Digital Reality vs. Virtual Reality

                                        Image From: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_granted_patent_to_create_identity_clones

When we use the word ‘virtual’ on the internet, it gives certain connotations of being not ‘real’, but is that really so? Is it impossible to have more than one ‘real’ identity? As is further discussed by Yorick in his blog, it would seem more correct to use the word ‘digital’ as just because something is located online, this does not mean that it is in no way ‘real’. When we create an online avatar and we communicate and socialize through this avatar, even if what we relay is not the same as it would be in our physical reality, I believe we are not hiding behind a fake identity, but instead we create another identity, a digital one.

As Tuan explains in the reading, words have the power to transform invisible or nonexistent things into those that are visible or existent (1991). If a person were to make an anonymous avatar online, and then use that avatar to ‘troll’ or ‘cyber-bully’ another person could you call the identity of that avatar nonexistent? It certainly wouldn’t feel nonexistent to the victim. The person hiding behind the avatar has created a new identity that may be in many ways different to their own physical identity. It is the same when we talk about virtual space; personally, it makes more sense for it to be digital space. "A sense of place is created through humans perceiving and constructing that location" (Van Luyn, 2013). When more than 2 billion humans use the internet to communicate, research, find entertainment and so on, it becomes a little hard to consider it as an unreal space.

With YouTube, users are granted are large range of freedom in terms of how much of their own biographical data they choose to upload to the networking site. By using this separate identity as a shield a person can be greatly empowered as they are permitted to write anything they please without fear of receiving judgment. While this digital reality can give some people confidence to express their personal views or beliefs as they normally never would, it also encourages problems such as trolling or cyber-bullying. When I use YouTube it feels as if only a small number of people are showing their physical identity.

 

Reference List:

Tuan, Y. (1991). Language and the Making of Place: A narrative-descriptive approach. In Annals of   the Association of American Geographers, 81(4), 684-696. 

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Place, Lecture 5, Stories and Place. [Power Point Slides] Retrieved from http://www.learnjcu.edu.au

 

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