In Defense of Chatrooms Essay -- Technology Internet Computers Papers

In Defense of Chatrooms With the advent of the Internet, fewer people are using the telephone or postal system as media of interactive communication exchanges due to their specific uses and limitations. While the former does not allow one to chat with several others from all over the world simultaneously and at a reasonable cost, the latter is handicapped by its time-consuming nature. Replacing the two mediums is a fast and rising newcomer, chatrooms, which offer an unprecedented opportunity to interact effectively, cheaply and widely, with multiple individuals at a time and in faraway places too. Chatrooms are definitely not meant as a utopia and in fact, they can be a serious menace when people exploit them through verbal, psychological abuse or worse, physical abuse. Despite the dangers which can be minimized through self-discipline and parental guidance, chatrooms are suitable places for developing the self socially, mentally and culturally, as well as shaping the character traits of the self. Being social creatures, "we are born into social environments (to) discover and explore the world through social discourse, (to) come to know ourselves through interpersonal experience" (Leitenberg, 325). Such basic requirements are met when one chats online by typing rather than by talking, for example, through Internet Relay Chat (IRC), which attracts people from "Finland, Australia, South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Iceland... and that is only a sampling of some of the geographical areas represented on the Net" (Reiner & Blanton, xvi). The diversity in the nationalities, ages, occupations and personalities of IRC users tends to give the self a global orientation since one is able to navigate to other countries an... ...Harold. Handbook of social and evaluation anxiety (New York: Plenum Press), 1990 Pyra, Marianne. Using Internet Relay Chat (USA: Que Corporation), 1995 Reiner, Diane & Keith Blanton. Person to person on the Internet (London: Academic Press Limited), 1997. Reuters, AP. "Victims of Net stalkers cry for help", The Straits Times (world), March 30th 2000, p 6. Sia, Cheong Yew. "What is your child up to in cyberspace?" http://web3.asia1.com.sg/archive/st/1/opin/opin2_0428.html Tapscott, D. Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation (New York: Mc Graw-Hill), 1997. Weiss, Ann E. Virtual Reality: A door to cyberspace (Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd), 1996. Whittle, David B. Cyberspace: The Human Dimension (New York: WH Freeman & Co), 1996. Wong, Karen. "Jail for chatline pimp", The Straits Times (prime news), March 23rd 2000, p 2. In Defense of Chatrooms Essay -- Technology Internet Computers Papers In Defense of Chatrooms With the advent of the Internet, fewer people are using the telephone or postal system as media of interactive communication exchanges due to their specific uses and limitations. While the former does not allow one to chat with several others from all over the world simultaneously and at a reasonable cost, the latter is handicapped by its time-consuming nature. Replacing the two mediums is a fast and rising newcomer, chatrooms, which offer an unprecedented opportunity to interact effectively, cheaply and widely, with multiple individuals at a time and in faraway places too. Chatrooms are definitely not meant as a utopia and in fact, they can be a serious menace when people exploit them through verbal, psychological abuse or worse, physical abuse. Despite the dangers which can be minimized through self-discipline and parental guidance, chatrooms are suitable places for developing the self socially, mentally and culturally, as well as shaping the character traits of the self. Being social creatures, "we are born into social environments (to) discover and explore the world through social discourse, (to) come to know ourselves through interpersonal experience" (Leitenberg, 325). Such basic requirements are met when one chats online by typing rather than by talking, for example, through Internet Relay Chat (IRC), which attracts people from "Finland, Australia, South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Iceland... and that is only a sampling of some of the geographical areas represented on the Net" (Reiner & Blanton, xvi). The diversity in the nationalities, ages, occupations and personalities of IRC users tends to give the self a global orientation since one is able to navigate to other countries an... ...Harold. Handbook of social and evaluation anxiety (New York: Plenum Press), 1990 Pyra, Marianne. Using Internet Relay Chat (USA: Que Corporation), 1995 Reiner, Diane & Keith Blanton. Person to person on the Internet (London: Academic Press Limited), 1997. Reuters, AP. "Victims of Net stalkers cry for help", The Straits Times (world), March 30th 2000, p 6. Sia, Cheong Yew. "What is your child up to in cyberspace?" http://web3.asia1.com.sg/archive/st/1/opin/opin2_0428.html Tapscott, D. Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation (New York: Mc Graw-Hill), 1997. Weiss, Ann E. Virtual Reality: A door to cyberspace (Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd), 1996. Whittle, David B. Cyberspace: The Human Dimension (New York: WH Freeman & Co), 1996. Wong, Karen. "Jail for chatline pimp", The Straits Times (prime news), March 23rd 2000, p 2.