Immersion in the Virtual World

In this week’s reading, what came as the largest surprise was the degree to which people tend to immerse themselves in fully digital arenas. Seen primarily in Dibbell’s piece on cyberrape, but also in Froomkin’s mention of “mailbombing,” this complete engagement in an alternate reality seemed much different than what I’ve always assumed to be the role of the internet in mainstream culture. While I understood there were some individuals who devote great time and energy to their online exploits, I always thought that the vast majority of people viewed the internet as a supplementary means of expression and information, one which complemented “real life” but never came close to overtaking it. But as I read Dibbell’s admission that he couldn’t think objectively about the situation because he was so entrenched in the LamdaMOO mindset, and as Froomkin described the phenomenon of large numbers of Usenet users independently responding maliciously to spam as if it were an attack on their real life home, I realized that many more than I originally guessed largely define themselves through their online experiences. This has an interesting implication for the discussion of civil liberties in this course. While discussion last week largely centered around unintentional consequences of the availability of personal information online, this online immersion suggests that regulation of online behavior and freedoms may actually be infringing on the identity of individuals, interfering with their ability to define themselves as they see fit. This seems to be somewhat related to Balkin’s theory of freedom of expression, and the right to participate in and contribute to a democratic culture.

My (unrelated) question for the week: Is it problematic that we have a great number of decision-makers and policy-makers (Congressmen and Supreme Court Justices the most obvious examples) who have very little understanding of the internet and its processes? As an individual actually born in the digital age, I am still at times confused by the complexity of the system, so how can non-digital natives be expected to make prudent decisions regarding the digital world?