A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow

What is Cyberspace?

According to Rabab Jaffery said:

"Cyberspace" is a place to make connections with people far and wide, from places all over the world.The interactions and behaviors observed in this virtual world are yet another interesting aspect to delve into."

How the word "Cyberspace" coined?

The word "cyberspace" was coined by the science fiction author-William Gibson. When he sought a name to describe his vision of a global computer network,linking all people, machines and sources of information in the world, and through which one could move or "navigate" as through a virtual space.

The word "cyber" referring to the science of *cybernetic, as it derives from the Greek verb "Kubernao", which means " to steer" and which is the root of our present word " to govern"/It connotes both the idea of navigation through a space of electronic data, and of control which is achieved by manipulating those data.
For example: in one of his novels Gibson describes how someone, by entering cyberspace, could steer computer-controlled helicopters to a different target. Gibson's cyberspace is thus not a space of passive data,such as a libray: its communication channels connect to the real world.

* Cybernetics defines as a science of information and communication, and cyberspace's substrate is precisely the joint network of all existing communication channels and information stores connecting people and machines.

In Gibson word's:
The word "space" connotes to 3 aspects which are:
1. A space has a virtually infinite extension, including many things that they can never be grasped all at once. This is a existing collections of electronic data, such as Internet.
2. It is a space that connotes the idea of free movement, of being able to visit a variety of states or places.
3.A space has some kind of a geometry, implying concepts such as distance,direction and dimension.

How cyberspace related to cyber communication?

Cyber communication is a mental process that occur during the communications that take place in cyberspace. Cyber communication overrules real life communication with some of its unique features: the ease of all-day access. the wide range and diversity of communications possible (all in one time), and the option of keeping one's identity anonymous are some of its attractions. A great advantages that interaction in cyberspace has is that it is unrestricted by a time frame, hence giving the time and opportunity to think and restructure thoughts before they are sent out as words.So, cyberspace becomes a great field for socialization and meeting people that are probably hard to come across in real life. 

Influences Cyber-communication on today's youth

• Influences in the personal Domain

Positive

It provides opportunities for valued learning, responsibility, and independence.Students can learn to manage time and resources effectively, master the art of accessing and processing skills gained in a meaningful context and communicate this information clearly to the intended audience.Integrating the Internet with communication allows students to share personal perspectives,knowledge, and experiences and structure discussions for debate.

Negative 

Access to personal information. Just a press of a button, the personal information such as address,phone number even directions to someone's house can be find out.It is becoming increasingly hard to protect children from unsafe access to their personal information.

• Influences in the Social Domain

Positive

Expanded the social circle.Youth are actively using Internet as an important form of social interaction.Young people find that online chat is an important form of communication and there is no longer restraint on the limitation of geographic locations.Cyber communication helps children who might not to confident to communicate to do so quite well over the Internet.

Negative

Jokes for a rest:

A father sitting in front the computer and using Facebook sending a message to his son

My dear son, Ken,

Long time no see, how are you recently?

Daddy and Mummy miss you so much.

and your sister already grow taller and taller.

For concern, please don't online everyday.

You must have enough sports, or if you are free.....
Please shut down your computer,
and come downstairs and have dinner with us, is it ok with it?

So, this is the cons of cyber communication as less direct human contact thus social isolation for adolescents and the impact on family relations .Besides that, there are no repercussions personally and causes cyber-bullying,cyber-stalking,cyber-harassment conversations,or"flaming", a public personal attack, where people demonstrate verbal aggression.

• Influences in the Emotional Domain

Positive

Used as a vehicle for youth to express themselves. Many students access healthy resources like suicide hot-lines, support groups, information on medical conditions and contact with appropriate organizations. This interaction helps to give them a support system outside of their immediate environment to assist in dealing with emotional issues.

Negative

The ability of finding resources regarding the emotional domain can be harmful.There are hemlock(suicide) societies online.There is information on how to build bombs, self-mutilate,be sexually active.participate in drug use and many other illegal and illicit activities .(Payne,2006) Children expose to these unhealthy emotional ideas and outlets that they otherwise would not be aware of until a more mature age normally.

In the article by John Perry Barlow,

It said that Cyberspace is a space that have no elected government and sovereignty.This space is building by naturally independent and it won't exist any tyrannies and  government derive. This cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of the communications.I like this sentences he describe for the freedom in cyberspace :" Cyberspace is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live". It means that they have no sovereignty and influences the freedom of speech , writing and thinking and it is a precincts for people to share their perspective , knowledge ,experiences and structure discussions of debate. In the cyberspace world, people can express his or her beliefs , no matter how singular,without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.

As conclusion, I think that the author shouldn't be so subjective as the cyberspace without rules and regulation will create many social problems too. Everything has it goods and bad , just in what angle we view on the thing.Cyberspace with freedom of speech can let people express and sharing their mind or thought freely but there are some bad thinking people will use the advantages to do some illegal activities. If the future generation influence by them, there will create a big and unsolvable problem for the society. So, we should smart use for the freedom resources that provide by the cyberspace.

Related link:

Barlow, J. P. (1996, February 8th). A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace 

https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html

Heylighen, F. ( 1994, October 17). Cyberspace 

http://pcp.lanl.gov/CYBSPACE.html

JAFFERY, R. (2009, January 19th). Psychology of Cyber Communication. Retrieved August 23th, 2011, from Islamic Insights: 

http://www.islamicinsights.com/features/technology/psychology-of-cyber-communication.html

Marie A. Wakefield, M. a. (2008). The Impact of Cyber-Communication on Today's Youth.