8/6/2019 l2_CARACTERISTICI-CIBERSPATIU

1/4

Psychology of Cyberspace ->Home Page Article Index Subjectindex Search Engine Article created May 96, revised July 98,

Jan 02 (v2.0)

John Suler, Ph.D. Rider University CopyrightNotice

The Basic Psychological Features of CyberspaceThe virtual world is quite different than the in-person world. Digitizing people,relationships, and groups has stretched the boundaries of how and when humans

can interact. In this article we will explore some of the unique psychologicalfeatures of cyberspace that shape how people behave in this new social realm. In

different online environments we see different combinations of these features,thus resulting in a distinct psychological quality to each environment which

determines how people experience themselves and others. We may think of thesefeatures as the fundamenal elements of a conceptual model for a psychology of

cyberspace. In fact, the effect of these elements on individuals, groups, andcommunities is an important theme throughout this book. It's important to

remember, though, that the ten elements listed below are only half the story. How

people behave in cyberspace will always be a complex interaction between thesefeatures of cyberspace and the characteristics of the person .reduced sensationstextingidentity flexibilityaltered perceptionsequalized

statustranscended spacetemporal flexibilitysocial multiplicityrecordabilitymedia disruptionReduced Sensations

Can you see a person in cyberspace - his facial expressions and body language?Can you hear the changes in her voice? Whether an environment in cyberspaceinvolves visual and/or auditory communication will greatly affect how peoplebehave and the relationships that develop among people. The multimedia chatenvironments (such as the Palace ), audio-video conferencing,and internet-phoning surely are signs of things to come. However, the sensory

experience of encountering others in cyberspace - seeing, hearing, andCOMBINING seeing and hearing - is still limited. For the most part peoplecommunicate through typed language. Even when audio-video conferencingbecomes efficient and easy to use, people will probably never (at least not in thenear future!) be able to physically interact with each other - no handshakes, patson the back, hugs, or kisses. The limited sensory experiences of cyberspace hassome significant disadvantages - as well as some unique advantages - ascompared to in-person encounters (see Showdown ).This article is part of a collection for CE credit. Clickhere for informationTextingDespite the reduced sensory quality of text communication, it should not beunderestimated as a powerful form of self expression and interpersonal relating.E-mail, chat, and instant messaging continue to be the most common forms ofonline interaction for reasons beyond their ease of use and inexpense compared tomultimedia tools. Drawing on different cognitive abilities than talking andlistening, typing one's thoughts and reading those of another is a unique way topresent one's identity, perceive the identity of one's online companion, andestablish a relationship. E-mail relationships in particular haveevolved into a very complex, text-based process - with chat or IM relationships approaching that complexity.

8/6/2019 l2_CARACTERISTICI-CIBERSPATIU

2/4

Identity Flexibility

The lack of face-to-face cues has a curious impact on how people present theiridentity in cyberspace. Communicating only with typed text, you have the optionof being yourself, expressing only parts of your identity, assuming imaginativeidentities, or remaining completely anonymous - in some cases, being almostinvisible, as with the "lurker." In many environments, you can give yourself anyname you wish. The multimedia worlds also offer the opportunity to expressyourself through the visual costumes known as "avatars. "Anonymity has a disinhibiting effect that cuts two ways. Sometimes people use itto act out some unpleasant need or emotion, often by abusing other people. Or itallows them to be honest and open about some personal issue that they could notdiscuss in a face-to-face encounter.

Altered PerceptionsSitting quietly and staring at the computer monitor can become an altered state ofconsciousness. While reading e-mail or text talk in chat rooms, some people

experience a blending of their mind with that of the other person. In theimaginary multimedia worlds - where people shape-shift, speak via ESP, walkthrough walls, and spontaneously generate objects out of thin air - the experiencebecomes surrealistic. It mimics a state of consciousness that resembles dreams. These altered and dream-like states of consciousness incyberspace may account for why it is so attractive for some people. It might helpexplain some forms ofcomputer and cyberspace addiction.

Equalized StatusIn most cases, everyone on the internet has an equal opportunity to voice him orherself. Everyone - regardless of status, wealth, race, gender, etc. - starts off on a

level playing field. Some people call this the "net democracy." Although one'sstatus in the outside world ultimately will have some impact on one's life incyberspace, there is some truth to this net democracy ideal. What determines yourinfluence on others is your skill in communicating (including writing skills), yourpersistence, the quality of your ideas, and sometimes your technical know-how.

Transcended SpaceGeographical distance makes little difference in who can communicate withwhom. An engineer in Germany converses with a business woman fromCalifornia on a server in Australia. It's a small world after all. The irrelevance ofgeography has important implications for people with unique interests or needs.In their outside life, they may not be able to find anyone near them who sharesthat unique interest or need. But in cyberspace, birds of a feather - even thosewith highly unusual feathers - easily can flock together. For support groupsdevoted to helping people with their problems, that can be a very beneficialfeature of cyberspace. For people with antisocial motivations, that's a verynegative feature of cyberspace.

