How much of this affects our digital culture?  I suspect that many people get into comfortable ruts online just as they do in the real world.  It’s an overused phrase these days, but “early adopters” remain few in number and most of us (well, me) react to online elements that have been suggested to us (or me).  And we want things to work.  I want my interaction with my online presence to be seamless and flowing.  However, this is not always the case.  I’ve spent 2 days trying to download software in college that would be great for my final assignment.  But it’s incompatible with my newly issued laptop.  This is where the frustration comes in and we find that we need our culture to support us.  In our real world culture, if something upsets me I can phone a friend or go for a walk.  When the whirly wheel on the download report sticks in the virtual mud and refuses to whirl again, what do I do?

"Like a spiral within a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, ever turning, every spinning..."

I think that this is why the ethnography assignment has been so interesting.  I’ve been observing an online group that provides support to teachers.  Now I’m conscious of how solitary my online presence has been as I tend to  reinvent the wheel rather than ask for help.

And that fear?  I’ll be forever haunted by the scene from “The IT Crowd” where Jen brings “the internet” to the shareholders’ meeting and then “breaks it”.  Laugh though I will, part of me, deep down inside, thinks that this may actually be possible.