ABSTRACT
Reflecting on the 21st century reveals communities which are no longer defined by their geographic or even physical boundaries. Individuals can be in several places at one time (Bugeja, 2005), can increasingly participate in global events when they happen through viewing them in action on screens that can even be carried in a pocket. Work no longer needs to take place in a physical “workplace.” We can create and revise our own virtual identities, appearances, functionality, and methods of interacting. We can shop internationally from our living rooms and enter virtual and actual theme parks that provide us with familiarity and comfort. We can communicate with great immediacy across the globe in languages that we may not even speak. We text message, e-mail, log on, blog, podcast, and become actors on virtual stages of our own films. We can access libraries, museums, across the globe from our homes and can meet face to face even if we are physically situated in different continents. Time is no longer simply a linear chronological measurement. We live among people who originated from distant geographic locations throughout the globe. And we can uncouple ourselves from our bodies as we
interact, earn, play, and even engage in sex in virtual spaces.
