Cyberspace, real place: Thoughts on doing in contemporary occupations

Abstract

Today, the distinction between cyberspace and real space represents a false dichotomy. Wireless laptop computers, personal digital assistant devices and similar emergent information and communication technology (ICT) objects, along with the cyberspace/ internet information they mediate, may be intervening between what and how we are able to ‘do’ in real places. This phenomenon is seen in many contemporary occupations in the westernized world and intensifies the connections among occupation, place, and the internet. In this article, we begin to examine this connection, starting from Hocking's person‐object interaction model. Advocating the addition of an informational domain to objects in the model, we discuss its application to internet informational mediating ICT objects. Examples are used to illustrate the complexities of introducing ICT objects and the information they mediate, to a place or across different places, and how their inclusion in occupational scientists’ conscious consideration may contribute to the discipline's broader understanding of many contemporary occupations.