The Growth of CyberCulture

by Dave Paulsen

dave@reststop.net

Copyright© 1994, Dave Paulsen and ComputorLink Magazine

As we approach the new year and edge closer to the new millennium it becomes natural to wonder about where we’re heading on both personal and social levels. As the number of immigrants to the virtual frontier grows, a community has been homesteaded that has made CyberSpace larger than any single city in the world.

We are witnessing a cultural shift as it takes place, one that is fueled by the onset of the information age. Computer mediated communications, thanks to FidoNet and the Internet, has become bi-directional mass communication. Michael Strangelove, publisher of Internet Business Journal, says this will lead to “a new type of consciousness and a new type of self—the uncensored self.” (http://www.past.com/past/cyberspa/geoconsc.html)

With a connection to the Internet, which is available from almost anywhere in the world, a person can become a netizen in a community that crosses all cultural boundaries that have been known up to this point in history. Neither geography (where you’re from or actually are), physical presence (in person), nor appearance (sex, race, handicap, age) become a hindrance to becoming a member of this virtual, but still very real, community.

This is where the social paradigm shift starts becoming apparent, and its effect on a personal level. People are now empowered to be their own publisher, uncensored by state, and to receive information that is uncensored by the traditional gatekeepers of publishing and media.

This also points to an area where one of the failures of the current American education system may come back to haunt us. By not stressing (or even teaching with the standardized curriculums) critical thinking and analysis skills, it becomes difficult to act as one's own gatekeeper, to find the knowledge and pearls of wisdom in the mass of information that flows through the matrix of CyberSpace.

It is my hope and belief, however, that similar to the self-policing aspects of the net (the world’s only functioning anarchy), the bi-directional aspects of communications in CyberSpace will help develop and hone critical thinking and analysis skills. That people can now talk back, and receive further feedback on their ideas, helps the growth of knowledge in the refinement of ideas.

So don’t let yourself be led astray in the coming year by every little tidbit you run across while surfing CyberSpace. Take part in the conversations and see how others feel. With all the diversity, you’ll have a wide range of opinions to help in formulating your own opinions, plus abundant opportunities to present your own views.

Obligatory new.year net.prediction:

Cyberspace access gets faster and more graphical (duh :-). In an attempt to be scientific though, I’m basing this prediction on analytic and particapatory futurism techniques (http://www.past.com/past/soc/futurism.html). Here’s the input:

1.) While the Internet grows at about 10% per month in new domains and users, the graphical World Wide Web traffic grows at about 30% per month.
2.) MCI announces internetMCI. While initially aimed at business under networkMCI, check out http://www.mci.com/ to see if you get the feeling they’d be able (and just love) to offer IP to the home.
3.) America On-line (AOL) buys Advanced Network Services (ANS). ANS built the Internet’s T-3 backbone for the National Science Foundation. As soon as AOL figures out what they’re doing (so maybe it won’t come to pass this year :-) they could easily bypass PSI and Netcom in providing high-speed access to the Internet directly to the end-user.

Cool Sites:

WiReD magazine’s latest venture into alternative culture is their new Web site, http://www.hotwired.com/ and when you get there, just click on the new user button to register, which is free. The content is worth the effort to try to figure out how to get to it. The layout is visually appealing but navigationally confusing. I really like that on-line feedback is both available and browseable. Overall I give it 4 stars for content, 3 stars for layout, and 1 star for ease of use.