CYBER-SOCIETY

I'm curious to know what you think about cyber-societies? Over the years I have had the opportunity to participate in and observe several cyber-societies. That is my name for them. Yahoo calls them "groups," and Alex Brown Racing calls them "threads."

When I got my first computer in 1994, I discovered the PRODIGY "bulletin boards." This was a place where people could post questions or comments. I was surfing the horse BB, and one day answered a question about longeing horses. This led to a friendship with a woman with whom I still keep in touch. We've met in person several times and enjoy chatting. She's smart, well read, artistically talented, and has a great sense of humor.

After Barbaro broke his leg in the 2006 Preakness, I searched the web for updates on his progress and located a site called Tim Wooley Racing which was maintained by Alex Brown, a British exercise rider and a professor of technology on the college level. Interesting marriage of professions, isn't it? Anyway, I found that Alex made multiple daily updates on Barbaro due to his association with Michael Matz, Barbaro's trainer. It was the best place to go for the inside scoop.

As time passed, Alex expanded Tim's website to include a place for people to leave comments. The site exploded, experiencing hundreds of hits per day. Eventually Alex Brown decided to leave Tim Wooley and travel across the United States and work with various race horse trainers to gather material for a book. At that point he developed his own website and named it Alex Brown Racing.

After Barbaro died, I discovered a "Princess" thread on Alex's site, and began to follow the conversations. "Princess" was a QH mare due to foal at an equine rescue. The rescue had a camera set up on her stall so that we could join the foal watch, and I happened to be one of the lucky ones who saw her foal.

In the meantime I began to realize that the rescue not only rescued horses, they also rescued people -- many lost souls. Some of the people spent hours on the thread chatting with other followers -- I assume they are very lonely. Some are ill and invalids. And some, I suspect, are misfits who find a community online but not in actual life. And yes, some are extremely religious, God popping up at least once in each sentence (slight exaggeration). I realized that it really was no place for me, and I stopped following "Princess" and her foal because I could not relate to most of the people on the thread.

But it made me do some thinking about cyber-societies. I imagine there are pros and cons. Cyber-societies can be beneficial depending on the reason they exist. But when people forsake real "life" for a "virtual existence" then I think it crosses the line to an unhealthy obsession.

I do have to admit that I met one woman on the thread -- a teacher in my area. We have gotten together several times and enjoy chatting. She, too, sees the negatives in the cyber-society and limits her involvement to fund raising.

Our world has certainly changed, hasn't it? The World Wide Web has made it possible to link up with people we most likely would not have before computers entered our homes. So I am very curious to know about your experiences with cyber societies and what you think about them?