`real` and - New Media @ Yeditepe

REAL AND VIRTUAL
IDENTITIES CONSIDERED
Assist. Prof. Dr. Cem Sütçü
Marmara University,
Communication Faculty,
Dept. of Informatics, Turkey.
[email protected]
Assist. Prof. Dr. Erhan Akyaz›
Marmara University,
Communication Faculty,
Dept. of Informatics, Turkey.
[email protected]
Rsch. Assist. Dr. N. Emel Dilmen
Marmara University,
Communication Faculty,
Dept. of Informatics, Turkey.
[email protected]
Introduction
Every person who establishes a communication in
virtual and social environments owns a virtual
identity. This virtual identity conveys an individual
other than the real person and this individual is called
“virtual person” or “virtual identity”. Although, virtual
identity means “an identity that is not real”,
sometimes they may be identical to real identities. In
fact, our lives are like a stage on which we are
playing our roles that we have learnt from the
beginning of birth. These roles are stiffed by our
education and our culture. Sometimes, a person
abstracts himself/herself from the roles of good
citizen, good spouse, and good friend he/she is
playing, and creates virtual identities because of the
effects of some inner reactions. This virtual identity is
a fact especially finds a way to express itself by
existing on the Internet. Transferring feelings and
thoughts are important indicators for analysis of
virtual identity. In this analysis a few elements are on
the foreground. These are respectively, typing
language (using Turkish or English keyboard),
congruity to writing rules, speaking style, expression
techniques, character of clause, usage of time, usage
of special characters, usage of lowercase and
UPPERCASE, punctuation marks, choosing
nicknames.
Identity in virtual environment is definitely different
than the identity in real environment, because of the
differences between environments. The person can
choose to use or not to use his/her real identity in
virtual environment. In virtual environment, the
person forms his/her identity in a way he/she wants
to show it to the other side. In other words, he/she
imposes his/her identity on the other side. But as
Gerbner said, the other side (the receiving side) may
or may not get these messages as they are intended
by their sender. While, mediums like TV and cinema
keep the persons as audiences, computer games
(such as FRPs) bring persons out of their audience
position by enabling them to choose between
predesignated identities in the computer game or by
modeling new identities from them. Virtual Reality
(VR) applications (such as helmet, eyeglasses,
gloves etc.), on the other hand, help the person to
come into being by carrying person’s physical
movements into the virtual environment. In this
context, in this paper, we are examining the
transformation of identity in the process of shifting of
the person from the audience position to the player
position.
Culture and Virtual Reality
Culture can be defined as the collective programming
of the mind, which builds on shared norms and
values. Culture is a mechanism of collective sense
making; it binds individuals in groups and
distinguishes one group of people from another.1
Many different cultural values have been ascribed to
Internet culture and Internet communities including
democracy, openness, liberty, equality, fraternity,
Akyaz›, E., “Cyberculture and Interactivity”, 3rd International Symposium of Interactive Media Design, Yeditepe
University, Jan. 5-7, 2005, Istanbul, p.15.
1
preference for anonymity, acceptance of multiple
identities and anti-commercialism. Early studies
suggested that due to its anonymity, Computer
Mediated Communication (CMC) was a more
democratic form of communication. Hiltz & Turoff
(1978) found that in computer conferencing, ideas
were considered on merit, rather than on the basis of
their source. Fischer, Bristor and Gainer (1996)
argue that Internet communities are liberating and
empowering. Kiesler, Siegal and McQuire (1984)
found that social anonymity, and the absence of
status and position cues made CMC a more
democratic medium. Schlosser and Kanfer (1999)
point out those commercial sites were banned until
1995, and that the Internet ethos includes freeware,
shareware and open source software. 2 The concepts
of the French revolution live in the heart of
Cyberspace.
