Part One. Lexicon:
1. savvy, the ability to navigate in social circles with poise, confidence, and tact
2. socially inept, the opposite of savvy (see paragraph 1); see 383, bottom paragraph
3. anti-social, aversion to human interaction; see 388, last two paragraphs; but then Denise becomes social after divorcing Brandon.
4. metaphor, an image represents an idea, see paragraph 2: Multi-User Dungeon represents the social imprisonment of these computer nerds
5. disconnect between virtual world and real world; see paragraph 2: “the bar” in the MUD chat area
6. failure of modernity, see paragraph 3: you have all your material and technological needs met, yet you’re bored, your life is in a vacuum and you seek even greater technology to quiet your restless soul.
7. Slippery slope: one misguided step towards happiness leads to several misguided steps until one descends into madness: this is the essay in a nutshell.
8. Nutshell; condensing a large body of work into its essence; see above
9. Utopian Foster Home; see 381, paragraphs 4 and 5; recipe for disaster: you take a bunch of misfits who gather together to find paradise and you get chaos, disappointment, and tragedy
10. Irony: Walden named after Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Walden,” which celebrates the natural world. See 383, middle paragraph
11. T-3 Pipe: fiber-optic data line that can handle the telecommunication needs of a small country. “Come for the bandwidth, Stay for the Community” 381 bottom
12. Misfits: See page 382, top paragraph
13. Monolithic group: 383, second to last paragraph and 386 bottom and 387 top
14. Siren song, see page 382: “The siren song of the T-3” is an alluring song that entices sailors on ships who navigate toward ocean rocks and crash to their deaths.
15. Four Basic emotional needs: sense of belonging, sense of personal distinction and identity, a job that interest you and utilizes your deepest talents, to love and to be loved; see page 383 top: Walden promises a sense of belonging and identity and even love and many people work in the computer industry so that Walden is everything to them. See bottom of 390 in which Bosch buys a house, but moves back to Walden; see how close-knit the group is on page 391, tackling burglars, for example.
16. Alter egos, see page 384 top 3 paragraphs
17. Protocols; rules needed for social interaction because these adult children have no social etiquette, see page 385 and 386, the violent language.
18. Computer addiction and “Dude”; see 387; also see 389 top in which Denise and Brandon’s marriage dissolves. Many of the residents are on the drugs and become paranoid and helpless at the prospect of being evicted from Walden; see 395
19. Betrayal (paint) is a turning point at Walden; see 391, 392
20. Anomie; breakdown of social norms and values resulting in chaos; see 392-394; it becomes necessary for property owner Birney to issue new rules at bottom of 394.
Part Two. Study Questions for “Love and War in Cyberspace” by Katy Vine 380
1. What kind of people are drawn to the techno-paradise known as Walden?
2. How is Walden a perversion or corruption of Henry David Thoreau’s essay of the same name?
3. What promises and high expectations does Walden deliver and how does it succeed or fail at meeting those promises and expectations?
4. What kind of addictive behavior is evident at Walden and what seem to be the causes of this addictive behavior?
5. What is the fraud behind virtual relationships?
6. What unique dangers are spawned from an online community?
Part Three. The 8 Characteristics of Virtual World
1. The VW allows you to escape your daily frustrations.
2. The VW allows you to escape from the intense pain of having no intimacy in your life, both romantic and social.
3. The VW becomes a way of procrastinating your responsibilities.
4. The VW can incite chemical reactions in your brain that become addictive.
5. The VW presents you with manageable challenges, giving you a sense of control and achievement when you would otherwise feel overwhelmed by a lack of control and a sense of personal failure.
6. It’s easier to go back and delete your mistakes in a VW and star all over again than it is in real life.
7. The VW allows you to erase or hide your real self, the one you either despise or feel is inadequate or both, and it allows you to recreate yourself with bells and whistles so that you have more confidence.
8. The VW provides you with a sense of belonging in the “online community” when in the real world you’re overcome by a sense of constant loneliness and isolation.
Part 4 Defining the foundation of your essay—your thesis
1. One sentence that declares or asserts a position that can be demonstrated with examples.
2. The examples can be expressed in mapping statements or mapping components.
3. Avoids being self-evident or obvious but creates new insights.
4. A good thesis is visceral, from the gut, meaning you have an immediate emotional connection to it. The intellect comes later.
Examples:
Eighty % of Americans polled believe that America is on the “wrong track.”
Americans’ pessimistic attitude regarding the direction of our country can be attributed to _________________, _____________________, _____________________, and _________________________.
The cost of the war in Iraq in both blood and treasure.
The national debt.
Increased gas costs and price of crude oil.
Biggest jobless rate jump in month in 20 years. (5 to 5.5 %)
Part Five. Homework: Come up with the 4 blanks
Option 1: “Love and War in Cyberspace” 380. 5-page outline: In the first 2 pages, analyze the causes of social dysfunction described in the essay. Then in about 3 pages, use research to show how the apartment complex is a microcosm for an emerging social dysfunction in our Age of Information. As such the thesis would like this: The apartment complex is a microcosm for an emerging social dysfunction emerging in our Information Age, which consists of __________________, ___________________, ___________________, and _______________________. You would flesh out the mapping components for the essay's last 3 pages.
