The merging of online and offline

One interesting point I found through reading Lister this week is that our online and offline lives are becoming less separate from each other. On page 168 he suggests that cyberspace is not completely separate from our current social reality; rather it is part of it. There is an extremely complex interplay between our real lives and our online lives and the barrier between the two is very blurred. The upset caused by the story of Mr. Bungle, the therapist who masqueraded as a female online who turned out to be male offline, is evidence of this.

Sherry Turkle seems to reinforce this point (page 10, Who Am We?) as she warns that by dismissing events which happen online as unimportant as they aren’t real life, we are therefore not learning from them and the experience is worthless as it will not be applied to the real world. Therefore if not applied to the real world, experimenting with different online identities is a useless method of self-transformation.

I would have to agree, as although something may have only happened online, and not have any effect on my offline life, this does not mean that it does not cause the same amount of worry or stress as something offline would. Whilst it is tempting to say that it isn’t “real” and therefore shouldn’t matter however, experience has taught me that it is difficult to dismiss something merely because it is online and not in real life. The immediate example that springs to mind is the drama which I have seen created through someone changing their relationship status on Facebook.