3 The Internet and computer programmes

The Internet brings the whole world to our fingertips. The Internet offers us infinite possibilities. We can simultaneously communicate with people all over the world, we can even see each other using web cameras. We can share our realities with anybody we would like to. We can access an incredible amount of information, however much of it is not always very accurate, therefore not very reliable. It is democratic – i.e. anybody can put something on the web, regardless of wealth, status or faith. This has both its positive and negative sides. People who would not normally have the opportunity to communicate their views or values can do so, and can even form a virtual community of like-minded people. The drawback is that it can be used by people who are prejudiced, violent and potentially a threat to other individuals, for example paedophile networks, or right wing political groups.

Computer programmes have even created artificial worlds for us to explore on the Internet.

You can take up a place in a virtual city, take on a virtual identity and interact with other Internet users who are also members of this virtual community. This is an attractive way of allowing people to have new perspectives on reality, identity, place, time and community. William Gibson coined the term ‘cyberspace’ in his 1983 novel Neuromancer. It is the place with no substance where people and digital data meet. We are also told in this novel that cyberspace is a "consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions…" Cyberspace and reality can become blurred. This is potentially damaging to the individual, they are living in a virtual world rather than interacting with the world around them: "Technology can do that. It gives us simulated realities that make us oblivious to the real world. Heroin does the same thing. So do most class A drugs. Basically we are all addicts" (Nitin Sawhney, "Prophesy" 2002).