Participation and the eLonely

Participation is no doubt a key concept in understanding what’s going on. When someone is just surfing now and then, they are like tourists, superficially interested and maybe easy to cheat. When someone spends a lot of time in different “virtual worlds” (a word that has to be renegotiated), playing games, blogging, or whatever, they are citizens. But what about those who spends a fair bit of time on the net, but never really “get connected”? Who are we? The eLonely?

We, the eLonely, are a reaching out, trying to participate, missing the points, talking rubbish like everyone else, but not the right rubbish. The eLonely are virtually pathetic; who we are elsewhere doesn’t matter.

Sometimes I think that if a give up blogging (etcetera), I will be wandering around the net. Not like the “tourists” mentioned earlier, but like a virtual hobo. I wonder if there are many virtual hoboes out there.

That is a field in need of inquiry. And funding. The question is how you go from eLonely to virtual hobo. What are the characteristics of these social and mental “traversals”? Is it possible to extend the metaphor? What about eShelters? What is the “e-” equivalent to soup or rags or supermarket wagons?