What I have learned
Well i guess this is a little late, being started at 12:15, but nonetheless its not too late 
well atleast5 beers to late atleast
I have come to view the internet in a different light. It has changed a bit from a purely unromantic side to a more romantic side where one can have many of their desires realized is a different fashion. I had participated in a online forum for several years which did give me a well rounded perspective of the internet. This class has inspired me to re-enter the online experience to harken back to the days before web.20. To go back to the days when you talk to people who you are interested in and try to gain rank by posting constantly. I now have this romantic notion that the internet has this sociological community which has warm and fuzy feelings independent of the cold text.
I have had a geeky interest in Warhammer, which is a complicated game with plastic/medal models where you have pitched battles where you try to annihilate the enemy. So inspired by the embracement of web communities i decided to joint this website called warseer.
Over all i was not unfamiliar with alot of the internet terms and jargon, yet i was intrigued how the authors can make the internet such a fantastical romantic place. Even the article about the internet rape puts that community in some kind of epic terms where the all of the greatest minds of the lands congregate to deal with the problem. It makes me think of places and things that seem so cool, yet in many cases i have participated in these exact things and experienced that transition from newbie to veteran.
I do agree that the internet is a field that is underdeveloped and can explain alot about human nature, but really how far are these authors romanticizing the reality of thins that are really going on. Or maybe i have it wrong, in that this is just part of the medium, whether the author is enthusiastically talking about a bingo(as in gambling) community that pulls together to help people in comparison to an online one that helps people may just be the same thing. When you are a participant of something any ones outside view is going to be different.
