ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION A number of digital technologies-like the Internet, multimedia computing and interactive television-are poised to play an increasing role in our everyday lives. Media speculation has centred on the question of how these technologies may affect us in the future, typically suggesting dystopian or Utopian visions-Orwellian surveillance and impersonal virtual sex versus cosy teleworking at home and being able to study anywhere in the world at the virtual university. Research within the social sciences, on the other hand, has tended to provide more mundane scenarios of the implications of new technologies beyond such either/ors. Yet even among social theorists, there has recently been a trend towards emphasising the revolutionary implications of the new technologies, with talk of cyborgs, cybersociety and virtual selves (Escobar, 1994; cf. Schroeder, 1994).