Love Online and Village Phone Shirky
Love Online is an article written by
Henry Jenkins which starts off talking about his son meeting his online girlfriend for the first time. Using his son as an example representing all of the youth that’s online dating these days and the effect the internet has on teens. The second article we were to read is called Village Phone Shirky written by Clay Shirky. He starts off the chapter about Ivanna, a woman who leaves her phone and a 16-year old girl name Sasha stole it, unwilling to give it back to Ivanna. Ivanna’s friend, Evan Guttman is called to help out with tracking down her lost phone, and eventually Sasha gets taken to court and the phone is finally returned.
Technology brings people together from all over the world, creating this new group-formation that we’re not able to do. It allows us to connect with people in ways we wouldn’t have been able to outside of our physical boundaries. We are able to reach people instantly in the same interest categories. We can’t just post things just anywhere on the web and expect the same results. Much like Evan did, he sought for help in the right areas of the internet, a place where people are willing to stop and check out what he has to say about helping his friend save 300 dollars. This allows for people with similar interests or connections or even just the general public to be able to help Evan if he wanted to. But this also allowed for Evan to be open for attack from people that supported Sasha. Since Evan was able to catch the attention of so many people, news spread super quickly not only locally but outside of that too.
When Shirky brings in Tom O’Reilly’s concept of “architecture of participation,” the idea is that we have all of these technological items that allow us to communicate to one another and give us the opportunity to take part in things we’re interesting in. Just like how Evan uses the web to reach out, asking for support and gaining help from people who are willing to give their time and effort to retrieve the phone back. In Love Online, this concept shows in how we’re able to connect to people and share intimate feelings with them even if it’s online. The development of bonds through the net happens because we’re able to share information about ourselves and learn to
If Evan were to only make calls and do things the old-fashioned way of communicating out to others, he would have probably never find out the information he did about Sasha if he hadn’t looked online, and never fain the amount of support to put enough pressure on the police. He changed the way he communicated and that’s how he built the support base that he did, fighting alongside people with similar principles and beliefs that they’re doing something altogether for justice. For Evan, it wasn’t about getting the $300 phone back, it was more the fact that he wanted to fight for justice, and to fight that theft is wrong no matter how little or big, and I feel that’s what drove him to fight so far and deep to win. As for Love Online, we are open to more variety of people and it becomes easier to get in touch with those that are interested in what you’re interested and go from there. Jenkin described his son’s behavior online nothing new compared to what we’ve been doing all these decades: writing love letters. Except this time, we didn’t have to had seen them in person first. We can just communicate directly to people and build that bond of love interest using the same concept of writing love letters to one another. Finding the time to spend calling each other and figuring out a way to one day meet one another. Because of the evolution of communication technologies, we are able to make these kinds of love relationships over the internet simply because a person’s way of writing to you and the way they’re portraying their character attracts you. You become addicted to who they are and uncovering their mysteries, sending photos and hearing each other’s voice. Now even video calling. We’re able to feel a deep connection with someone miles away even if we haven’t physically met them. And when the time does come, it’s as if you’ve known them for so long, that it’s a complete and utter joy. A relationship online may be harder in the sense that the two might not be able to see each other in person all the time, but it’s all about trusting the other person and loving them for who they are and how they’re able to attract you by just their personality alone.
I think whether online or face to face, communication is the same no matter what platform, program or interface. We need to trust even if it means we’re risking in order to grow a community and build a bond between people. Risk happens in everything that we do, and I think the risk percentages hardly differs from an online person to a person face to face. Of course it’s smart to take a little bit more caution and I’m sure building that bond takes longer online, but asking why we trust is going to have the same answer as to why we trust a person in general. A society cannot be built if no one trusted each other. We already have a natural foundation of trust from person to person, and that’s how we are able to collaborate and work together. That’s why we walk down the streets, trusting that whoever comes near us won’t suddenly attack us. We drive around, trusting that everyone would follow the road rules. We connect and communicate with people online, trusting that what they’re sharing about themselves are true. All of this, unless proven otherwise.
We share information to achieve a goal whether it be for self-confirmation, to spread news, raise awareness, or to stay in contact with friends and family. Naturally as humans, we are biologically social animals and so with the use of technologies and interconnecting with other through the internet, we our ability to socialize has spread globally. This creates for opportunities to network your name out there for better possibilities of jobs and advertising of one-self. This is also used to express yourself online and share your opinions, to get your voice out there and be heard.
Important lessons I’ve learned is if we’re provided the opportunity to interconnect with people online, we should because it gives us greater power to make a difference. With more people aware and the support numbers growing, naturally we’ll be able to change whatever it is we feel passionate about. I feel this is a repeating lesson throughout Village Phone Shirky. A lesson I learned in Love Online was just seeing how nothing’s too different from writing love letters in the past to now communicating through the internet towards our interested ones. It’s all a bond made solely by trust and faith, and I think a relationship like that is a beautiful one. Communication technologies has definitely opened up so many opportunities for us to get involved directly with people all over the world instantly.