human factors
Many of us don’t realize how truly unique each of us is.. DNA molecules can join in an infinite number of ways. The number is 10 raised to the power 2,400,000,000. The number is the probability that you will ever find someone like you. If you were to write that number with each zero an inch wide, you would need a strip of paper 37,000 miles long!
To put this in perspective, some scientists have guessed that all the particles in the universe are probably less than 10 with 76 trailing zeros, much less than the chances of our individual DNA. Our uniqueness is a scientific fact of life.
Our uniqueness is what creates variety in human interactions. So, with such uniqueness, what common features unite us? Human composition can be classified into four elements: 1) Intellectual, 2) Physical, 3) Emotional and 4) Spiritual. Our life experiences shape each of our four elements and together with our DNA we define ourselves. Taken together, our elements represent the gifts and life skills we have, both good and bad, that we ultimately share with others through future exchanges and experiences.
When we enter the virtual world we do so with the history and experience of human relationships in our physical world. What and with whom we associate tends to follow the shape of our physical world thus creating our technological DNA of affinities. Our personality will affect how and where we use our gifts and abilities within virtual communities. For example, two people may have similar intellectual knowledge and experiences, but if one is an introvert and the other an extrovert, that intellectual knowledge will be expressed differently.
The more we participate in virtual worlds, the more pronounced our technological DNA and virtual personalities become.. Like stained glass, our different personalities reflect different shades of light within virtual communities. Our virtual life takes different forms as we begin to express ourselves to others individually and collectively through the groups in which we participate. Our virtual life also takes shape based on which groups we belong to and with whom we are connected.. Our physical life is shaped by our past experiences of the physical world. In determining our form within the virtual world, one must consider what they desire for future experiences.
The physical life experiences that we bring into our virtual life include:
- family experiences: What did we learn?
- educational experiences: What topics interest us most?
- vocational experiences: In which jobs have we been most effective and enjoyed the most?
- spiritual experiences: What have we learned from our own spiritual walk?
- Community experience: what have you learned from and about providing services to communities?
- Painful experiences: From what problems, wounds, thorns and trials have we learned? What have these experiences taught you that others can benefit from learning from and through you?
The human factor of the virtual world connects people where they are and provides the means to help people benefit from others in order to get to where they would like to be.. The essence of community in the virtual world is to help others learn, connect, earn and exchange in a meaningful way, not unlike our physical world, but the technological medium broadens our reach and enables richness of relationships.
Social networks allow people to harness their human factors for the benefit of others, thus creating an exchange of donations that provides enrichment. This characteristic is one of the factors that create attraction for people to participate in social networks. The technological medium has accelerated individual abilities to reach more people than we ever could in the physical world. This new scope extends the promise of fulfillment through human relationships that enrich human experiences of giving, sharing, learning, relating, and reinforcing or enhancing one’s identity.
Our virtual world can amplify current factors in our human relationships in the physical world or create new opportunities for us to enhance factors for ourselves and those with whom we are connected, both physically and virtually.
What you say?
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