The Internet as a Medium Vs Cyber-space

It is somewhat misleading to think of cyber-space the moment one thinks of the Internet. We must distinguish between the two: cyber-space is loaded with values, such as ‘freedom’, ‘identity-presentation’ (or identity-representation), cyber-space is what becomes available through the Internet. The early confusion between the two should now be avoided, for the infrastructure of the Internet is a purely business proposition, and the possibility of virtual freedom, virtual democracy, etc. should not blind us to the immense business that the Internet infrastructure itself generates.

Like all infrastructures, the Internet is a medium. Like all media it can be used for a variety of purposes, some built into it, some invented over a period of time. The main function, and thus the main business too, is communication (understood generally here as exchange/transfer of data). From communication, there is only a very short step to SNS in the specific forms of dating services, groups, and other kinds of ‘networking’.

Communication

Increasingly, computers are used for communication. The number of people who use computers for communication is larger than those who use them for computing as such. From this it can be argued that the arrival/ invention of SNS and blogs was only a matter of time, since these represent two types of communication: writing diaries (for oneself, but also the secret hope that someone will read them), and interactive communication (talking/writing to one another, responding to what others say). The power and scope of the Internet as a medium of communication is almost incalculable, since this medium (unlike spoken language, generally), does not require physical presence of the interlocutor/s. Thus the much discussed ‘freedom’: one’s sense of one’s own identity (and all that comes along with it, the various obligations, responsibilities, anxities, certainties) can be suspended while communicating on the Internet.

Social (?) Networking

It is easy to see that SNS represents a different way of being social—one that does not require one’s own, or another’s physical presence; a new way of being social that does not always involve the same obligations, responsibilities, anxities and certainties that come with being a real person in a real world. However, we have already pointed out in our previous article that this ‘cyber-sociality’ is not what SNS is meant to deliver: it is meant to deliver real friends, real relationships, and real contacts. The instrument like nature of SNS reveals itself here. One uses it not to explore the new possibilities, new ways of being social, but one uses it to replicate one’s habitual socialization patterns, to reinforce these patterns, with the added possibility that one can include a few strangers in these.

SNS Competitors

We have already pointed out that one of the oldest models of business expansion (old boy’s club) has already acquired SNS functionality. Purely business networking, along the six degrees argument will profit much more than a purely ‘social’ networking.

Another area from which SNS is bound to face competition is the IM space, with added features these would come closer and closer to being SNS, many of these are already available through cellphones.

Any medium, or any service within a medium that offers faster, surer, easier communication is a potential competitor for SNS.

Another development to watch is the advance in cellular telephony: the stronger the handsets become, the wider the scope of their features, the more could they outpace the Internet as a medium of communication. Going by the changes in wireless technologies, they could, eventually, become the Internet, as soon as they acquire significant computing power. It is safe to assume that miniaturization is the key challenge.