Communication and Cyberspace: SocialInteraction in an Electronic Environment. Edited by Lance Strate, RonJacobson, and Stephanie B. Gibson. (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1996,pp. 416) $72.50 (hardcover) $28.50 (softcover).
SamEbersole
University of Southern Colorado
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's John Perry Barlowonce coined the term "meatspace" to describe the world of "real reality,"a world where people meet face-to-face and engage in social interactionin a physical environment. The editors of Communication and Cyberspacehave assembled some of the leading cyber-thinkers to address issues ofcommunication in a very different environment. The questions here revolvearound what it means to engage in social interaction in a virtual environment--a.k.a.cyberspace. Other questions arise as to how this new world or environmentin which communication occurs shapes both the communications and the communicators. This book has something for everybody. Every body, that is, thatfinds itself wandering around this new electronic environment. Repeatedly,and by various authors, the question is raised-What defines presence andsocial interaction in a dimension that welcomes our minds while askingus to check our bodies at the door? Philosophical issues of Cartesian dualismand Heideggerian ontology are illuminated by the cool glow of computermonitors-windows through which isolated individuals reach out to interactand communicate with others. Communication and Cyberspace is dividedinto four sections, roughly defined as: 1) broad theoretical contexts,2) function, 3) form, and 4) meaning.
The metaphor of space should be familiar to thosewho study new communication technologies. Since the invention of the telegraph,electronic technology has allowed us to demolish the barriers of time andspace. We have come to accept the term cyberspace to define the "place"where information resides in a network of linked computers. Navigatingor "surfing" the web of information implies traveling through nodes ofinformation, linking from one to another across the vast sea of data. Ashypermedia documents increasingly reside on the network, cyberspace becomesincreasingly appropriate to describe the place where the information resides.To the degree that synchronous communication exists between those connectedto the net, cyberspace exists as a social construction of virtual reality.But are physical spaces and virtual spaces really interchangeable? Andwill increased use of cyberspace lead to increased deterioration of physicalspaces? As Gumpert and Drucker argue in chapter one, the perceived safetyof computer-mediated communication has precipitated an exodus from physicalspaces that have become increasingly dangerous.
Throughout the text the authors offer opinions asto which types of communication and interaction are most suitable for cyberspace,and which uses should be subject to careful scrutiny. According to JohnPhelan, cyberspace is, "no substitute for guided linear thinking, friendship,travel, or learning the craft of writing or the equally daunting task ofcritical reading of demanding texts. Although cyberspace can be a placeto go and get things to use, a place to ask questions and give answers,it is not a world of primary experience" (p. 45). Herbert Zettl, well knownfor his television production and visual aesthetics texts , compares VR(virtual reality) to Plato's cave analogy and expresses concern for possiblepsychosis similar to what might be experienced by war veterans who, "forthe act of killing, are declared heroes in one environment and murderersin another" (p. 93). Charles Larson cites various uses for VR and thendeclares it to be "the ultimate in intrapersonal communication" and thus"potentially capable of driving Western humanity further inward in the21st century" (p. 97). In separate chapters, Terri Patkin and StephanieGibson address the potentially positive aspects of using electronic communicationin an educational environment. They describe using a "virtual organization"to teach organizational communication and hypertext as an alternative tothe authoritative and logocentric printed text to encourage participationand collaborative learning. Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) are described byMichael Beaubien in the context of Lyotard's "language games" that, inthis case, privilege those with computer programming skills. JudithLee explores the nature of email, a hybrid mode of communication that,"stands midway between the telephone call and the letter" (p. 277) andflattens hierarchies. Philip Thompsen examines the socially constructednature of flaming, i.e., rude or combative behavior in electronic communication,using Fulk, Schmitz, & Steinfield's (1990) social influence model ofmedia use. And finally, addressing a subject that cannot be ignored, MarkLipton considers, "the ways in which cyberspace generates disorder in therealm of what may broadly be called 'sex'" (p. 336).
