Interactivity!

By the term "Interactivity" I am referring to communication involving human beings, the way we communicate with other people and the way we communicate with computers to do it.
In my opinion there are two levels of communication. Level one is human-human or human-computer I would describe this as reactive. Level two is when this becomes interactive, this can possibly be described as human-computer-computer-human or maybe human to human through the use of computers. Interacting with computers is today a vital part of how we communicate to other people, for example text messages, emails or tweeting etc.

"Interactivity is the degree to which, in a communication process, each message is related to the previous messages exchanged" 

"Interactive, when a message is related to a number of previous messages and to the relationship between them"

(Rafaeli, 1988).

My understanding of this is that each 'message' is a communication e.g. pressing the right buttons to input text to a computer is one communication, posting this to a blog is another communication, reading text from a blog is also a communication, all the comments left about the blog are communications, responding to one or more of those comments, clicking the like button, posting a blog in response, video responses on Youtube, watching the video in the first place, the communications go on and on on! and they can all interact with eachother because of technology.

The internet or cyberspace or whatever you want to call it has made immersing yourself in media a much more interactive experience - social networking allows us to easily give feedback on everything from news to TV shows. For example on YouTube users can comment on videos, choose to 'like' or 'dislike' and even create and leave videos in response, you can air your views, leave your opinions and argue eachother's comments with a certain amount of anonymity. This anonymous feedback allows the producers of the videos to see what the public thinks and also get responses that are a lot more bluntly honest, allowing them the kind information they need to improve on future projects.

The gap between consumers and the producers is narrowing and crossing over, consumers can be producers as well as vice versa and can all comment, like or dislike eachothers uploaded content, we interact in a way that has never before been possible.
This interaction allows for producers to create videos, articles etc. that appeal to their target audience and can help make huge profits, which means that both the producer and consumer get what they're after.

However it can also lead to irrelevant, pointless or just plain stupid responses. Often offensive, ignorant or narrow minded comments are left usually for the sole purpose of getting a reaction without any real repercussion. I find these usually start a midly entertaining dialogue with insults thrown around and the original perpetrator's ignorance usually being called out and backed against by the majority of the other users leaving comments in response. The comments may even have simply been offensive or stereotypical jokes socially accepted amongst the users friends but that are generally taboo in our wider society.

However, when the producer is not a multimillion pound company but just a normal person writing a personal blog or uploading videos to Youtube, the things said are often hurtful, abusive and can cause more damage than perhaps intended. These are more often than not things people would never dream of saying in the world outside of the interactivity made possible by technology. But is that just the risk you take when you upload a video etc.? Is that a fair price to pay for interactivity?

The Effect of Cyberspace On Everyday Life

Its no secret that cyberspace is something a lot of people, particularly of my age, experience everyday of their lives.

Whether it be through Text messaging, Chat rooms, Facebook, Forums, Comment sections of websites, Blogs etc. it is something we interact with regularly.

Cyberspace is a great tool for easily communicating with people from wherever you or they may be. It has become a staple part of how we live our lives, with time often dedicated everyday just to the use of cyberspace. It is a brilliant way of getting back in touch with old friends and keeping contact with people you might otherwise not.

I feel cyberspace has had a profound impact on the way we live our lives, the internet has in many ways made our lives a lot easier. We can use it for research as its a source of information readily available from wherever we have a PC, phone or laptop etc.

We can use it to do our christmas shopping without ever leaving the comfort of our armchairs or to order pizza without even picking up a phone or to check our finances without going to the bank.

In many ways cyberspace is a good thing.

However it is a well known fact people say or do things in the online world that they wouldn't in the real world or face-to-face. I know there are things I could say to someone over a text message that I couldnt bring myself to say face-to-face. John Suler wrote an article called the Psychology of Cyberspace,in the article he talks about this he says: "In everyday relationships, people sometimes avert their eyes when discussing something personal and emotional. It's easier not to look into the other's face. Text communication offers a built-in opportunity to keep one's eyes averted." 

In the article Suler states that in cyberspace people "loosen up, feel more uninhibited, express themselves more openly". Experts refer to this as the "Disinhibition Effect". So in effect people can become more extreme versions of themselves without fear of retribution due to the often anonymous nature of cyberspace.

Suler talks about two types of Disinhibtion Benign and Toxic.

Benign disinhibition - "Sometimes people share very personal things about themselves. They reveal secret emotions, fears, wishes. Or they show unusual acts of kindness and generosity."


Toxic disinhibition - "Out spills rude language and harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats. Or people explore the dark underworld of the internet, places of pornography and violence, places they would never visit in the real world."

Benign disinhibiton suggests a person is trying to understand and explore their own personality, to work through their problems and attempt to find new ways of being. On the other hand Toxic disinhibition is often just a blinkered form of indulgence, "an acting out of unsavory needs and wishes without any personal growth at all."

People feel they can do or say things they wouldnt normally or visit websites they think they shouldn't because the people they come across in cyberspace don't know who they are. We can view or engage in things without anyone having ever known we were there, there's a sense of invisibility in cyberspace. Allowing us to explore things that in everyday life we wouldn't or couldn't.

In cyberspace we are anonymous. We can leave offensive or outlandish comments and get away with it. We can reveal something personal about ourselves but noone will know it was about us. This opens up the possibilities to seek advice without embarassment, and to find help and support or develop relationships more easily, as in cyberspace you can stop and think about you're responses and therefore don't have to deal with a person's response immediately as you would in face-to-face conversation. 

"In real life, it would be like saying something to someone, magically suspending time before that person can reply, and then returning to the conversation when you're willing and able to hear the response"

However this coupled with anonymity opens the door to 'Cyberbullying' the ability to get away with it means this is becoming more commonplace and can have a severe impact on the victim, particularly as the things said are often far more extreme, offensive and threatening than a bully would dream of saying in the real world.

Despite the dangers and the negatives, there's no getting away from the fact that people like to use cyberspace and in my opinion the positives still far outweigh the negatives. It could be said though that the use of cyberspace is going too far and becoming a much too dominant part of our everday lives and the worry is how far can it go??

Is History Important to Digital Culture??

The digital culture we have today owes everything to the history of the technology it utilises. To have an understanding of the past, how and why technologies were developed helps us to appreciate how and why we got to where we are today.
Without everything that came before would we have what we do today?
I don't think we would. History can give us a view of developments of the past, e.g. the birth of the internet, the invention of hypertext or the mouse. It constantly gives us new bases on which to build and push towards bigger and better technologies and ideas. It could be said that we shouldnt dwell on the past, but look to the future. In this sense having an understanding of the past may not be important. Only knowldege of what we have now and how it can be improved is important.
I don't agree with that view, I think a prime example against the view we should only look forward and disregard the past, is the 'touch screen'.
The touch screen is a technology we see almost everywhere now. We see them at information desks, shopping centre maps, in classrooms, at home and in the hands and pockets of the majority of the population in the UK. Someone ignoring the history would believe this was a new technology. However the people who developed it took a retrospective view on technology and would know it holds its roots strongly in the brainchild of Ivan Sutherland who in 1963 invented 'Sketchpad' a user interface widely agreed to be the predecessor to the modern day 'touch screen'. So the future of graphical user interfaces was a development of a technology over 50 years old, imagine if we had disregarded this as something of the past.....

History can also give us a view on problems and mistakes of the past. Because of this, history is important as it allows us to learn from what's gone before to help us both in the present and the future.
So is history important to digital culture? the simple answer is yes!