Prescribed text

[den]

Herman Tavani - "Ethics and Technology"

Tavani constantly uses the term "Cyber" when referring to computer-related and digital issues. "Cyberethics," "cyberrelated" and "cyberissues" are some of the more common buzzwords.

How to write eloquently and still sound like a twonk.

Comments

[kaijima.livejournal.com]

Cyber is an overworked, tortured buzzword that's actually damaging, IMHO. It's not just that using it as a prefix makes you sound like a mainstream media twonk. It actually creates this perception of fundimental difference where there is none and also ascribes attributes that just aren't there - I despise the term Cyberspace for instance.

Everywhere I've seen it used, the person using it (usually mainstream writer, know-nothing but presumption-filled journalist, or media barkers) tends to give the impression that this Cyberspace business has all these strange qualities that real life just doesn't have; by extension, it's also far less real than "real life", and is rather mysterious and a little scary. The term also gives the Internet a connotation of being some kind of disconnected, drifting realm, further reinforcing stereotypes of people getting "sucked into it", in a way that sucks them "out of" so-called real life.

(Not that there aren't people who do get "sucked in" in a way that causes a legitimate negative impact. Yet their behavior seems no different than any kind of compulsive and isolationist traits... nothing "special" about the dreaded dimension of Cyberspace to cause them to become that way, aside maybe from easier access than to a lot of other venues.)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I dislike the impression that the Internet is not a part of this world, and is exempt from the usual rules, ethics and behaviours. The internet is very much an artifact of this world and exists here, and it should be subject to the same rules of a civilized society.

For instance, the kiddies of Portal Of Hamsters do not take pen to paper and physically post their scribblings to their targets. Why do they feel it's okay to do that on the 'net? The "It's only text" argument doesn't wash with me. Newspapers are only text. Television is just phosphor-dots on a screen. They follow established rules of civilisation. What makes the internet different? How do the PoH kids justify their actions?

A virtual world is one created digitally to emulate The Real World, with the same feedback, to create the feeling that it is real. Feedback loops are what cybernetics is. Virtual ridicule, virtual abuse and virtual hate are not different from the "real" thing.

So, yeah, I agree with you. Calling something "cyber" gives the impression that it is less real and therefore not connected to the real world. It's like saying a river isn't a part of the land it flows through.