Module 2: Topic 2.4

Topic 2.4: The Shaping of Time and Space

Driscoll-Adam - Time-Space Compression

Para 1

• 'time-space compression' (TSC) = term used to describe the acceleration of our experience of time and space
• TSC aka 'time-space convergence'
• TSC "...is concerned with the impact of new information and communication technologies such as the Internet, email and mobile phones on the individual both in the private and public spheres. These technologies have essentially reduced the distances between people and places thus resulting in 'time-space compression'"
• "It has ... become easier to move information across space; speeding up the pace of life while abolishing traditional spatial barriers"

Para 2

• Amber Case: "...discusses the ways in which intensification of the human-technology interface will quickly reduce the distance between individual and community and believes that the convergence of technologies will bring about unprecedented rapid learning and communication"

Para 3

• "Time and space appear to be completely compressed. People all over the globe gained awareness of these occurrences via the Internet even prior to print or TV media. These global experiences are witnessed by so many internauts simultaneously and yet such distances apart"

Para 4

• "Individuals are becoming increasingly adept to wireless communication; the idea of being connected anytime, anywhere. It appears that people no longer identify the difference between time and space as boundaries begin to blur"

Para 5

• "...in Western society individuals are constantly multitasking, jumping from work to personal activities; there is no more divide between the two therefore public and private space is no longer distinctive"

Panayiota - Reconceptualising 'Time' and 'Space' in the Era of Electronic Media and Communications

p. 12

• Time is defined as "...natural time...abstract time...or experiential time...with the latter being conceived as 'my time: time as experienced by me-or-anyone, my own here-and-now etc.'"
• Space is "amorphous and intangible and not an entity that can be directly described and analysed"
• Place is "nearly always some associated sense or concept of place in a way that it seems that space provides the context for places but derives its meaning from particular places
• place is a concretion of value...it is an object in which one can dwell, whilst space is given by the ability to move

p. 20

• "The Internet and the construction of the concept of 'internet time'...exemplify...views on the role of new media technologies. New information and communication technologies and the Internet in particular have influenced the dynamics of everyday life, as they affect and change time, people's perceptions of time, and the way time is organised"

p. 21

• "...information technologies and the internet in particular help diminish the importance of time-frames generally accepted as appropriate for performing a given activity"

Module 2: Topic 2.2

Topic 2.2 - Community and Identity

Said - Can a Virtual Community be any different from the experience of a Real Community?

What is a community?

• "...a group of people having common interests"
• "...a group viewed as forming a distinct segment of the society"

What is a real community?

• Real/Offline community - "...one which shares a common cultural or social heritage and can easily establish a social interaction and regular contact...shared the same values, they can be parts of many different communities simultaneously. There is also a strong sense of unity and fellowship in a community"

What is a virtual community?

• "Different people from different parts of the world establish a virtual community in cyber space. Here they share their ideas, opinions, beliefs, political perspectives, interests etc."
• "Virtual communities are ... formed through computer-mediated communities (CMC)"
• "...different groups of people can subscribe to virtual communities that tend to their needs and search for those particular people who espouse the same beliefs as theirs"

Utopian vision:

• "...emphasises the exciting possibilities of a computing technology such as global connectivity, democratisation, and the opening of the frontier of human experience and relationship which were impossible before"

Dystopian vision:

• "...deals with people's enslavement to the digital technology and their growing dependency on it"
• "...also concerns itself with the unstoppable growth of technology which may bring with it information overload and a breakdown of social structures and values"

Identity in a Virtual Community:

• "...most appealing thing about the Internet is the anonymity it provides - it makes it easy to present oneself as another person"

Slater - Social Relationships and Identity Online and Offline

p. 533

• "On the other hand, to study the Internet as culture means regarding it as a social space in its own right, rather than as a complex object used within other, contextualising spaces. It means looking at the forms of communication, sociality and identity that are produced within this social space, and how they are sustained using the resources available within the online setting."

p. 535

• "...feature of computer-mediated communications is that it allows communications between people who are spatially dispersed ... important factor ... is not where in the world you are, but how you are using the communicative facilities at your disposal. The irrelevance of geographical position to Internet communication is often referred to as 'disembedding'."

p. 536

• "'Disembodiment' signifies that a person's online identity is apparently separate from their physical presence, a condition associated with two features: textuality and anonymity"
• "...the phrase 'you are what you type' summed up the sense that a person's online performance of identity had to be taken at face value, if only because there is no other information to go on. This conspicuously includes such visible markers of sex, race and age which, in offline interactions, fix identities in bodies"
• "...online presence is apparently disembodied in the broader sense that it can be detached from other ways in which offline presences are held stable and accountable: names, addresses, one's past relationships and biography as they are fixed"

Module 1: Topic 1.5 and Topic 1.6

Topic 1.5 - Faith and Spirituality Online

Dawson & Cowan - Religion Online: Finding faith on the Internet

p. 2

The shift from the offline world to the online indicates two important social consequences on the Internet - a crisis of authority and a crisis of authenticity

