It’s the Internet stupid!

Abraham Biggs, Jr was a 19-year old from Florida. He is no more. He died of an overdose. This did not happen in some derelict flat or private place. It happened in public on cyberspace. He died of an overdose on the live video website.

Over one hundred people watched Abraham gasp for his last breath. The police were informed only when it was clear that the unfortunate young man was no longer breathing. When the police arrived on the scene it was too late.

"As a human being, you don't watch someone in trouble and sit back and just watch." This was the comment of Briggs Sr.

This is perhaps true in real life perhaps, but is it true of cyber life on the Internet?

The crowds that participated in the Coliseum lions against Christians “feasts” as well as those who made an outing out of seeing a public execution shows that there is a sadistic streak in all of us. But humanity has progressed since than. Most people would feel the need towards helping those in pain rather than relishing in the pain of others.

But the Internet brings with it a sense of anonymity. You are there but at the same time you are not really there. In cyberspace you do not face the others directly. You are behind the screen. Most probably you assume a different form of being from your own real existence. Nobody sees you. Nobody knows what you are doing. In fact you can have the feeling that it is not you who is doing what is being done but the Internet persona that you temporarily assume. That persona can be sadistic while you are still a decent human being.

People, even introverts, feel that they can be exhibitionistic on the Internet. How else can one explain the saucy pictures of adolescents and teenagers on the various social networks such as Hi5, Facebook etc? They think that placing such pictures on Hi5 is like having them in your album or showing them to a small clique of friends. They totally mix the private and the public spaces.

Are you a citizen of Second Life?

Same applies to relationships. Many feel that they can flirt around and be promiscuous on Second Life and in various chat rooms.

Let me open a bracket about Second Life for those who are not very conversant with the subject. This is a virtual country with virtual citizens, houses, lakes, shops, churches, brothels etc. There are cars, theatres and estate agencies. You can even sms in Second Life. Anything you find in a real country you can find in Second Life. It also has its currency.

You take on a character called an avatar. You can become a handsome six packer or a gorgeous blond. You can marry or divorce. You can buy and sell. Invite people for a party. Go to the bar for a drink. In this internet fantasy world, you can reinvent yourself and embark on the kind of adventures you’ve always dreamed of but never had the courage, audacity or luck to do in real life.

It may not be real, but a lot of people take it very seriously indeed: both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama opened campaign offices in this parallel universe. Companies such as Sony, Ikea, BMW and Coca-Cola also have a presence and Reuters and Sky News have bureaus.

This November the number of citizens of Second Life amounted to around 15 million. Not bad for a “country” that was founded in 2003!

Close brackets and back to reality.

Virtual relationship but real pain

Many who would even shun the thought of entertaining an adulterous relationship in real life would do feel that they can engage in adulterous liaisons in cyberspace. They would not even mind visiting the cyber brothels. It is their avatar who is naughty. They remain, they think, faithful and decent.

This is an illusion. Online cheating brings with it a lot of real-world heartbreak. Stories are legion and I will not go into them here.

What is true for people’s the attitude towards suicide and violence as explained above is also true about love and relationships. Professor Mark Griffiths, a psychologist at Nottingham Trent University said that it’s surprisingly easy to get emotionally involved online.

“The Internet is a disinhibiting medium, where people’s emotional guard is down,” he says. “It’s the same phenomenon as the stranger on the train, where you find yourself telling your life story to someone you don’t know, something you wouldn’t dream of doing in your local pub.”

Cyber vigilantes

Do you remember the vigilantes from the Westerns of yesteryear? They used to police the Far West and do their own rough kind of “justice” when the systems broke down.

This is now happening in cyberspace. In China there are the "human flesh search engines." The term is used to describe these latter day vigilante who team up to hunt down and punish those whom they perceive as wrongdoers. The Beijing-based freelance journalist Chris O'Brien at Forbes.com wrote about a women who committed suicide after her husband betrayed her with another woman. She placed all the information on a blog before jumping to her death. The cyber vigilantes put the husband’s picture on several Internet forums. The pressure on him mounted. He was disgraced, lost his job and was physically threatened.

There are examples of this Web vigilantism also from the United States.

In Malta we had a similar example. The photo of a paedophile was placed on the Internet after the Courts decreed that his name be kept secret though he was found guilty of paedophilia and was still working with childres.

Internet is wonderful

This is not a piece against the Internet. I am not an Internet basher. In fact I cannot image living in a world without the Internet. When the connection goes bust I am lost. It is such a wonderful tool. But like everything else it is open to abuse.

While surfing on it, though, we should be very conscious that the Internet is not a pastime. It is technology which in the fashion of communication technologies that came before it has morphed into a culture; into a new way of living our human existence. It is changing us and the world around us. By changing us humans the Internet is changing the economy, education, culture, entertainment, family structures, our concept of what is and what is not real as well as our concept of time and space

Try to think a little bit about this the next time you are on line.

Till next time I wish you all good bye and good luck.