This Small World of ours, and the way we use it.

We're all connected by cords worldwide.
Image Credit: http://cdn1.sbnation.com/assets/3533009/xbox_final_06.png

While we may all inhabit the same space on this world of ours, all of us have individually managed to carve out our own place within it. Through creating our own unique small worlds within any larger one, we allow ourselves feel safe and secure. While not all places we call 'ours' are physically tangible, they all serve the same purpose, and that is to connect us to others around us. A place that myself and millions call our own, is Xbox Live, while not a physical place, we make it our own by creating a unique online persona.

"People without power and resources in the real, find a compensatory experience in the virtual." (Turkle. S. 1995.p.249) With this thought in mind, we can start to understand why some are more prone towards shying away from their immediate community and diving into an online virtual one. The space and freedom the Xbox Live Network gives such people can seem scary and overwhelming, but we're able to experience the full concept of this online space from the comfortable place on our own couch or bed, allowing us to feel safer as we interact with the millions of others worldwide eating junk food, and drinking soft drink in their pj's.

While we are given the opportunity to become an entirely different person, online and in-game, there are still certain things that may get you into trouble if found to be doing them. Yes, we may indeed be able abuse and scream at another user, however it is frowned upon and can be dealt with by the Network Administrators. Admins take the same approach as discussed by S. Turkle in Life on the screen (1995), describing how when we know that everything and anything we may do, has the possibility to bite us on the ass, as at any time someone may be watching our actions, we tend to undergo self surveillance, stopping us from doing anything perceived as 'wrong' within any given network.

Over the next few weeks I shall delve deeper into this online space to help us all understand the different aspects of this global network.


To learn of the birth of Xbox Live.




References:

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. 

Pitts. R (2013). http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/11/11/4849940/xbox-live-millennium-e 

Turkle.S.(1995. p249) Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet.

Image Credit: http://cdn1.sbnation.com/assets/3533009/xbox_final_06.png