Willson (2000) discusses three characteristics of
virtual communities: liberty, freedom from the social
and geographical constraints of embodied identity;
equality, the removal of hierarchies related to
embodied identity so that communities are open to
all, and fraternity, the connectedness felt between
members of a community. 3
Every human being has the necessity of being
located in a certain space and time. Space can be a
physical location: a room, a theater, a library, or it can
exist simply as conceived by the mind. Place is prior
2
to all things and everything is somewhere and in
place. The reason of the necessity of ‘implacement’
is that individuals need to interact, to engage in the
creation of relations with thing, we need to
understand the limits of our sphere within the
existence that is around us. Space functions on the
base of intrinsic bonds. These bonds give us
parameters for our activity of ‘signification’ in the
world. We are born in a certain space and time, and
we grow up among relations and interactions with
both other people and locations we are placed in. In
western civilizations the concept of space is
dominant, we think of space as an homogenous and
isotropic entity, in which the subject moves without
breaking the ‘continuity’4. Through Henri Lefevre’s
words, in The Production of Space when describing
the illusion of transparency, space is a ‘luminous’
location, completely intelligible, open to free play of
human agency, willfulness and imagination. If we
apply the notion of implacement to Cyberspace we
will have a further representation of a cultural
process, where components of our ‘natural world’
unite with the ‘generated world’ of Cyberspace. The
result will be the creation of a new culture, a ‘shared
culture’, where new meanings of both worlds would
be placed in each other.5
Space is nowadays what we’re betting on, during this
‘game’ of transmutation that unites the interlacement
of the location and the ‘non-location’, the horizon of a
third nature appears: the territory of Cyberspace. A
third nature or a ‘thirdspace’ beyond the real and the
imagined, a meta-space of radical openness, where
everything can be found, where the possibility of
discovery is endless, where one should always be in
movement, on to new sights and insights. A space
where everything: the abstract and the concrete, the
real and the imagined, the knowable and the
unimaginable, the repetitive and the differential,
structure and agency, mind and body, come
together.6
Rettie, R., “Net Generation Culture”, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2002, p.254.
Rettie, R., p.255.
4
Lister M., Dovey J., Giddings S., Grant I., Kelly K., New Media: A Critical Introduction , Routledge, 2003, London, p. 360.
5
http://www.egs.edu/Art_Life/samantha/intro.html
6
http://www.egs.edu/Art_Life/samantha/intro.html
3
On a further level Heterotopia, Michel Foucault’s
concept of space, could be applied to Cyberspace.
Heterotopia is an ‘anti-utopia’: if an utopia is a hope
without real or adequate location, an Heterotopia is
an excess of realization. ‘Heterotopic’ are those
locations, just like Cyberspace, that don’t need
geographical referrals, they are the locations of
‘passage’, of crisis, and of condensation of
experience, they are realities that are based only on
themselves. «...they create another space, a real
one, that is so perfect, so meticulous, so well
furnished to the point that our space appears as not
in order, not well laid out, chaotic. It would not be an
illusion [that we live in] it would be a compensation.
... It is a place without a place, that lives for itself, that
autodesignates itself... that is the biggest tank of
imagination.» Foucault defined the ‘boat’ as the
Heterotopia ‘par excellence’, being a place without a
place, a floating piece of space that exists by itself yet
is the greatest reserve of the footloose imagination,
floating from port to port, tack to tack, in search for
the most precious treasures. In an analogous way I
define Cyberspace as a realization of an Heterotopia:
Cyberspace is a location without the realistic
elements of a location, it is indeed a floating piece of
space that exists by itself, being defined as www
(World Wide Web) and having a life of its own; most
important of all Cyberspace is in its multiple facets
and usage the greatest reserve of imagination. The
‘surfer’ of the Internet travels from one location to the
other, visiting one ‘homepage’ after the other in a
nomadic erratic exploration, connecting, attaching, in
search for ‘precious treasures’, for information, for
socialization, sharing, learning, feeling, living.
Foucault continues his argument on boats stating
that in a civilization without boats dreams dry up,
espionage takes the place of adventure and the
police takes the place of pirates. What would our
society be without Cyberspace? Apart from the real
and the imagined in the horizon of a third nature
appears: the territory of Cyberspace. A space where
everything: the abstract and the concrete, the real
and the imagined, the knowable and the
7
8
http://www.egs.edu/Art_Life/samantha/intro.html
Rettie,R., p.255.
unimaginable, the repetitive and the differential,
structure and agency, mind and body, come
together.7
Tambyah
(1996)
identifies
three
Internet
characteristics or dimensions: 1) space/time
compression, where the Internet enables people to
communicate instantly despite being in different
places, creating instant travel in real time; 2) no
sense of place, interactions take place in a world
which provides anonymity, enabling multiple roles
and selves; and 3) blurred boundaries and
transformed communities, on the Internet traditional
national boundaries are blurred and new virtual
communities created. 8
Many of the cultural values of the Internet derive from
its origin in text only interfaces. This removes cues
relating to identity such as age, race, gender, status,
disability and location. Removal of these cues
provides the opportunity for anonymity and allows the
adoption of different identities. The absence of nonverbal content and voice tone limits and changes the
expression of emotion, (Bellamy and Hanewicz,
1999). The emphasis moves away from the worth of
the communicator to the value of the communicated
message (Dann and Dann, 1998). Using text-only
communication, participants can choose their own
gender, race, age, etc, freeing them from the
constraints of embodied identity, creating anonymity
and the potential for multiple identities, (Turkle,
1995).9
The situation of an individual in virtual world can be
illustrated as in the following figure.
