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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into Best Rss Feeds the field of human interpersonal Best Rss Feeds relationships. The distinction Best Rss Feeds between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered Best Rss Feeds "off-line" has Best Rss Feeds become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or Best Rss Feeds meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support Best Rss Feeds his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between Best Rss Feeds an "on-line" relationship, such Best Rss Feeds as indulging in Best Rss Feeds cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. Best Rss Feeds He also argues that even the Best Rss Feeds telephone can Best Rss Feeds be regarded as an "on-line" experience Best Rss Feeds in Best Rss Feeds some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to Best Rss Feeds use the term 'on-line' Best Rss Feeds meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there Best Rss Feeds are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and Best Rss Feeds "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater Best Rss Feeds legal status may be assigned to on-line Best Western Seven Seas relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just Sydney Dining Best Cheap as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard Best Rss Feeds to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a Best Rss Feeds purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that Best Home Owners Insurance Quotes an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction Best Rss Feeds may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" Best Rss Feeds within 10 years
The distinction where Best Rss Feeds "on-line" is seen Best Rss Feeds as virtuality and "off-line" as reality Best Rss Feeds is sometimes inverted, with Best Rss Feeds "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain Best Rss Feeds "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The Best Rss Feeds New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Best Radios Saint Peter asking for a user name and a Best Rss Feeds password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise Best Rss Feeds may be handled prior to Best Rss Feeds purchase!". |
