Living the "real" life in cyberspace

More and more often I am hearing the terms "real life" and "real world" in conversation. It might not be that there is an real increased use of these terms, but learning this year has been starting to train me in doing a double take on terms like this - so I guess I'm just learning to notice it more.

Whenever I hear "real life" or "real world" I almost have to stop and question what the person is actually referring to when they say this. Why indeed do we feel the need to have "real life" as a term? And indeed, what is this "real life" everyone is going on about?

I have decided of late that I do not like the term "real life" or "real world".

Now I'm going to place some boundaries on the particular usage of "real life" and/or "real world" that I will be covering in this entry. I am going to be discussing this term in relation to the divide between interactions within "cyberspace" and interactions located within geographical space, or tangible physically existent space.

The usage of the terms generally implies a kind of divide between virtual worlds and the physical world. The term can be used to devalue interaction in web based mediums, used with disdain for people who interact with people on the net who have never met in "real life". But it doesn't necessarily have to be used with malice, it can be used just in passing. It is a common part of our everyday speech. But it is a loaded part of our speech - it comes with a series of assumptions that we make about the internet that I fear we do not stop to question.

I guess we have to ask ourselves what we deem to be real. I think we can all agree that the monitor you are reading this through is real. You can see it, you can touch it, you can relocate it, you can physically interact with it. Same as your mouse, keyboard, phone, bed, etc etc. I would suspect that many of your friends you would view as real. They exist, you can touch them, speak with them, see them with your eyes, you can interact with them as if they are objects located physically around you.

So anything that you can touch, see, smell, hear, taste is real, yeah?

Now I'm going to move into the slightly more abstract. Are your emotions real? Is love, jealousy, happiness, sadness and anger, real? Even though you cannot feel them through your senses, they are something that is there, something that is real.

Again, I would suspect yes, though feel free to disagree.

Having accounted for that...I have a proposition for you, my dear readers. I propose that cyberspace, although not physically tangible is a valid means to experience a certain kind of life. This type of life, I would argue, is no less real to those experiencing it than those who are of the opinion that real life is mostly or only present in the physical world.

Alas, I cannot touch the person on the other end of my MSN conversation, nor can I smell or taste them. But these days I can see and hear them. They are real people, my conversations actually happen, and the consequences of these interactions spill over into my face to face interactions. Same with Facebook - the interactions has on that website affect people in a very real way. Some would argue that social networking has led to suicide - one of the most real consequences of cyberspace.

"What about more anonymous interactions?" Many would now seek to argue. "What about World of Warcraft, that's not a real world, that's make believe."

Alas, I would also argue that online gaming is very much a real world. What is not real about interacting with other humans in an imagined world. Children do it all the time, in fact they are encouraged to (On a side note, if you are interested in childrens' interactions with cyberspace this blog entry is good). They play in imagined worlds, pretending to be something/someone else. This is much of what online gaming is - playing in an imagined world. You can feel anger at interactions, you can make friends who are not physically tangible, but are very real in the sense of how they make you feel.

Furthermore I would argue that by continuing to employ a discourse that implies a segregation between cyberspace and the physical world we continue to adopt a blind eye to the social problems that go had in hand with the reality of web based experiences.

I think recognition of cyberspace as an environment that is very real in both its interactions and its consequences is vital toward encouraging open and frank discussions about how to deal with social problems like cyberbullying. This, combined with an education of parents, teachers and academics of how social interactions occur in cyberspace, should provide us with the foundation to understand how cyberspace has changed the dimensions of social life forever, and what this means for society.

I shall leave you with a theory from William Isaac Thomas, famous American sociologist:

"If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences"

Clifthangers

I know that many of my readers will be having a hectic time with study at the moment so I figured that I would upload a bit of a fun story. It's one that I wrote about this time last year. I'm very fond of it, but it isn't one that has seen much exposure to an audience.

So please, take a little bit of time out of your academic musings and enjoy an easy read =)

Christopher.

