Reading Week #3 – Internet Intoxication Station

The first thing I saw when I opened this document was a comment that looked like it was in the opening cover, “This is a book to savour, not speed read”. This lead to me gaining speed in my reading, mainly because the person that made that comment set me a challenge. Anyway, it discusses the early days of the internet and the certain realisations that followed the newly created internet gadget of Instant Messaging. It was the story of a boy who messaged a girl in Colorado about a massacre that was going to take place the next day. The police ordered that the boy be taken in custody and find out what his intentions were. It ended up being a misunderstanding where he was only meant to be imitating an actor of this messaging device. Making him something much more than an amateur actor.

The idea that you can be anything / anyone you want to be on the internet is really quite scary. Its also kind of funny that in these early stages of internet and communication that these ideas weren’t really addressed until someone went and acted crazy on the internet.  Weinberger also breaks the internet down into 4 different segments, space, time, self and knowledge.

Space – A website is a ‘space that occupies no space’

Time – We determine how long we participate online depending on what suits us

Self – Unlike our ‘real world’ selves, online selves are ‘intermittent and most importantly written’

Knowledge – The web is a research tool, we are constantly learning when online

All this is very weird and exciting and i’m looking forward to witnessing the next outbreak in the online world that no one could have prepared for!