Week 5 Tech Journal: Virtual Reality
Due to my extensive background in computer hardware and software, I feel that I have a much better understanding of what the physical space behind my computer screen looks like and how it is connected to the world-wide web of the internet. Behind our screen is a display consisting of millions of pixels in which we can physically see the user interface of our computer, as well as access the internet via our web browser of choice. Behind our screen is physically a logic board that is connected to our computer via a type of display cord — in my case a display port. When I press a button, the signal goes from our computer, out through the Ethernet port and through our own personal home network. From there, our service provider of choice gets the information through packets and sends these packets out to the server that is hosting the data we are trying to access, then sends the data back to our computer. From the perspective of our cellphones, the same connection is created from our phone to the internet, however it goes through the air via a cellular connection; starting from our phone and going out the the cell tower to grab the information we requested and sending back the information attempted to be accessed.
For myself, the space of the internet is a place where I communicate with friends and family through social media, search and do research for school assignments, listen to music, watch movies, and enjoy live streaming my favorite video games. I have an online self, separate from my physical self through the avenues of social media websites, as well as all of my accounts that I have signed up for for various stores and other groups and services I use. The space of my mind also stores information about who I am, but is my physical self; where the representation of this information is in the virtual world via the internet. While my mind holds all of the information about me like a physical hard drive, the internet holds this information in the cloud. What is interesting about this idea of having an online identity is that it does not have to be a replica of my physical self — I get to choose how I want to portray myself online. It is my choice to include only what I want people to see and know about me, where it is much easier to hide behind your screen and exclude parts of your life that are less desirable than doing so in person in the physical world.
