The Virtual Neighborhood and Its Social Implications :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

The Virtual Neighborhood and Its Social ImplicationsMy own feelings about the virtual neighborhood fall somewhere in between those of Jim Dewer and David Noble. I will real briefly make an attempt to sketch out some boundary lines and vex myself therein.I distinguish twain sides of the issue. One is the concept itself and the other is the proposed list of uses. Admittedly, the two of these are related. The ConceptFirst of all, the virtual neighborhood is no real neighborhood and we need to reverse being unduly convinced by a allegory which is just that, a metaphor, of limited use. A virtual promise is no real promise. A virtual promise does not hold up in court where contracts have to be demonstrable, e.g., in writing. The word virtual means something idealized by labor and not real(a)ized. Calling the Internet a virtual neighborhood is making a claim that we disregard re-create a familiar experience by projection into an enormous ideal electronic experience.Second, let us not forget to check to see whether a metaphor is appropriate. Just because it is a metaphor is no reason to believe it is a useful metaphor --- that is, a noble falsehood. Does the idea of a virtual neighborhood have some brilliance? If we stretch the neighborhood all the way around the world, what features of it can we justifiably expect to carry over into the virtual reality of the metaphor? And what wont stretch? Clearly, actual visualization, moment-by-moment multiple perception, and direction recognition/identification -- essential features of truly human contact -- dont stretch across this medium. We dont get to watch a someones body language. Is the person uneasy? Confident? Intimacy is something that also belongs to most neighborhoods but doesnt travel well. For one thing, the network is too narrow a channel and its set up for too much speed. Neighborhoods develop because we watch each others kids grow up and we borrow each others lawn mowers. And finally, I do not believe th at commitment is something well find in the virtual neighborhood. When my virtual neighbors URL burns down, will I be there with my bucket of fiberoptic?A neighborhood is something complex, something rich. Saying that we can re-create a neighborhood virtually across incredible distances and through a very limited medium has to be, in some real sense, very audacious. This is especially the case, I think, when we claim that intimacy can move without alteration across this medium.