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The ideas Best Home Theater Subwoofer of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" Best Home Theater Subwoofer and what is considered "off-line" has become Best Home Theater Subwoofer a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and Best Home Theater Subwoofer "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. Best Home Theater Subwoofer real life or meatspace). Slater states that Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support 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 an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" Best Home Theater Subwoofer relationship, such Best Home Theater Subwoofer as being pen-pals. He Best Home Theater Subwoofer also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in Best Home Theater Subwoofer 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 Best Home Theater Subwoofer voice-over-IP) Best Home Theater Subwoofer has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the Best Home Theater Subwoofer sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet Best Home Theater Subwoofer research".[7]
Slater Best Home Theater Subwoofer asserts that Best Home Theater Subwoofer there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with Best Home Theater Subwoofer a "general tendency to Best Home Theater Subwoofer assimilate online to offline and erase the Best Home Theater Subwoofer distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean Best Home Theater Subwoofer that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater Best Home Theater Subwoofer legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to Best Home Theater Subwoofer be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be Best Ebay Snipe Tool seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within Best Home Theater Subwoofer 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is Best Home Theater Subwoofer sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to Best Home Theater Subwoofer explain "off-line" activities, rather than Best Home Theater Subwoofer (as per the conventions of the desktop Best Home Theater Subwoofer metaphor with its Best Home Theater Subwoofer desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where Best Home Theater Subwoofer "All items are actual size!", where shoppers Best Home Theater Subwoofer may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where Best Home Theater Subwoofer "Merchandise may be Best Home Theater Subwoofer handled prior to purchase!". |