• there is no mechanism by which information posted to or claims made on the Internet may be vetted beforehand --> the phenomenon of "instant experts"
• in the online world a religious group can be created by anyone regardless of experience, can include any amount of people and can exist as discussion lists instead of serious religious working groups

p. 3

With enough exposure to the Internet, religious people may come to doubt the absolute claims of sacredness and permanence that a religious site can make in the "real world" in light of the ephemerality and heightened access to religion online

The coexistence of so many different and openly heterodox views online exposes the Net user to a more fluid doctrinal environment --> encouraging individual religious and spiritual experimentation

p. 4

Adam - distant healing

• miraculous healings are common to religious traditions
• the use of the Internet allows it to happen more easily, free from the scrutiny of churches, the state, the medical professions and other people; it allows him to protect his identity

p. 5

There is a growing asymmetry in Internet users

• In 2001, less than 1% of Africa's population had access to the Internet
• --> digital divide where the lack of access means there is no meaningful participation by global users
• Internet content reflects deeply embedded social and cultural divisions and further contributes to them

p.7

Religion online - describes the provision of information about and/or services related to various religious groups and traditions

Online religion - invites Internet visitors to participate in religious practices e.g. online prayer, spiritual counselling, online Tarot readings

p. 9

"The habitat in which we live is always changed by our inventions ... Communications technologies mold the messages we deliver in unanticipated ways as well, crucially influencing our self-conceptions, notions of human relations and community, and the nature of reality itself"

p. 10

• the Internet is an interactive and not simply a broadcast medium
• the Internet is truly multimedial
• the Internet employs hypertextuality
• anyone can launch himself onto the WWW with relative ease and little expense
• the Internet is global in its reach

Fukui - Worship 2.0

Elizabeth Drescher

• Web 3.0 - about new technologies that allow our devices to understand what we're interested in
• Applications that look at your daily activity and use that information to direct you to communities you may be interested in
• "So there's a whole different movement now that's starting to connect people in their daily lives more thoroughly with one another, using technology"

Heidi Campbell

• "...their apps, their resources through their mobile phone, help them kind of augment their spirituality in a 24/7 way"
• "It allows the extension of our spiritual lives as well as the accentuation of certain practices ... it's almost privatising a public space" - conducting a religious practice on your phone can be private, while open prayer in a public place is not

Elizabeth Drescher

• "religion is being shaped by new media" - it would have been very difficult for a lay person to decide that they were going to organise a community around a certain way of communicating about scripture and to then have 10 million people be drawn to it

Heidi Campbell

• What is a community when it comes to social media
• loosely bound networks of varying social relationships
• networked society allows us to select those relationships
• Religious community
• no longer is there a singular authority figure (religious, political) at the centre of the community, it's the individual
• Shifting authority
• religious authorities are being challenged by the Internet and these new social structures
• they also have opportunities to be empowered
• Blogging
• blogging may critique or challenge traditional doctrines or religious leaders, undermining religious authorities
• religious leaders could become bloggers to affirm their authority and to use the Internet to monitor their members' practices

Masako Fukui

• "...most religious organisations portray themselves online pretty much as they are offline, so their religious structures, ideologies, or theologies are not continually being challenged"
• "...one of the most empowering aspects of social media is that it allows people to author their own religious narratives. And this challenges the role of religious leaders in new and interesting ways"

Paul Jacaobson

• "...the process is to try to help it expand from being a linear learning process with a fixed beginning and a fixed end and to allow this to expand in any variety of directions ... we never read the same text in the same way twice"

Elizabeth Drescher

• Truth and Authority
• before European reformations of the Christian church, truth meant fidelity, reliability and there was malleability
• when printing took over and words were locked onto a page, there was less flexibility to find in the truth
• now we are understanding truth as something that is socially mediated
• "We're seeing a return to that kind of expansive version of truth and a socially authorised sense of authority"

Lisa Colton

• Reasons for resistance
• Fear over how much time it is going to take to respond to everyone participating
• Fear of hate comments appearing in your online spaces
• The question about religious authority is a challenge
• I.e. accessibility to that authority and how that person can be a leader of a community
• "...in the social media space we're now talking about 'return on engagement' rather than 'return on investment"
• "...it's about relationships and it's about individuals' identity ... their ... identity as an individual and the way that they relate to the broader community"

Alex Pang

• Contemplative about technologies
• "...being able to observe ourselves using them, to be able to observe why it is that we feel the need to check our email every five minutes, or why it is that we like getting the little burst of affirmation that comes when someone 'likes' something that we've said on Facebook"
• Contemplative with technologies
• "...the idea with contemplative computing was to ask whether it's possible to design information technologies, and to design interactions with technologies, that help people focus, help them be more mindful, help them be more creative"