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From: shane@deepthot.UWO.CDN (Shane Dunne)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Technology, Media, and Social Interaction: The Phone System
Message-ID: <1162@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: Sat, 5-Dec-87 23:14:59 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsz.1162
Posted: Sat Dec  5 23:14:59 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Dec-87 23:45:38 EST
Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario
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Approved: taylor@hplabs

Dave Taylor writes:
>[...discussion of phone services such as 900 & 976 profit-making
>    ventures, leading into discussion of BBS's and net-news...]
>The other question that arises, and I believe is the crux of all
>of this, is *where did this clique [of users -sd] come from*?
>Is it a new group of people, these that use technology as a vehicle
>for social interaction, or is it a natural outgrowth of other factors?
>
>My suspicion is that it's an unsuprising result of the expansion
>of media and the consequent strengthening of the media's 'perfect
>person'.
>[...]
>What exactly is this saying about our culture?  

The "perfect person" notion hits it right on the head.  People in TV
shows, movies and plays are bound to be perfect; their every utterance
has been carefully scripted.  How can "ordinary" people compete with
that?  By using media such as the phone services, CB radio, BBS's and
net-news, which allow them to conceal their own "imperfect" identity and,
in the latter two cases, spend nearly unlimited "scripting" their
contributions.  Where did this clique come from?  They're just ordinary
folks, grabbing onto an opportunity to be like their media heroes.

Well, nobody's perfect, as the saying goes, and so to become perfect I
must become someone other than myself.  The most obvious way is to use
a false name, or at least withhold my real one.  BBS's and similar
systems facilitate this by presenting new users with a prompt like
"Enter name:".  It disturbs me somewhat that this net-news/mail facility
is inconsistent about including users' real names with news postings.
It seems that although my local system automatically includes my real
name, some distant systems will remove it.

A popular argument against using real names is that anonymous media can
help shy people reach out to others in a "safe" way.  I cannot believe
that sitting in front of a terminal engaging in such "safe" anonymous
interaction can help anyone learn real social intercourse skills.  (It
might be of value in pathological cases, but then the situation should
be much better controlled.)  If our goal is to help the shy ones, we
must not force them to hide behind assumed identities for protection against
a hostile social environment; rather we must strive to make the environment
gentler.  This means, primarily, giving up the childish practice of
flaming, and remembering the little things we used to call "politeness".

- Shane Dunne, UWO Computer Science, Canada