I Have the Power!
By Ryan Rutherford
One would have been referring to ‘He-man’ to be saying “I have the Power!”. However, with the increasing connectivity and technology has made it so we all feel the power. The transfer of personal or interpersonal information and opinions is prevalent on multiple forms of media. So it cannot be considered surprising that with this great power, comes great responsibility. While tales of success on the internet are everywhere, taking many forms, there is an undeniable difference between our corporeal communities and their virtual counterpart, primal instinct.
Dr. Radvansky, Professor of Psychological Science at the University of Notre Dame Indianna, recently performed a study on peoples’ cognition in relation to environmental stimuli. Findings identified several interesting points, some of which are our memory is affected by the changes in environment, and our perception of these environments directly affects our memory. If so, then the environment we are in when we reach out to our virtual communities, is influencing both the memory and perception of events discussed or opinions voiced.

http://www.theprofetionel.com/can-software-differentiate-between-a-desktop-computer-and-a-laptop/

As Yi-Fu Tuan notes in the book Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, “Place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to the one and long for the other.” The perceived security of our place allows to us to open up to the idea of freedom represented by our control over what we choose to contribute to the virtual community. However, the reach of these intangible networks we connect to can exceed our intended audience.
On the other hand, the ability to compare and opportunity for compilation allows revolutions in concepts to take place between people with the same space, while not being able to share place. Take blogging for instance (since you are here), while the comparison to the genre of a diary are glaring, those who can share their ideas and influence others in any way can lead to great success or disastrous failure. Perhaps this can all be summed up with a classic, “Don’t baby-proof the world, world-proof the baby.”

• Kuttainen. Dr. V. (2016). BA1002 Our Space: Networks, Narrative and the making of Place. Lecture notes. Townsville: James Cook University.
• Yi-Fu, T. (1977). Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. USA. Edward Arnold Ltd.
• Radvansky, Dr. G. A. Saving-Enhanced Memory: The Benefits of Saving on the Learning and Remembering of New Information. Psychological Science February 1, 2015 26: 182-188