Commercial and political exploitation of this free-wheelingmedium we call the Internet is addressed by several authors. Mark Gieseprovides an interesting survey of the origins of the Internet includingthe conflicting ideologies of the Department of Defense and the academicand hacker communities. James Beniger uses the U.S. Post Office as an exampleof how technology radically altered the use of mail from a channel for interpersonal communication to one utilized by mass marketers. The commodification of information and the issues of personal property and copyright are tackled by Neil Kleinman, who, along with others, uses the metaphor of frontier and its settlement by railroaders, sod busters,and cattle barons to draw a potentially frightening picture of the futureof the Internet. Joseph Barrett explores the 10,000 year relationship between communication and money and "how various communication technologies have destroyed one barrier after another in pursuit of profit-firstvolume, then mass, then space" (p. 155). Universal access and the competingcorporate, government, and public interest visions of the NII are addressedby Ronald Jacobson who takes a skeptical view of corporate promises of500-channel service. Another theme that reoccurs throughout the bookis the concept of self and the challenge of defining self in a world wherethe mind and body diverge at the point of interface. While no author tookDescartes' extreme position on mind-body dualism, many were challengedby the paradox created by metaphors that allow, in the words of Sue Barnes,the mind to become "immersed in the medium while the body is left behindin physical space" (p. 197). Barnes addresses traditional theories of self,e.g., Mead (1959) and Berger & Luckman (1966), and McLuhan's notionof technology as the "extension of man." Richard Cutler applies Meyrowitz's(1985) adaptation of Goffman's public and private self, and Cooley's (1964)"looking glass self" to the interactive medium of cyberspace. Cutler'supbeat conclusion: "I cannot help but find the use of interaction for thecreation of self-concept and group identity in the face of technologicaltransformation as anything other than healthy" (p. 332).
Electronic writing and hypertext receive significantattention from a number of authors. While these essays were undoubtedlycomposed using electronic means, the reality is that this is a "dead-tree"presentation of some very timely issues that lacks the interactivity thatonly electronic delivery can provide. Moulthrop, sensing the irony of thesituation, provides at the close of his chapter the URL or "electronicaddress" for his essay. However, irony has the upper hand as one discoversthat the URL provided suffers from "link rot," i.e., the inevitable maladythat afflicts the dynamically changing WWW. In this case the result isa broken link, and the static print version provides no opportunity toremedy the error. Other essays also suffer from the negative effects ofthe "fixed-in-time" presentation. The growth of cyberspace, as definedby the Internet and World-Wide Web, is phenomenal. Authors who attemptedto provide snapshots representing the "current" state-of-the-net must havebeen discouraged upon receiving their freshly printed volume in Augustof 1996 only to realize that the snapshot had faded. Figures reported in1994 studies, possibly gathered in 1993, seem hopelessly out-of-date whenread just two "computer-years" later. One author's attempt to describethe state-of-the-art in speech recognition software falls sadly short ofthe present reality. Checking the references at the end of each essay Inoted that no sources were more current than 1994. I do not fault the writersor editors for the inherent limitations of the prevailing book editorialprocess. When all is said and done, publishers must be compensated and authors must be acknowledged for contributions to credible scholarly publications. I simply make the point that the authoritative presentation of the printed page suffers when the subject is moving at the speed of light.
The editors of Communication and Cyberspacerecognize the theoretical contribution of those from the media ecologyperspective, e.g., McLuhan, Innis, Ong, Postman, and Meyrowitz. Postmodernculture and critical theory, as defined in the writings of Lyotard, Baudrillard,Jameson, and others, is seen as having considerable impact on the dialogue.As one would suspect, the diversity of views presented in the edited volumeis broad. However, and likely the result of the short history of this fieldof study, many of the sources cited show up repeatedly. The citation award,with more than thirty-eight mentions, goes to Howard Rheingold, authorof numerous books about life in cyberspace including, The Virtual Community:Life on the Electronic Frontier. Close behind are J. D. Bolter, WalterOng, Marshall McLuhan, and William Gibson-the cyberpunk author who firstcoined the term cyberspace in his science-fiction best-seller, Neuromancer. At the beginning of this review I said that thisbook had something for everybody. But what about the skeptic who is notso sure about all the techno razzle-dazzle and utopian visions of a brighter,friendlier, more democratic future through electronic communication? Oneonly need to turn to Neil Postman's epilogue, Cyberspace, Shmyberspacein which we are once again reminded that, "Technology does not touch life'sdeepest problems" (p. 381). The deluge of information delivered throughelectronic channels has become, "disconnected from theory, meaning andpurpose" (p. 380). Even so, perhaps we need to make every effort to understandits implications for both good and bad, and so be prepared to negotiateour journey from darkness into light. All the while we may do well to considerPostman's call to, "give up the notion that we may find solutions to ouremptiness through technology. We must now turn to our poets, playwrights,composers, theologians, and artists, who, alone, can create or restorethe narratives that will give a meaningful pattern to our lives" (p. 382).In this age of high-tech, their high-touch is more than comforting.