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Tiera Davis
English 114B
Wafa-Azeem
March 13, 2015
Introducing Cyber Space
Throughout the past years many people in our society feel technology has changed our
conception of personal space as a whole, but I believe it has only introduced a new personal
space to us. The new personal space that I speak of is cyber space, which was created from the
internet of which technology came from. Personal space is the region surrounding a person
which they regard as psychologically theirs. I’ve noticed People’s concept of space has changed
over the past. We knew of only one space, but now we see that there is a new space (cyber
space). Cyber space is considered a sub category of our personal space; it is just another level of
intimacy. Cyber Space has made it become easier for some people to be themselves, keep in
contact with old friends and family, and make new connections thanks to technology.
With the new technology we now have social networks. A social network is just a
cyberspace to talk to friends and family, post pictures, and let everyone know what you’re up to.
One of the more popular social networks right now is Snapchat. It’s an app that you can get on
your smart phone, it allows you to post pictures and videos, but the people on your friends list
can only see it once and only up to ten seconds. This social cite has really helped me keep in
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contact with my friends and family while seeing what they have been up to. Although, I can only
see whatever they record, I still feel like I’m a part of their lives even when I’m so far. Where in
the past, before we had technology I would have had to make a phone call and hear about the
things they’ve been up to instead of being able to see for myself. Being able to actually see what
my friends/family members are up to makes me feel more connected to the important people in
my life because sometimes I do start to miss them.
I have one best friend and she lives pretty far from me, but social networks like Facebook
allows us to stay connected. Facebook is another social network that allows communication
between friends and family. You can also meet new people by looking at different people’s
profiles and seeing what mutual friends you have, if you’re from the same area, and/or went to
the same school. I read an article, “Faux Friendships,” by William Deresiewicz he went on to
explain, “the image of the one true friend, a soul mate rare to find but dearly beloved, has
completely disappeared from our culture” (51). Yes we do have many people listed on our
friends list, but there really mostly considered acquaintances. Like maybe we went to the same
school and had classes with each other so we decided to share our profile with one another. As
for not having true friends that you can discuss everything with I do believe that’s a problem for
some people and it’s not because of any social networks, but since I do have one true friend, how
could it have disappeared from our culture completely? He blames technology for his claim, but
in reality technology only helps us keep our bonds strong.
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William isn’t totally wrong though. It is rare to find that one true friend that will stick
with you through thick and thin, but that’s not because of cyber space. Even before cyber space
it was hard to find one true friend. Social networks connects us to billions of other people that
we can find and make connections with. With us being connected to so many people it should
make it more common to find something like that. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a
friend is considered, “a person with whom one has developed a close and informal relationship
of mutual trust and intimacy” (Oxford English Dictionary). Facebook has helped some people
get even closer online than they would have gotten in person because we are able to see one
another’s interests, likes, and dislikes to compare them to our own making us friends in some
sort of way.
Not only have our bonds grew stronger, but we are able to find new people to create new
bonds with. In the article, “Public Displays of Connections,” by Donath she explained how we
find the people we need through the people we trust (29). This is absolutely true. The social
network Facebook shows all the mutual friends we have with one another and with that we can
see if those people would want to be our friends. When we click on these other people’s pages it
is an instant connection with our personal space without us even knowing so. Everything we do
play a part of our personal space because everything we do we are doing so psychologically;
which therefore, makes it ours. It’s amazing how technology has advanced so much that we
don’t even think about the things that we are doing online does play a huge part in our personal
space.
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With technology and cyber space, shy people are now able to meet people without all the
anxiety and stress of wondering if the person will like them or not. Our online identity seem to
be more confident or at least gives us the “ok” to be whoever we are/want to be. In an article
written by Nathan Root, “Homeless Man in D.C Uses Facebook, Social Media to Advocate for
Others Like him,” the article is basically about a homeless man that advocates on social media
for other homeless people. This homeless man gets over 500 views each day. Cyber space has
given this less than ordinary man a way out of his world that most people would think of as
horrible. Instead of being lazy all day, begging people for money he found something he could
call his own and make his voice effective for change; which I think is amazing. If this man was
trying to advocate for the homeless on the streets then it wouldn’t be as effective because when a
person is online they can make themselves a person that everyone will follow and like. It is a
huge difference from only seeing the homeless man from cyber space than in the real world, but
both is still considered his personal space. If we didn’t have technology then we wouldn’t have
cyber space; which could mean this man’s voice would not be heard by as many people that are
hearing him speak. So he would be missing out on a very important piece of his personal space,
which could change his entire persona.
Over the years every time “we” humans see change we see it as a bad thing. Of course
there are some bad things about cyber space like the fact that it is easier to bully someone and to
pretend to be someone you aren’t, but there are a large amount of good things that come from
cyber space as I mentioned before. Everything in this world has good and bad to it, so why do
people like to single out cyber space like it’s this horrible thing? There are far more positive
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attributes than negatives ones. In my personal experience cyber space as a whole has been a huge
impact in my life. So I would consider cyber space to be the biggest sub category in my entire
personal space, and I believe this would apply to many others. Especially the digital natives
because technology has been in our lives since we knew how to walk and talk. For most of us a
computer is more familiar than writing letters or even reading books, at least that’s how it is with
most of the people I know that are in my age group.
Since cyber space has played such a huge part in our lives it’s hard to see life without it
because it’s such a big part of us. Just like if any of our other personal spaces were destroyed
like a close friend dying then it would change our personal space forever or at least alter it a tiny
bit. Even when my phone only dies I start to freak out because a piece of my personal space is
temporarily gone. So, I could only imagine what would happen if it was taken away completely.
When I think back on what personal space really is I think of it as anything we can call our own.
This can range from cyber space all the way to what we think or where we live. I consider cyber
space as ours because it has all of information like our age, name, previous schools, likes,
dislikes, interests, friends, and family members.
Works Cited
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Boyd, Donath. “Excerpt From Public Displays of Connection.” 29
Deresiewicz, William. “Faux Friendship.” 47-60