Internet and the Prospects of Online Social Networks

            In William Gibson’s novel, Pattern Recognition, one of the major themes is the increasing impact of the Internet and the prospects of online social networks on a person’s life. The growing dependency of the Internet is shown through the main character, Cayce’s life.

From the very beginning of the novel, we learn that Cayce posts regularly on a blog called F:F:F which “has become one of the most consistent places in her life…”(4). This emphasizes her reliance on the Internet for a stable and enjoyable life. She then completes her statement comparing the blog site to “a familiar café that exists somehow outside of geography and time zones”(4). A café is a common place that people meet frequently or go to on a routine basis, which is comparable to the Internet in which people in completely different places around the world can meet and chat. The Internet is a whole new environment that opens up the possibilities for people to meet that would never get the opportunity to before because of distance.

The growing dependency on the Internet comes with risks as well. As Cayce starts to put her opinions and information up on F:F:F, she comes to have a close relationship with another blogger, Parkaboy. It comes to a point where she trusts him as if she has known him in a real relationship, rather than purely through the Internet, and she even goes to Tokyo purely on the information of Parkaboy. “She’s spoken with Parkway twice before, and both times it’s been odd, in the way that initial telephone conversations with people you’ve gotten to know well on the Net, yet have never met, are odd”(139). Although Cayce places all her trust in Parkaboy, she hardly even knows him on a personal basis, so much that she has only heard his voice a couple times. Through the Internet, people begin to trust people that they don’t know in the real world. While it can be good that you can meet new people, it could also be bad because you don’t really know whom you are talking to.

In the book, Pattern Recognition, William Gibson prophesizes about a future where the Internet consumes a person’s life. Through Cayce’s life we see the positive and negative outcomes of the Internet.