Digital Mythologies: The Hidden Complexities of the InternetRutgers University Press, 2000 - 219 páginas Surf the web. Ride the information highway. Log on to the future. Corporate ad campaigns like these have become pervasive in the 1990s. You're either online, or you're falling behind the times-at least, that's what the media tells us. Ever since the 1990s, when the Internet gained widespread popularity, it has been heralded as one of the best things ever to happen to technology and communications. Commentators expected it to revolutionize how we communicate, do business, and educate our children. Conversely, other pundits have vehemently attacked this technology. Naysayers of "cyberlife" emerged with their warnings of how the Net provides an uncensored, round-the-clock venue for pornography, for inaccurate, simplified information, and is rife with opportunities to violate our right to privacy. In Digital Mythologies, Thomas Valovic hopes to raise the level of discussion by giving a full and balanced picture of how the Net affects our lives. Digital Mythologies, a collection of Valovic's essays, asks hard questions about where computer and communications technology is taking us. Through anecdotes drawn from his experiences as former editor-in-chief of Telecommunications magazine, the author gives readers an insider's peek behind the scenes of the Internet industry. He explores the underlying social and political implications of the Internet and its associated technologies, based on his contention that the cyberspace experience is far more complex than is commonly assumed. Valovic explores these hidden complexities, and points to fascinating connections between the Internet and our contemporary culture. |
Índice
Breaking the News about the Internet | 4 |
Crossing the Virtual Threshold | 11 |
The Internet versus | 22 |
The Evolutionary Implications of the Internet | 33 |
Virtual Nightmares | 41 |
Power Cocooning for Fun and Profit | 47 |
A Challenge for Human Productivity? | 54 |
The Electronic Agora and the Death of History | 60 |
The Ever Popular Cocktail Party Effect | 114 |
A Reality Check | 121 |
Digital Culture | 133 |
Random Thoughts on the Defining Works of Cyberculture | 147 |
Tossing Out the Rules | 156 |
Technocracy in the Making? | 166 |
Science Culture and the Internet | 177 |
The Cybersomething That Lies | 187 |
Electronic Mediation and Technological Dependency | 71 |
Massive System Vulnerability | 81 |
The Complexities of Role and Identity in Cyberspace | 88 |
Spin Doctors Invade NetFilm at Eleven | 96 |
The Strange Obscurantism of the Virtual World | 107 |
The Paradox of Decentralization | 197 |
Science Spirituality and the Crisis of Epistemology | 205 |
Notes | 213 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todo
Digital Mythologies: The Hidden Complexities of the Internet Thomas Valovic Vista previa restringida - 1999 |
Digital Mythologies: The Hidden Complexities of the Internet Thomas Valovic Vista previa restringida - 1999 |
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Referencias a este libro
Cyberprotest: New Media, Citizens, and Social Movements Wim B. H. J. van de Donk No hay ninguna vista previa disponible - 2004 |