Sunday, 15 February 2009
Week 4: Lister D
Net users can easily become producers of different cultures, especially when you consider the ideas of virtual communities. Various people from all around the world can discuss issues and opinions online and collect an amount of feedback. These opinions can be accessed easily by anyone. By having this free expression you can almost say that people are able to create their own kind of culture rather than having to go along with others which they may not completely agree with. However, where do these ‘new cultures’ come from?? Can they be spontaneously thought of from scratch or do they take on characteristics from other cultures? Any opinions guys, I feel this question is a great one to discuss!
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When it comes to the internet, there is so much information available to users. I agree that this topic is a good one to discuss, because it has to be asked whether people are creating cultures spontaneously or are they influenced by existing cultures. It would be easy to be influenced and manipulated from reading what others have written on the internet because they are expressing their opinions in order to influence others. People can obviously instinctively create their own ideas, but is it after being partially influenced, even sub-consciously by others?
ReplyDeleteSubcultures abound on the Inet, but you might ask another question? If it's now easy to set up a 'settlement' on anything (cigarette butt collection?). Does that defuse the potential for it to break-through? Leaving only the 'subcultures' that are in-line with dominant social tendencies to make lasting changes to the parent culture?
ReplyDeleteWould punk have had such a lasting effect if it had been carried out online and in small clubs, rather than on TV and in the High Streets? Would online fanzines only have been read by the already converted? Would it have shocked politicians and disc-jockeys alike? Somehow I doubt it. Online is a strangely secret-public & safe-dangerous space isn't it? It's easy for online effects to seem enough -"What happens in cyberspace stays in cyberspace" (well not quite -but there's an aspect that's a bit like that isn't there?; or is it me?).