Hey guys!
In this article, Howard Rheingold talks about his personal experiences with the numerous virtual communities that he is a member of. He also talks about the importance of virtual communities and the history of the Net, providing readers with interesting statistics about the rapid growth of the Internet population.
Question one: Can a relationship that has formed in an online environment be transferred and maintained in reality?
Rheingold talks about how he went to a WELL party at someone’s actual home and how he felt he couldn’t recognise any of the people, even though he had contended with and formed bonds with these people online.
Question two: Can people form a lasting relationship online if they are only communicating through words?
Rheingold says, “people in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind.” In my opinion, body language and the ability to see and touch someone are both necessary in order to form a lasting relationship. What people say in an online environment may be very different to what they might say in reality. Some people are more formal when they write, whilst some are much more expressive in an online environment and are very quite in person.
Question three. Can people separate themselves from the virtual/real environment? Or do they become intertwined?
Rheingold concludes this article by stating, “I carry around their conversations in my head and begin to mix it up with them in real life, my virtual communities also inhabit my life. I’ve been colonized; my sense of family at the most fundamental level has been virtualized.”
I found numerous examples about people who were unable to separate themselves from the virtual/real world. One example that stood out for me, occurred in February last year, when a 41 year old man from Shanghai called Qiu Chengwei, loaned his prized virtual sword from The Legend of Mir 3 to his 26 year old friend Zhu Caoyuan. Without the knowledge of sword owner Chengwei, Caoyuan sold the virtual weapon for 7200 yuan. Chengwei complained to the police that Caoyuan had stolen his sword, but they refused to help, as the sword didn’t actually exist. Early one morning a month later, Chengwei broke into Cayuan’s house and stabbed him to death.
Question four: After reading this article, do you believe that virtual communities are authentic?
Rheingold mentions that it feels like an authentic community because it is grounded in his everyday physical world. He states that he is attended “real-life WELL marriages, WELL births and even a WELL funeral.”
Question 5. How can virtual communities change our experiences of the real world?
I look forward to discussing these questions with you all on Wednesday!
Caitlin Stanford.
I think virtual relationships can definitely be formed and then maintained in the real world, it just depends on how open and accepting people are willing to be about this new kind of environment.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of these worlds becoming intertwined it seems that just the rise of social networks has linked the internet more heavily to real life, with facebook as something that is always a popular conversation topic and relationship tool.
I really liked your example about the virtual sword and was wondering do you think that there should have been RL consequences for Caoyuan's actions? After all he had RL benefits from selling the sword, killing him was definitely extreme but I think your example illustrates how seriously people take these virtual communities and their virtual belongings.
Hi Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteYou mention Rheingold's argument that our actions in virtual and real life are almost interchangeable except for the fact that we leave our bodies behind when entering virtual communities. In some ways I agree, particularly with the point you bring up about the difficulty in forming a lasting relationship when anonymous words substitute body language and the ability to see and touch. On the other hand, however, I think that advances in technology are allowing the real life body to have an increasingly visible presence in online communities, possibly overcoming the hardship of relating to others when an impression of someone is merely gleaned through text-based material.
Have you heard of Chatroulette? If not, it's like an online chatroom that randomly pairs strangers together for a visual/aural conversation using webcam technology. Although I went on it once with a few friends to check it out, I don't think I will be back on it anytimes soon. I noticed that unlike text-based chatrooms, impressions of others seem to rest solely upon the visual medium, so if someone does not LOOK like the type of person one would want to have a conversation with, they simply press "next" to connect to another random stranger sitting at another computer somewhere in the world.
So do you think that the integration of webcam allows for a greater possibilty of lasting relationships to form online than if online encounters are based solely on words? I still tend not to agree as we should not judge a book by its cover, and someone's physical appearance in VR can be just as deceptive as words in revealing how they act in real life.
Also, in relation to discussions on privacy in online communities, the integration of visuals seems to increase feelings of "stranger danger" and users' inclination to preserve anonmity by focussing the webcam on somehing other than their face, wearing sunglasses, or turning off the webcam screen altogether. So it seems that people are still finding ways of leaving their bodies behind, even though online communities are making it easier for us to propel our bodies into cyberspace.
After our tute discussion today I started thinking that maybe forming a friendship online through words could be benefical so that we dont have to judge a book by its cover? I do however think that the integration of webcam or the online chatroom Chatroulette you mentioned (which sounds a little harsh i must admit!) would be beneficial for people who rely on appearances or who want to see what their friend looks like after forming a relationship with them on the basis of what they have to say.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Sam, I am undecided as to whether there should have been real life consequences for Caoyuan's actions. I think that some kind of punishment should exist as it seems unfair that the sword owner has to suffer the loss of his sword and no financial rewards. Maybe online communities need virtual police to prevent theft or other actions deemed inappropriate or illegal in the actual legal system?