My so-called life on the web

✍ Scribed by William Jones; Marcia J. Bates; Allison Brueckner; Gary Marchionini; Cathy Marshall

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 22 KB
• Volume: 45
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-7870
• DOI: 10.1002/meet.2008.1450450110

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The Web or, more generally, the Internet, is the conduit for an increasingly large proportion of the information we use in order to make sense of and effect change in the world around us. Consider these examples:

A college student stays up through the night playing a MUDD (multi‐user dungeons & dragons) game with other gamers from around the world.

A teenager leaves the family dinner table to spend the rest of the evening away from family and on the computer surfing the web and other (ostensible) teen's pages on MySpace while simultaneously involved in six different IM conversations.

The middle‐aged man borrows time throughout his work day to work on several different blogs ‐ making additions to his own and comments to others. He gets recognition and affirmation through these interactions that he does not get through interactions in his physical world.