Max Padilla was at the University of California at Berkeley in 1995 when he wrote this article for The Village Voice, a New York weekly that covers arts, culture, and politics.
"Affirmative Access: A Gay Chicano Lost in Cyberspace" (Composing Cyberspace p. 121) is not available online.
1. Padilla uses many cyberspace- and culture-related terms that may be unfamiliar to some readers, such as technophobes, usenet, thread, emoticon, Santeria, and wetback. Make a list of unfamiliar terms and see how many you can define from the context in which they're used before turning to the Cyberspace Glossary. What meanings can you determine for made-up terms such as affirmative access, Netopian and cybertistas? Based on Padilla's vocabulary and use of language, how would you describe the audience he seems to be writing for?
2. How would you describe Padilla's goals and expectations about cyberspace, and how do these seem to have changed for him over time?
3. What are the sources of Padilla's disappointment in the Internet? How sympathetic are you to his online frustrations, and why?
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