***

The cow perched precariously on the edge of the cliff, entirely unsure as to how she came to be in this curious predicament. She gazed down cautiously, her jaw slowly chewing the gourmet cud she had just regurgitated. Blinking slowly, she decided to take a small step into the emptiness before her, just to see whether she wanted to continue walking. The cliff crumbled slightly, a dozen or so pebbles violently made their way down the exposed face of the cliff. The cow decided that it probably wasn’t the best idea, and took a few steps backwards into a wall of rock rising behind her. She kept chewing. The cow glanced to her left, eyeing a juicy clump of grass growing out of the rocky platform she had found herself balanced on. She turned herself to face it and, deciding that it was best to take a bite, swallowed her cud.


A harsh wind swept up the cliff. The cow took the delicious-looking clump to her mouth, and tugged gently. It didn’t budge. The cow tugged a little harder. It didn’t budge. She made sure her feet were planted solidly into the rocky platform, and took the clump into her mouth once more. Taking a deep breath she heaved her neck and body, her solidly planted legs giving her leverage. The grass didn’t budge. She let go, letting out a slightly defeated, yet still defiant, moo. The cow plonked herself onto the hard ground, staring intently at the stubborn tuft and imagining its juicy green goodness in her mouth. She hacked up her cud once more. Chewing cautiously, she tilted her head sideways in a thoughtful gaze, and a few moments later she rose again seemingly energised by a new idea.


The cow took a few steps over to the tuft, swallowed her cud, shook herself slightly, and began to furiously kick the hard rock that stood between her and her lunch. Her hard hooves sent chips of rocks flying down the cliff, going the same way as their previous brethren and tantalisingly exposing more of the delicious greenness. A few moments later the cow stopped, panting from her efforts. She bent her head, closely examining her hoof-work. The cow opened her mouth, enveloping the tuft in her moist cheeks. She braced herself once more, and heaved. The grass didn’t budge. Furiously she belted a series of aggressive moos at the stubborn plant while kicking angrily at the sheet of rock behind her. Throwing herself to the ground, she loudly hacked up her cud, and began to chew angrily, resuming her brainstorming.


The cow looked around the rocky platform she perched upon, searching for something that could possibly help her. Her wandering gaze focussed, suddenly, upon a patch of sand wedged amongst a couple of larger rocks. Poking its head out from this patch was the tip of a worn looking piece of rope. She glanced at the shelf of rock rising behind her, noting a rocky protrusion. The cow once again rose, the anger that previously flowed through her replaced by excitement. She grabbed the rope and pulled it from its sandy bed and, in some unlikely and just plain astounding movements of her mouth, managed to tie it tightly onto the stalk of the grassy tuft. Abandoning the tied end of the rope, she gathered the other end into her cheeks, and shuffled over to the face of rock behind her. She looped the rope around the previously noted protrusion, creating a simple pulley system. The cow, for the third time, dug her hooves into the ground, braced herself, and heaved on the rope with all the weight she could muster. The tuft flew out of the rocky enclosure it called home. The cow swallowed her cud in surprise and stumbled backwards into nothingness.


The cow was falling but letting out an ecstatic moo for the world to hear. The tuft - still attached to the rope, still attached to her mouth, fell with her. As she fell she began to pull the rope with her mouth, bringing the tuft closer toward her toward her. When the knot that attached the rope and tuft reached her, she freed the juicy green goodness with a few deft movements of the tongue and let the rope fall away. She closed her eyes, letting the juices of the stubborn tuft flow over tongue, enjoying the fruit of her labour. She reached the end of her drop, hitting her head on the rock of a platform that caught her. She swallowed the grass at the suddenness of it, and decided to lose consciousness.


The cow perched precariously on the edge of the cliff, entirely unsure as to how she came to be in this curious predicament. She gazed down cautiously, her jaw slowly chewing the gourmet cud she had just regurgitated. Blinking slowly she decided to take a small step into the emptiness before her, just to see whether she wanted to continue walking. The cliff crumbled slightly, a dozen or so pebbles violently made their way down the exposed face of the cliff. The cow decided that it probably wasn’t the best idea, and took a few steps backwards into a wall of rock rising behind her. She kept chewing. The cow glanced to her left, eyeing a juicy clump of grass growing out of the rocky platform she had found herself balanced on. She turned herself to face it and, deciding that it was best she took a bite, swallowed her cud.


A harsh wind swept up the cliff. The cow took the delicious-looking clump to her mouth, and tugged gently.


It didn’t budge.