Virtuality

It would seem that today’s world is becoming two worlds. The virtual plane of existence is an online dramaturgy where all the world wide web’s a stage. The real world is much less flexible, constrained by time and space, social norms and prejudices.

Marc Prensky argues that the online life being created by today’s techno-geek is merely communication in its evolutionary form that the online world is an exciting, new and emergent form of life. Dave Weinberger, on the other hand, seems to hint that life on line is like a box of chocolates ...you never know what you are really going to get. What you think you have managed to glean from an online experience might be thrown into disarray the next time you log in.

Weinberger opens his essay with a warning. “When Michael Ian Campbell used an online alias, no one was suspicious. After all choosing a name by which you’ll be known on the Web is a requirement ...” (Weinberger, 1)

Weinberger alludes to the idea that any combination of personality traits you want to test out can come to life in an online environment whether it’s a chat room or a virtual world in the guise of an avatar. It’s a place where you are afforded safety from judgement over your true self. Especially from the awkwardness of personal interactions, body language and facial expressions that everyday life confronts you with. Prensky agrees; “Online relationships are not affected by the ‘lookism’ and status that is so important and frustrating in kid’s face-to-face social lives – online you and other people are judged only by what you say and produce. Reputations and influence are earned, and not based on social caste.” (Prensky, 12)

The problem with written conversation is that it lacks intonation, body language and facial expression, not to mention accent, wit and sarcasm. Even in a face-to-face situation with all of these visual signals there is the still the reasonable chance someone might misinterpret your meaning, let alone a situation, without it all. Without visual signals there is the chance that what you say might get you fired, land you in jail or equally as bad the hospital psych wing. “John Paul Denning found himself locked up in the Bellevue hospital’s ward for the mentally disturbed ... because he’d written an email to an old friend in which he said, ‘Maybe I should stop showing people my new gun, but I’m so proud of it. Makes me feel like a real New Yorker,’ as well as some references to the mayhem he could commit.” (Weinberger)

It’s not all danger Will Robinson, danger though. Denning was sent before a board of inquiry and his job reinstated “when he was able to show that the email was meant as dark humour to a close friend.” Weinberger’s angle of argument definitely warns us about the potential for the internet to do harm to us by crossing over the virtual threshold from the online domain to the real one. It appears though that the internet is just another step in our technological and human evolution combined.

For the people, whose ordinary life is just that, it opens up an opportunity to become on line what they can never bring themselves to be in reality. Online role playing games (RPG) allow for transformation into character much like an actor does on a stage. Fantasy fulfilment might involve things that people would never have the courage or stomach for in real life. For example role playing games create socially accepted violence against constructed beings. The sense of killing a living thing in the virtual world is neither frowned upon nor punishable – unless of course you lose. Alternately there is the nurturing side of the gamer that can be fulfilled through the need to feed, love and pay attention to their online creations. So do we play the games or are we playing games?

The widely agreed norm is that the internet is an unreal world where we must be cautious and not to reveal too much of our true selves. Being careful about what information we share both privately and in an open public forum, hence the use of an alias. So are we creating characters out of self protection? And are we creating them to be more appealing to the information super highway trippers? The perceived pressure within the culture to fit into the ‘online norms’ would suggest yes.

Prensky talks about the creation of an online life. That the “digital natives are inventing new, online ways of making each activity happen”. (Prensky, 2004) Does that mean that we are participating more or less in life? Today’s kids are becoming communication junkies - never without a mobile phone, logged in to facebook, plugged into an iPod or logged in to multiple chat windows. These technologies allow for streaming of data in a time portal not possible in the real world. The possibilities for dissemination of information, a consistent exchange of ideas, opinions, news and gossip are absent in time constraints. It is the ultimate way to proliferate the rumour mill. Gossip is no longer reserved for the playground or the staff room - now it is communicated instantly and waiting at your fingertips the next time you log in.

Both Prensky and Weinberger’s lines of argument give an accurate description of the potential that the internet and online life has for moral decency and the obvious antonym of moral decay. As in all things there is balance. It’s not about censoring what people do or say as much as letting the virtual participants censor themselves. Contemporary internet usage is going to change on a regular basis, probably as often as my virus protection updates. As the online users search, create, change, play, chat and log off the internet grows within its black hole to accommodate all of the whims and fancies of the people it serves. So, should we fear the creation of life on line and cautiously navigate the maze or should we dive in head first and see how deep the oblivion really is? I, for one, am about to dive in. Why not? If I virtually die I can always hit the restart button.




Prensky, Marc. (2004) The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native. http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Digital_Native-03.pdf
Prensky, Marc. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, part II: Do They Really Think Differently? http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf
Weinberger, David. (2002) Small Pieces Loosely Joined {A unified theory of the web: Chapter 1: A New World. http://www.smallpieces.com/
Weinberger, David. (2005) The New Is. http://www.hyperorg.com/misc/thenewis.html