Temporal Flexibility"Synchronous communication" involves people sitting at their computer at the

8/6/2019 l2_CARACTERISTICI-CIBERSPATIU

3/4

same time (i.e., in "real time") communicating with each other via the internet.Chat rooms are one example. On the other hand, e-mail and newsgroups involve"asynchronous communication" that does not require people to interact with eachother in the moment. In both asynchronous and synchronous communication(with the exception of video conferencing and internet phoning), there is astretching of time. During chat you have from several seconds to a minute ormore to reply to the other person - a significantly longer delay than in face-to-face meetings. In e-mail or newsgroups, you have hours, days, or even weeks torespond. Cyberspace creates a unique temporal space where the ongoing,interactive time together stretches out. This provides a convenient "zone forreflection." Compared to face-to-face encounters, you have significantly moretime to mull things over and compose a reply.Some new internet users go through a period of adaptation to this novel temporalexperience. For example, they may expect a reply to their e-mail immediately.Enthused about e-mail relating , they assume (perhapsunconsciously) that their partner's reply will approximate the rate of an in-personconversation. Experienced e-mail users appreciate the advantages of time

stretching, and even come to understand that different e-mail users have their owne-mail pace.In other ways, cyberspace time is condensed. If you are a member of an onlinecommunity for several months, you may be considered an "old-timer." Internetenvironments change rapidly because it's a lot easier to write and rewrite softwareinfrastructure than it is to build with bricks, wood, and iron. Because it's easy tomove around cyberspace, who we meet and the membership of online groups alsochanges rapidly. Our subjective sense of time is intimately linked to the rate ofchange in the world in which we live. With the context of sights, sounds, andpeople changing around you so quickly in cyberspace, the experience of timeseems to accelerate.

Social MultiplicityWith relative ease a person can contact people from all walks of life andcommunicate with hundreds, perhaps thousands of people. When "multitasking"one can juggle many relationships in a short period of time - or even AT the sametime, as in chat or instant messaging, without the other peoplenecessarily being aware of one's juggling act. By posting a message on bulletinboards read by countless numbers of users, people can draw to themselves otherswho match even their most esoteric interests. Using a web search engine, they canscan through millions of pages in order to zoom their attention onto particularpeople and groups. The internet will get more powerful as tools for searching,filtering, and contacting specific people and groups become more effective. Butwhy do we choose only some people to connect with - and not others? The abilityto sift through so many online possibilities for developing relationships amplifiesan interesting interpersonal phenomenon well-known to psychologists. A userwill act on unconscious motivations - as well as conscious preferences andchoices - in selecting friends, lovers, and enemies. This ""guides us towards specific types of people who address our underlying emotionsand needs. Pressed by hidden expectations, wishes, and fears, this unconsciousfiltering mechanism has at its disposal an almost infinite candy store of online

8/6/2019 l2_CARACTERISTICI-CIBERSPATIU

4/4

alternatives to choose from. As one experienced online user once said to me,"Everywhere I go in cyberspace, I keep running into the same kinds of people!"Carrying that insight one step further, another said, "Everywhere I go, I find....ME!"

RecordabilityMost online activities, including e-mail correspondence and chat sessions, can berecorded and saved to a computer file. Unlike real world interactions, the user incyberspace can keep a permanent record of what was said, to whom, and when.Because these interactions are purely document-based, we may even go so far asto say that the relationship between people ARE the documents, and that therelationship can be permanently recorded in its entirety. These records may comein very handy to the user. You can reexperience and reevaluate any portion of therelationship you wish. You can use quoted text as feedback to the partner. Onesign of a flame war is the blossoming of the infamous arrows >> that highlightthe ammunition of quoted text. Although it's tempting to think of the saved text asan objective record of some piece of the relationship, it's fascinating to see how

different your emotional reactions to the same exact record can be when youreread it at different times. Depending on our state of mind, we invest therecorded words with all sorts of meanings and intentions.

Media DisruptionWe all expect our computers and the internet to interact with us. That's the name of the

game. Nevertheless, no matter how complex and sophisticated our electronic toolsbecome, there will always be moments when they fail to live up to their end of the

bargain. There will be moments when software and hardware don't work properly, whennoise intrudes into the communication, and connections break. There will be momentswhen our telecommunication systems give us nothing, not even an error message. The

frustration and anger we experience in reaction to these failures says something about ourrelationship to our machines and the internet - something about our dependency on them,our need to control them. That lack of response also opens the door for us to project allsorts of worries and anxieties onto the machine that gives us no reply. I call these the

black hole experiences of cyberspace. Fortunately, some computer-mediated environments are more robust than others. Those differences in reliability,

predictability, and dependability are important psychological influences.

Cyberspace home page www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber/psycyber.html