Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Community and Technology

257 Pages·1998·14.102 MB·English

by  Steven Jones

CYBERSOCIETY
2.0
NEW MEDIA CULTURES
Series Editor: Steve Jones
New Media Cultures critically examines emerging social formations
arising from and surrounding new technologies of communication. It
focuses on the processes, products, and narratives that intersect with these
technologies. An emphasis of the series is on the Internet and computer-
mediated communication, particularly as those technologies are impli-
cated in the relationships among individuals, social groups, modern and
postmodern ways of knowing, and public and private life. Books in the
series demonstrate interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological
analyses, and highlight the relevance of intertwining history, theory, lived
experience, and critical study to provide an understanding of new media
and contemporary culture.
Books in this series . . .
Exploring Technology and Social Space /. Macgregor Wise
CyberSociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication
and Community edited by Steven G. Jones
CYBERSOCIETY
2
f} Revisiting Computer-Mediated
. \J Communication and Community
Steven G. Jones
Editor
NEW MEDIA
CULTURES
SAGE Publications
<§
International Educational and Professional Publisher
Thousand Oaks London New Delhi
Copyright © 1998 by Sage Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher.
For information:
SAGE Publications, Inc.
<t>
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E-mail: [email protected]
SAGE Publications Ltd.
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Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Main entry under title:
CyberSociety 2.0: Revisiting computer-mediated communication and
community / edited by Steven G. Jones.
p. cm. — (New media cultures; v. 2)
Rev. ed. of: CyberSociety. cl995.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7619-1461-7 (cloth : acid-free paper)
ISBN 0-7619-1462-5 (pbk.: acid-free paper)
1. Computer networks—Social aspects. 2. Communication. 3.
Computers and civilization. I. Jones, Steve, 1961-
II. CyberSociety. HI. Title: CyberSociety two point zero IV. Series.
TK5105.5 .C917 1998
303.48'33-<idc21 98-8984
00 01 02 03 8 7 6 5 4
Acquiring Editor: Margaret H. Seawell
Editorial Assistant: Renee Piernot
Production Editor: Astrid Virding
Editorial Assistant: Nevair Kebakian
Typesetter/Designer: Rose Tylak
Cover Designer: Ravi Balasuriya
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction xi
Steven G. Jones
1. Information, Internet, and Community: Notes Toward an
Understanding of Community in the Information Age 1
Steven G. Jones
2. The Emergence of On-Line Community 35
Nancy K. Baym
3. Designing Genres for New Media: Social,
Economic, and Political Contexts 69
Philip E. Agre
4. Feminist Fictions of Future Technology 100
Cheris Kramarae
5. Text as Mask: Gender, Play, and
Performance on the Internet 129
Brenda Danet
6. Dating on the Net: Teens and
the Rise of "Pure" Relationships 159
Lynn Schofield Clark
7. Virtual Ethnicity: Tribal Identity in an Age of Global
Communications 184
Mark Poster
8. Dissolution and Fragmentation: Problems in On-Line
Communities 212
Beth Kolko and Elizabeth Reid
Index 231
About the Contributors
Preface
To paraphrase Ted Peterson's introduction to the revised
edition of his book Magazines in the Twentieth Century,
almost as soon as this book's predecessor, CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated
Communication and Community, first appeared, netizens, software devel-
opers, hardware manufacturers, social scientists, social critics, and social
activists set about making it out of date. When CyberSociety was com-
pleted late in 1994, the World Wide Web was something I clearly recall
talking about with colleagues on-line. Web sites were few and far be-
tween, and content was, well, let's only say that it was by and large text
with an occasional image thrown in for variety.
As I had expected at that time, though, innovations in CMC (Com-
puter-Mediated Communication), and communication via computers
generally, exponentially increased to the point when electronic mail is as
common in most countries as a phone call, or, as Adrianne Laird, then
one of my undergraduate students, put it, even virtual reality was "just
around the corner from commonplace." The Internet still is not so
ubiquitous that we all know what it is and how to use it, though, partially
due to the fact that the technology still is rapidly changing, that it is not
embraced by all, and, most important, because it is still inaccessible to
the vast majority of people in the western world, and in other countries
it is almost unknown.
vii
viii CYBERSOCIETY
CyberSociety 2.0, like its predecessor, is rooted in criticism and analy-
sis of technologies that do presently exist and form the foundation for
the media-ready pronouncements by everyone from MIT's Media Lab,
to Microsoft, to Nintendo, about the wonders we are about to witness.
And, also like its predecessor, CyberSociety 2.0 will not assist its readers
to become more proficient at using any of a variety of tools for computer-
mediated communication (CMC). Such assistance can be found in a
variety of sources available at most bookstores and libraries and even
more readily available on-line.
CyberSociety 2.0 is so named because, as in the world of software
engineering where it is common to number versions of revised software
sequentially, it builds on its predecessor's foundations. Some parts of
those foundations still are present and visible in this book, and have been
reengineered, whereas other parts of this book represent entirely new
construction. The goal was not to document the changes that have taken
place since the first book's writing, just as the goal of this book is not to
anticipate what changes will come our way. Instead, the goal of this book,
as of its predecessor, is to assist readers to become aware and critical of
the hopes we have pinned on computer-mediated communication and
of the cultures that are emerging among Internet users. Both books are
products of a particular moment in time, and also thereby serve as
snapshots of the state of affairs, the concerns and issues, surrounding
these new technologies of communication.
I am indebted to the authors whose work appears in these pages.
Their enthusiasm about the project and about computer-mediated com-
munication not only constitutes this book but gives it life. They have
patience, perseverance, faith, integrity, and diligence, and I will be
forever grateful to them.
I am also indebted to Margaret Seawell, my editor at Sage, with
whom it is a joy to work, and who is thoughtful, caring, and helpful.
Frank Christel, general manager of KWGS-FM at the University of Tulsa
remains a good friend and fellow cyberspace explorer who continues to
alert me to new Internet-related developments, and whose insight and
humor are priceless. The ADN/Academic Computer Center staff at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, and my colleague Jim Danowski, have
been most helpful in assisting with, and providing, network resources,
and I am most appreciative. Emily Walker has been most supportive and
helpful, and my colleagues in the Department of Communication at the
University of Illinois at Chicago have given friendship, guidance, and
Preface ix
intellectual sustenance. The support of Sidney B. Simpson, Jr., Eric
Gislason, Larry Poston, and Steve Weaver in UIC's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences has been invaluable and is greatly appreciated. The
Computing and Information Resources staff at the University of Tulsa,
in particular Reed Davis, Tristia Watson, Cherie Stovall, and Rick Kruse
were always helpful and ready to assist. I owe my colleague in the
Faculty of Communication at the University of Tulsa, Joli Jensen, far
more than words can convey. Her critiques of my work and the insights
I gain from conversation with her are a high point of my academic life.
I also wish to thank my mother and father, Jan Reynolds, Eric
Cartman, and many net.f riends who have provided support and encour-
agement.
I want to thank Jodi White, whose company I missed on many
evenings and weekends while I worked on this book's predecessor, and
who must have inwardly cringed when I broached the subject of working
on another, but who showed patience, understanding, and pitched in to
help me out.
Lastly, I wish to thank Ted Peterson, former Dean of the College of
Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for
his friendship, his teaching, his editing, the music he passed on to me,
his handwritten letters, and the lucky penny. I miss him.