Cyberspace or Cyberplace?

Preston Evans

ENGL 120w

03/23/14

Cyberspace or Cyberplace?

The Internet: we use it everyday for a multitude of desirable reasons. What year was MTV founded? I’ll look it up on the Internet. I missed my favorite show last night; guess I’ll just watch the episode on the Internet. In fact, you’re using the Internet right now to read this article. As much as we hate to admit sometimes, we have become the Interweb generation. We rely on this global network for everything from sending funny animal pictures to friends to sending in important job applications and obtaining information about the world that surrounds us. So, is the Internet just information? No, and stay with me here, is it a place.

Ok, that doesn’t make sense. The Internet is intangible, it’s essentially a series of tubes that connect users and allow information to travel from place to place, monitor to monitor. Surely the Internet is more of an idea, an incorporeal figment of the human mind. (One does not vacation to the Internet). However, the Internet has become less and less abstract in today’s world, which could possibly mean that it is forever becoming a more tangible, more “real” place, every day.

First, real “places” must have definite (or indefinite) boundaries with a given name. Well, the Internet, otherwise known as cyberspace, has many names and certainly has indefinite boundaries. As new amounts of content are continually published and made available to other users, it is consistently and continually expansive. The expansive nature of this great force allows the Internet to be unlike any other place currently existing. Perhaps the Internet is taking over, conquering the world right out from under us without us even realizing it. Next, places are physical, and because they are physical, allow for interaction with others. Ok, this one should be easy: just take a second to think about all the social media websites you probably belong to and all of the email addresses you manage. Chances are that number came to be at least three. Facebook, Gmail, even YouTube allow us to interact socially and form communities in a supposedly non-existent space. Now, we can even chat face to face via the Internet—we find ourselves ever closer to obtaining synthetic physical contact.

If the Internet really were a place we could not go, or transport ourselves to, I would absolutely be spending more of my time outside than seated at a desk staring through a screen. However, the Internet is very much becoming a real place.

Today, we can use satellite imaging to travel the streets of Rome using Google Maps, then click over to Paris in the blink of an eye and see an entire art exhibit at the Louvre all from our desks. But we’re not at our desks; we’re walking through Paris, taking in the culture and the sights of the city, albeit through a different lens than our own eyes. Even if we don’t feel the light breeze winding its way through the busy Parisian streets or have to exhaust ourselves walking up a seemingly endless amount of steps to reach the top of the Arc de Triomphe, we can still experience these things in a different way. We can see the view from the top of the Arc without the hassle. But the Internet is not France; it is the Internet. It allows us to experience these places while also being a place of its own. For without the medium of the Internet, we would not have been able to arrive atop the Arc, looking out over the Champs-Élysées, to begin with.

If the Internet were not an important destination in many of our lives, it would cease to exist. Fortunately, we use it every day, help it expand, help it develop and grow.

In short, the Internet is no less a place to visit than Orlando, Florida or Paris, France. The Internet is no longer an abstraction, but a real place that allows for real-time interaction with other visitors. Thus, the Internet functions as a destination, even if it is different from what we are led to believe is “normal.” If we thought we had a sense of place, maybe we should guess again.