« Triumph the Insult Dog Examines an "Imagined Community" and Concludes: Star Wars Fans Will Die Alone | Main | Flowers for a Stranger »
July 19, 2005
Taking out the Trash
Wiggling deeper into the corner of the couch, I carefully adjust the red fleece blanket over my crossed legs while balancing an open laptop. Having written and explored online communities in this position for hours, my clumsy words only peer back at me from the screen. They seem to huddle in cyberspace like shy teenagers on the first day of school. Ignoring them, my lazy eyes wander over to the screen’s shiny tinsel frame, the edge of cyberspace, and atop the ruby red fleece covering my squirming legs I watch it rise and fall like a silver dolphin on a scarlet sea.
The "edge" of cyberspace is one I can physically see on my aluminum Mac but remains blurred in my mind; distinguishing between these domains as “physical space” and “cyberspace” feels too Cartesian to be believable. Yet beyond this less than metaphysical "edge" I see my cluttered coffee table supporting some strewn papers, pens and a pair of sunglasses, a hair band, some opened mail, a dirty dish and several empty cans of Diet Coke. I have not thrown out the mail or empty cans because my kitchen trash is full, a weak but successful attempt at temporarily avoiding the inevitable.
I empty my virtual trash much more often than my kitchen trash. Ironically, my virtual trash, indicated by a "trash can" icon on my OS 10.3.3 desktop, will never be “full.” But my kitchen trash is not so enjoyable to empty, currently stuffed with soup cans and dirty napkins squished with grape stems and hairballs and orange juice cartons. Even worse, the icy winters and humid summers in Boston amplify the effort and risk needed to complete the task, including a change of clothes or the danger of slipping on icy stairs or simply the horrid, muggy smell. The primary difference between these activities seems sensory; perhaps sensation is the most powerful distinction between living in "physical space" and "cyberspace."
My classmates helped me decide on a website today—EverQuest Widows—an online community where individuals who are in relationships with someone addicted to EverQuest can seek support and advice. EverQuest is a "Massive Multiperson Online Role-Playing Game" (MMORPG) with over twenty thousand(?) members, many of whom claim they are addicted. Yet, after having lost or been threatened with the loss of their partners because the cyberspace community is perceived as more valuable than the physical community in the home, the "widow(er)s" ironically defer to the very source of their anguish for support: an online community. I wonder what I'll learn from these individuals about how to love or leave someone who might be a slacker when it comes to "taking out the trash."
Posted by Jennifer at July 19, 2005 12:53 AM
Comments
how to love or leave someone who might be a slacker when it comes to "taking out the trash."
LOL. that's priceless! men - frustrating little creatures, aren't they? ;)
Posted by: Aayesha at July 21, 2005 08:17 PM