I am on Facebook, therefore I exist

We had to create three blogs for our course AEC 1131: The Internet Education and Community Development. This was my first experience creating a blogs. I decided to call my Blog: I am on Facebook, therefore I exist...to honor Descartes and the new relations and constructions consequence of internet and social networks.

For me there are three majors Gay Revolutions in the XX century: Stonewall, AIDS and Internet. The three of them had different effects and variation to the life of millions of gay people in the world.

Internet has many direct effects on gay's people, it provide a template for meeting people easily, allowing many people to come out of the closet and live more happy and complete lives. Therefore, internet is helping new generations of gays around the world to construct their identity, a gay identity, in the comfort and privacy of their own computer.

I would like to use my Blog 2 for talking about Facebook per se, and my Blog 3 for talking about Ciberdating and the social effects and dynamic around it.

In this firs blog I want to devote my lines to express how internet in latu sensu changed the way of adquiring knowledge, since now from a click, people have access to millions places with information. This bring some issues like: confidenciality, veracity, accuracy, and others.

We also have to focus on how internet, and social networks are related to community development. The closest example I can think of, it is the Facebook page that we got at the HIV Prevention Program of the Centre for Spanish-Speaking Peoples, where I work. We have access to the direct contact to the community, and they are a click away from asking us questions, concerns, counselling, etc.

I really think that internet changed everything, nowadays, if for whatever reason we have not internet in the school, home or work, we are pretty much useless, we can't work. 10 years ago, this was unthinkable. I am coming from a generation who has its first computer in 1998, same for internet. By that time I had finished two degress and one master. Therefore I never had the chance to experience studying with the help of the web. However, in my professional life, it has been 10 years since I have been using internet, and again, I can't imagine my life without it.

I think I have philosophical questions for this blog:

Rephrasing the title of my blog, for this particlar blog...if we are not on line, do we exist?

Of course, people would say, but If we have become this ciberhumans, and our existence is defined for: if we have access to internet. What are we able to do in internet?, How we feel without internet?. And to what extend our lives have become dependent, even addicted to internet, therefore what is left out for us, in a offline existance?

Any comments are welcome and I invite you to wait for the secong part, soon....