Effects of Being in Cyberspace can be classified as
follows:10
The Online Disinhibition Effect: It's well known that
people say and do things in cyberspace that they
wouldn't ordinarily say or do in the face-to-face world.
You Don't Know Me (dissociative anonymity): As you
move around the internet, most of the people you
encounter can't easily tell who you are.
You Can't See Me (invisibility): In many online
environments other people cannot see you.
See You Later (asynchronicity): In e-mail and
message boards, communication is asynchronous.
It's All in My Head (solipsistic introjection): Absent f2f
cues combined with text communication can have an
interesting effect on people.
It's Just a Game (dissociative imagination): If we
combine solipsistic introjection with the escapability
of cyberspace, we get a slightly different force that
magnifies disinhibition.
We're Equals (minimizing authority): While online a
person's status in the face-to-face world may not be
known to others and it may not have as much impact
as it does in the face-to-face world.
Personality Variables: The disinhibition effect is not
the only factor that determines how much people
open up or act out in cyberspace.
True Self?: Does the disinhibition effect release inner
needs, emotions, and attributes that dwell beneath
surface personality presentations?
Self Constellations Across Media: The self interacts
with the environment in which it is expressed.
Altering Self Boundary: My discussion so far rests on
the assumption that almost everyone online tends to
be disinhibited, even if the effect is small.
As Wellman & Gulia discuss, the on-line world
supports a wide variety of community structures
(Wellman and Gulia 1996). Some are purely virtual:
the members have never met in real life and interact
solely on-line. Others, such as mailing lists of friends
or co-workers, are electronic supplements to real
world communities. Some are public communities,
“social networks” of people who interact regularly,
such as the members of a discussion list, MUD or
newsgroup. Others are personal communities,
consisting of one's friends and colleagues.11
Rettie,R., p.255.
http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html
11
http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Thesis/Introduction.frame.html
9
10
Identity and Gender
Identity plays a key role in virtual communities. In
communication, which is the primary activity,
knowing the identity of those with whom you
communicate is essential for understanding and
evaluating an interaction. Yet in the disembodied
world of the virtual community, identity is also
ambiguous. Many of the basic cues about personality
and social role we are accustomed to in the physical
world are absent. A great deal has been written about
the nature of identity in the on-line world (see for
example, Curtis 1992, Dibbell 1993, Kilger 1994,
Rheingold 1993, Donath N.D.). Some claim that the
ability to establish an independent and disembodied
identity is one of the most valuable aspects of on-line
culture- that it allows people to explore roles and
relationships that would otherwise be closed to them
(Stone 1992a, Turkle 1995). Others claim that
anonymity encourages irresponsible, hostile
behavior - and that an anonymous community is an
oxymoron. The relationship between an on-line
persona and a physical self is handled differently in
various on-line environments, often as a result of
interface decisions built into the system technology.
Some systems make it impossible to trace a
participant's real-life name; others try to ensure that
messages are ascribed to their author's physical
being - and the cultures that evolve are strikingly
different. Social conventions also play a role. In some
environments, people sign messages with not only
their full names, but also their place of employment,
job title, and phone number. Elsewhere, virtual
identities are not only anonymous, but ephemeral:
names are taken temporarily, characteristics have
little or no persistence. Even the most seemingly
simple design decisions, such as how prominently a
writer's name is displayed, influence the ambience of
an on-line community. 12
A subject is under control or domination of a
discourse or culture. An individual is a being or thing
whose particular set of characteristics distinguish it
from other beings or things. A body is an organized
set of physical substances, a physical mass that is
able to be conceived as distinct from other physical
masses. These three character sets intersect in
identity. It is the sum of a body's substance, qualities,
and relations at any given time that are marked by
the condition of relating to another identity or a
regime of reason/unreason. Through such relations a
body gains an identity. 13
Verification of an Identity in Cyberspace can be
illustrated in the following figure.14
Gender, as a social construction, is "open" to
variations of its meaning and content, stemming from
http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Thesis/Introduction.frame.html
http://www.uta.edu/english/hawk/cyber/intro.htm
14
http://www.calt.insead.fr/fidis/workshop/workshop-wp2-december2004/presentation/2004-FIDIS-WP2-VIPPresentation%20of%20its%20latest%20results%20about%20the%20concept%20of%20identity.pdf
12
13
cultural and social conditions. In RL (real life), gender
is interpreted by embodied characteristics (physical
features, voice, gestures etc.) and is therefore
difficult to separate gender as a social institution from
gender as a specific body type. Furthermore, the way
we tend to define our sex is indissolubly related to the
way we interact and view the "other," whether man or
woman; a process based on available cultural scripts.
