. However, this doesn't detract from the understanding of the messages being transmitted. For example, when WALLe brings EVE to his home, he shows her his trinkets he's collected over the years, he performs a dance for her, and he tries to hold her hand. Many things are being communicated but not said.

I think something to take from this is how the most basic messages can be understood universally. It makes sense that any advanced civilization that has the capacity for cybercommunication, would have a social structure. As part of that social structure, I'm sure the concept of sharing or giving is present. If so, the physical action of passing an object to someone can be universally defined. It would be prudent then to theorize that there are messages that can be communicated without the presence of language. Of course then you could argue the definition of language and its scope, but that falls into a grey area.

Another interesting area to comment on is the deteroiation of the English language by the Axiom crew. The Captain of the Axiom spent a large amount of time learning simple words he had never heard before, such as Dancing or Farming. The entire culture aboard the ship promotes minimalized human interactions. Not until they were knocked out of their seats did they see the people around them. Even later in the movie, it's referenced that some people didn't even know they had a swimming pool. The inhabitants of the ship rely on cybercommunication for everything. It leads their lives for them. People were no longer using techonology as a productivity booster; instead it had turned into a fantasy land in which to retreat from everyday responsibilities.

There are some pro's to this advanced technology. The Axiom is supremely organized and efficient with it's powergrid "lanes" present throughout the ship. Everyday civil service jobs are fuflfilled by robots, allowing a "motivated" society to perform efficiently in a fast-paced environment.

Overall a decent movie, and an interesting take on a possible future reality.

Internet Abstinence

I was inadvertently thrown into this assignment when I moved houses, and we were a bit lazy with setting up our new utilities. Needless to say, we were without Internet for SIX days. I am a very "techie" person, and to be without the constant connection to everything, was very disconcerting. I never realized how much the Internet was ingrained into my everyday patterns. The very first thing I do when I wake up is go to my computer, open Pandora, check email, and browse CNN.com. Not being able to do my morning ritual was extremely frustrating, I felt out of touch all day long. Of course, Michael Jackson decides to die on one of the days I don't have Internet, so I can't confirm the text from a friend. I was so lost without Internet that I didn't even know the name of the local gas company to call and start service. But how would I call them? I don't have Internet so I can't look them up, and I'm positive we don't have a phone book, I was straight up lost. Over the course of six days, I went to the library once to use their Internet, and that was to see what the assignment was due for the first week. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was to go without Internet for a day. How about a week! I literally was so bored, I had nothing to do other than to keep moving stuff from our old house. Luckily, that took up about 25 hours of my time, so I was relatively busy. In my downtime, I tried watching movies on my computer, but it's never fun to see the same movie more than once. I had brought some books from home and decided to reread one. Or two. Working on the third book now. I read the first two books in one day, almost in one sitting. I found suddenly that I had much more time to spend reading. I guess I didn't realize how much time I spent reading random articles online and wasting time surfing the web. I don't think it's time wasted however, I'm learning more than I would reading a book. I love stumbling upon articles about quantum mechanics and black holes and string theory, the large and grand cosmic scale of these phenomenon just blow me away. Not having access to articles is extremely frustrating. I don't even want to talk about Facebook, I've already gotten over that addiction and found it just barely frustrating. Mainly because I have my Facebook "notifications" sent to my iPhone, so I can keep up to date. I think the biggest thing I learned by taking this Internet ciesta has been how much I rely on the Internet for information. My car wouldn't start because the battery was drained (by a drunken Tyler fidiling with the overhead dome light trying to find a piece of paper) and but had just enough juice to let the alarm go off for 15 minutes. I had a couple guesses why it wouldn't start, but I couldn't even look on the Internet to validate any of my theories. So in retrospect, the Internet is definitely an integral part of who I am, and it has transparently shaped my life in many ways that I can only just now see.