Just Because People Are Online, It Doesn't Mean They're Virtual
from the seem-pretty-real-to-me dept
There's a new study out about how people online are making friends online -- which is hardly a surprising fact. However, where the reporting on it gets weird is that the press keeps referring to these relationships as "virtual" friendships, as if the people aren't real. The people are very real, and the friendships aren't "virtual" at all. It's just that the conversations are often kept up digitally. It's also weird to see quotes like: "More than a decade after the portals of the worldwide web opened to the public, we are now witnessing the true emergence of the internet as the powerful personal and social phenomenon we knew it would become." That's really a rewriting of history. The internet has always succeeded as a communications platform. Things like email, BBS's, IRC and Usenet were very much about the social aspect long before the web itself even came along. To claim that it's suddenly reached its potential is misleading. It's just that people are finally recognizing that the social and communications aspect is what the internet does well, instead of trying to force it into being a broadcast medium.
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That's just wrong
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Study states the bloody obvious
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This is the heart of the matter, really.
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Re: heart of the matter
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The Net lets one find 'like minded folk'.
It also favours those who are not be able to think of a pithyquip instantly since one can review and polish your reply.
As a result, the replies are thought out more carefully and are usually much more helpful.
What makes Google so special is that their page ranking - and this is the reason that Google works well, incorporating the human rating of what site has the most interesting information. It is this capturing of the 'human rating' which has made Google work. Why mention Google? Because it allows on to consult other experts and so provide more knowledgable answers. It make all the more true Newtons: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
When I 'Googled' this, I learned that quotation was first used much earlier. One more of Google's benefits. http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0162b.shtml
Two effects of the Internet not really appreciated are:
1. The speeding up of the transfer of knowledge.
2. The ability to tap the knowledge and intelligence of thousands of people in a few hours.
As we now look back 50 years at the 'stone age of science' [little computing power etc.], so in the 50 years time, others will reflect what a primative age WE lived in.
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What's Old is New
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www != internet
Remember that to a lot of people the web is the internet.
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Re: www != internet
there is no point in trying to say that port 80 deserves a special name.
To say that the delivery of the communications over one MEDIUM (html) is somehow more or less special than any other delivery mechanism is absurd. WWW= the web = the internet. Regardless of port.
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return www == internet?true:false;
Icabod is right, because for average human internet is the content accessible through the http-based GUI browser on port 80.
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virtual friends
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Consider dynamic content
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Hmmmm
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I don't get it either, but there ya go.
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mx is not quite right
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Re: mx is not quite right
www = world wide web
World wide = I'm not defining that.
Web = in this context its used to describe the relationship of a bunch of networked computers. They do NOT have to be only html serving computers, and that was NEVER the intended definition.
Saying that ( www = html servers ) is a perversion of its definition, and the reason "lay persons" tend to think it means any service delivered over the internet is because thats what makes the most sense when you look at the words and the real meaning of www.
To the folks that live in the real world, web = www = the internet. There is no reason in trying to pretend otherwise.
Many folks that work in IT tend to think of www as being their webservers only... but that is to their commmunicative detriment...
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And I have a quick comeback for anyone who opines that online relationships aren't "real" or are otherwise second-class: "email your boss a picture of yourself in the goatse.cx pose, and see how easily (s)he brushes it off."
And yes, it looks like "web" has taken on the meaning "the whole internet", which I suppose isn't a bad thing. It's awkward for us old sticks-in-the-mud, but lexically I'm okay with it. I tend to avoid the term entirely since it's ambiguous: When I mean the transport mechanism, I say "the internet" or "IP network", when I mean the flash-infested pages I say "html", and when I mean other things, I specify the protocol explicitly. When someone says "the web", I generally assume they mean "the internet".
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Journalism is Dead
But it will take decades for advertisers to realize that credibility comes from dedication, honesty and perception -- they only understand the 'WOW' factor; and that's what today's 'news' agencies are selling.
'Journalism is Dead' at MacBigot.blogspot.com ...
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