cybertime

Due to the fact that space and time are independent of one another it makes perfect sense that their counterparts, cyberspace and cybertime similarly exist on their own. Truthfully I have never thought to separate cybertime from what I percieve to be real time. Time is still passing while you are in cyberspace, but after reading this chapter, it has made me realize some significant differences, and be able to disassociate the two. Strate mentions three important components of cybertime, which include the computer's time function, the medium itself as a symbol of time, and our perception of time in our interactive experience spent on our computer, and with an online community.

I think the first mentioned of the time function is very clear cut; it allowed the intrinsic and extrinsic time of the outside world to be measured and coincide. Furthermore, the comparison to the clock has made it more tangible and easier to understand; they both produce pure information. An important difference though between a traditional clock or watch and digital time is that it focuses on the present whereas a clock is additionally representative of the past and the future. In a previous class we had discussed it in a way that really put this into perspective for me. At a certain point, say 7:40, it is easy to say that 7:38 is closer in time than 7:50, because visually and spatially it is. But in the scheme of actual time it is so much further. I think this idea of digital time, is synonymous with cybertime, and perhaps explains our difficulty in perceiving it as separate from real time. It is hard to understand it as on the same playing field as cyberspace, because you cannot see the greater picture; you are living in the moment, and do not feel like you are existing inside of it.

After watching the South Park world of warcraft episode (since I have never actually played the game) it definitely put cybertime into perspective, just as Strate describes it in the computer as a medium. Although real time is passing while one is playing a game, there is a definite sense of virtual time, where one is completely absorbed in a different world, and is practically a different person. The immersive quality of virtual reality coupled with a variety of modes representing time, give me a much better sense of not only time spent on your computer or other media, but in it.