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