Although we pass through public space as if we are
oblivious to gender, it is true that we are unable to
interact with someone unless we have categorized
him or her, as we tend to define ourselves through
defining the "other." The first categorization we make
is that of gender, age and race as these features are
the most obvious ones. These categorizations or
social scripts are "written" by the very real body. So,
when we meet a new person we reach conclusions
about his or her gender judging by their performance
in relation to culturally constructed gender
categories. From early childhood one learns how to
perform masculinity or femininity. In this sense,
gender is considered to be not only a feature of the
flesh but a figment of the mind, as well.15
Multi-User Dungeons
In computer gaming, a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) is
a multi-player computer game that combines
elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style
computer games and social instant messaging chat
rooms. Typically running on a bulletin board system
or internet server, the game is usually text driven,
where players read descriptions of rooms, objects,
events, other characters, and computer-controlled
creatures or non-player characters (NPCs) in a virtual
world. Players usually interact with each other and
the surroundings by typing commands that resemble
a natural language, usually English.16
Researchers interested in on-line identity have often
turned to MUDs, for their role-playing culture
provides a novel environment for exploring gender
and other identity issues (Curtis 1992; Dibbell 1993;
Turkle 1995; O'Brien N.D.; Reid 1994). Many MUDs
are primarily fantasy playgrounds for identity
experimentations where players take on an
imaginary persona and interact with each other in the
virtual world's equivalent of the masked ball.
Conversations here are live (synchronous) and
ephemeral, their function primarily social. Thought
identity is a major focus of MUD culture, it is identity
as theatrical role, both highly mannered and
expendable.17
In 1920, Anatole France said that, “If there is no lie,
life would be so boring and meaningless”. We can
easily say that Internet makes our life's more joyful.
In the chat rooms, you can easily change your name
your gender and age. You can play all different roles
without taking any responsibility. 18
There is a relation between increased internet usage
and the increased psychological depression.
Therefore, researches say that the Internet usage
may negatively effect the social relations in society.
In this respect we can say that as TV, being a passive
and nonsocial entertainment media, Internet has the
same functionality. On the other hand, we can say
that, if we receive a bad news from a close friend we
struggle to call her/him on the phone.
In a MUD such as Second Life (www.secondlife.com),
unlike in any other virtual world, residents own their
own creations, so they can buy and sell them freely
with virtual currency that is readily convertible into or
out of U.S. dollars. A real economy has sprung up
inside Second Life, in which more than $5 million
worth of transactions -- in real U.S. dollars -- are
conducted each month among the 165,000
participants.
Avatar Anshe Chung was created by a Chinese-born
language teacher living near Frankfurt, Germany.
http://www.math.upatras.gr/~mboudour/articles/[email protected]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD
17
http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Thesis/Introduction.frame.html
18
Sayar, K., Psikolojik Mekan Olarak Siberalan (Cyberspace as a Psychological Space), Yeni Sempozyum, 40 (2) 2002,
Istanbul, p.60-67.
15
16
She keeps her real identity private, but that hasn't
stopped her and her imaginary self from creating
what may be Second Life's biggest business. Chung
has amassed virtual real estate and cash assets
inside Second Life worth about $250,000. She buys
land wholesale from Second Life operator Linden
Lab, and then develops it, resells it, or rents it out.
She's known as the Rockefeller of Second Life.
Conclusion
There is a controversial situation here. On the one
hand, these MUD like games can be used in order to
better and quickly accomplish real works, by utilizing
the psychology of playing games, incentive systems,
and social charm in these type of games, such as, for
165,000 people.
For example, these people pay 9 Dollars per month
to play “secondlife.com” game. And in an ordinary
day, each of 40,000 people simultaneously play for
an hour. These huge numbers make us think that this
voluntary power created by online gamers can be
canalized for works of real world. This is a very
interesting point in case of economy. Because, this
will reverse the working of economic principles. That
is, once the employer paying workers for the work tey
do as wage, reverses in a way that employee pays
the money for the work he/she does in virtual world.
This typical example shows that virtual economy will
be different than the economy we are in today.
The individual is in between three worlds. Once,
buddhist philosopher, Chu-Ang-Tzu dreamed that, he
was a butterfly. When he woke up he asked himself:
am I a human dreaming himself as a butterfly or a
butterfly now dreaming itself as a human? But he was
talking about the worlds namely the real world and
the imagination. But we will have more than two
worlds actually. The third world is called the virtual
world or cyberspace.
On the other hand, these environments have a
negative effect of being in Cyberspace as we
mentioned.