Take a Ride On The eBus

I recently finished a 2-month exploration of digital communities, and did some research and made a video. I'm not going to post it to youtube, cause it's using some copyrighted stuff, but it's not 4 profit, so, meh. I'm uploading it to vimeo as I type this.

The main thing that I came away with is something I learned learned from a Frontline Special about kids that grow up with the internet. For me, The INternet came out when I was in 7th grade. It was a brand new thing, a new tool. And many people my age and older view it this way, but what I experienced in the last 2 months is that there is definitely more to the internet than a utility. When I presented this to a group of people, one person got really heated, because he felt that the nature of anonymity on the web makes the whole thing contrived. It's a performance, a mere use of a utility, not a place of true personal extension and expression. This is actually hinted at in the matrix where the digital self is a projection of the way the user sees themself, rather than as they are.

The question however is where is the truth and where is the act? many people express themselves in ways they never would in real life, and experience deep connections through online communities, and one of the highest personal values in an online community such as YouTube is authenticity.

This transition in thinking makes the internet not a utility, but a community, where the media facilitate human connections. This changes users into inhabitants. While this sounds bizarre, take the example of another common utility in most cities, the public bus.

Many people use the bus everday, generally for less than 2 hours, and consider a means to an end, it is a transportation utility. There are bus users and bus operators, as well as a host of things which the user never sees that keeps the busses running including mechanics, administrators and city officials.

But look at what happens over time. People who ride the same route begin to recognize one another, begin to know one another, as well as the operators that drive those routes. You might even be a first time bus user but be able to enter this environment and strike up a comversation with someone. The bus, which is a utility, features a small, temporary gathering of people. The bus is not simply full of users, it's become a community over time, full of inhabitants, however transient.

This is the shift in thinking with the internet, like many other tools and utilities, it has taken on a sense of habitation, and gives rise to a diverse set of tribes and sub-cultures.

Digital Communities (And Mission) from Matt O'Brien on Vimeo.