(summary Web Culture conference – February the 10th – Lyon)

Virginia Heffernan developed several points : the social opportunities of internet, the cultural catastrophe and the likely reactions, and the safety feeling caused by the apps.

She had her first contact with internet in 1978, with US army’s chats. Since then she have reckoned that it was a wondreful way for practising how to present herself, working on her social-skills, talking to complete strangers (even from a different social background), being more confident without being nervous or blushing, inventing herself… being a “social super-hero”. But she also realised that her lies could and would be reveal, and after an actual date with another user she left internet (for a time) for the reality, which seemed more interesting.

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(summary Web Culture conference – February the 10th – Lyon)

Antonio A. Casili concentrated particularly on the effect of the web on our networks : does the web change the size and shape of humans groups, does it create new links ?
At the beginning of internet, it was considered as potentially risky ; cutting people from others, bringing isolation. Some studies spread this idea, especially one led by Robert Krauf (Internet Paradox, 1998), which noticed that “greater use of the Internet was associated with declines in participants’communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness“. Offline and online life would be directly related, increase of online relationships would cause a decrease of offline relatitionships. But this conclusion was disproved by another survey by Kraut himself (Internet Paradox Revisited, 2001), which deduced that this increase wasn’t relevant and possibily caused by a transition / adaptation time.
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The conference “Web Culture: New Modes of Knowledge, New Sociabilities” was held yesterday (10th February) at l’Institution des Chartreux in Lyon. Hosted by Sylvain Bourmeau (journalist for Mediapart), the speakers were Dominique Cardon (sociologist, researcher), Antonio A. Casili (sociologist, researcher) and Virginia Heffernan (journalist, New York Times Magazine), and talked about how internet changed our access to knowledge, art and the others.
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