CyberSpace

In recent years the evolution of Cyberspace has hit our society and has rocketed in popularity. The word Cyberspace was coined by a fiction author called William Gibson. "He wanted a name to describe his vision of a global computer network, linking all people, machines and sources of information in the world, and through which one could move or "navigate" as through a virtual space".
It’s clear today that his vision has truly come true as cyberspaces is such a hit with all age groups throughout the world. The biggest hits are social networking sites. The sites with the largest followings we feel are:

1. Twitter, which allows to you follow the every move of our friends or celebrities. When following the celebrity culture on twitter you could say that it helps to bridge the space between our social settings.

2. Facebook, this site allows us to make friends with people the world over and we could say it helps to bridge the space between people. This site allows for us to maintain connect with old school friends, university friends, get involved with interesting groups of people, we can chat, show pictures and generally feel close to people no matter where they are in the world.

3. Myspace, this site was established for people to share and express themselves through music. Where bands, singers and groups could post their music and music lovers could browse through and listen at ease. It was a space where people could post their music playlist, newly written songs and hope that this could be their big break into the music industry. For many, music is about expression and having somewhere they can express themselves no matter what mood they are is phenomal. It also had the option of profile setting similar to facebook.

4. Bebo, this site was for a younger audience its popularity however has diminished with the establishment of the above three sites. However, its contribution to the evolution of cyberspace can not be left out. Like the other above sites it allowed for your friends to view your status, put your favourite bands, food, film etc and create an online profile of yourself.

Also, one can’t forget Skye and MSN when discussing cyberspace. Skype now allows us to chat through cyberspace to relatives, friends etc at the other side of the world, the next town or the next room. In my experience skpye allows me to stay in contact with my uncle and his family in Canada and my parents/family/friends in Ireland. It allows us to chat and see the other person as if you were having a face to face chat. Has skype broken the barrier of long distance travel, relationships etc? Has it in fact broken down the space between people the world over?

While these four sites and skype have help breach the spatial distances the world over they could also be said to have breached our personal space. With the development of constant status updates everyone the world over can see if we are happy, sad, walking the dog or taking a drive. Have we lost our personal space through the emergence of cyberspace?