Audience and Voice

Museum of Me

In Ellen Ullman’s essay, The Museum of Me she criticizes the Internet for disconnecting people from communities.

I disagree with Ullman’s argument about the evils of the internet.  It may have been more accurate in 2000 when the piece was published but I believe that the internet has opened up more communication and revealed more cultural opportunities to people who would not otherwise have had access.

The main problem that I have with Ullman’s essay is that she makes universal claims about the nature of the Internet (this is brought up in bullet point 5 at the end of the reading).  While I am certain that some people withdraw into a private world on the Internet many others use the internet to interact with people.  Since the essay was written the explosion of websites like facebook.com, blogger.com, any number of online discussion boards support community oriented discussion and interaction.  Not to mention the new popularity of online gaming communities.

My wife uses the Internet to blog, facebook and twitter.  All of which she tells me are in fact verbs.  She is connected to her friends and they are her community, even though some live in different hemispheres.

As to the lack of in person contact, Ullman’s fears of society receding into the Internet just aren’t justified.  The Internet may be an unavoidable time sink for some.  But, I can’t go hiking on the Internet or ride my bike there.  I can’t play with my seven-month-old boy on the internet (although he thinks web cams are hilarious).

Off topic, because this has been bothering me since I read it, the game the kids are playing that Ullman talks about is clearly not Sonic the Hedgehog.  Sonic was a single player game involving a super fast hedgehog.  It did not involve castles, cities, or killing each other as the kids discuss… there may have been ladders.