Real World Vs. Cyberspace
It has become increasingly clear to me through the course of both this class and my current project that there is very clear tension between opinions on the real world vs. cyberspace. The fact that we continue to make this distinction is even a matter of contention for some. The heart of the matter is that as the Internet becomes more and more integrated into our lives, the blurrier the line between cyberspace and the real world becomes.
Lawrence Lessig discusses this tension and the questions that arise and consequences that could occur because of it in his book Code 2.0. He notes that we want (at least now) cyberspace to be like the real world; however, it’s becoming clearer that this is a limit that may soon become nonexistent. In the real world, we abide (or not) by social norms, physical laws placed on us because of the nature of being human or because of the government regulations respective of our geographical location. Most of us behave a certain way (or at least viewed that we should act a certain way) because of these laws that we have very little control over or will take a great deal of time and effort to change.
In cyberspace, however, it is a new enough world, so to speak, that none of these laws that we have in the physical world can be in place or be as effective if we do try to enact them. In cyberspace, “the law is the code” by which that particular space has been organized. Unlike the months it takes Congress to develop or change a policy, if there is something in cyberspace that needs to be changed, it only takes an instant to change the code, or that law. But, Lessig points out that this ease in changing code could lead to other problems with those that interact inside cyberspace, not just with those that are in the real world that want to control/regulate cyberspace.
Lessig illustrates this with a story about how two “neighbors” in an online world had a conflict (one that could just as easily come up in the real world) and how both brought up solutions to their conflict that involved changing the laws (code) as they existed at that moment:
Problems can be programmed or “coded” into the story, and they can be “coded” away. And while the experience with gamers so far is that they don’t want virtual worlds to deviate too far from the real, the important point for now is that there is the capacity to make these worlds different. It is this capacity that raises the question that is at the core of this book: What does it mean to live in a world where problems can be coded away? And when, in that world, should we code problems away, rather than learn to work them out, or punish those who cause them? (p. 15)
This is a point that Carl Sunstein made, which I discussed on my blog last week, about how we are not being forced to confront things online like we would have to in the real world. If we can just as easily “code away” our problems, rather than work them out or punish the “troublemakers,” how does that then translate how we behave in the real world, if we continue to make this distinction.
In the second story that Lessig brings up, he mentions how difficult it is to regulate cyberspace using the tools we normal have in the real world. He mentions that a very popular author, Jake, of rather disturbing stories published online was arrested and tried in the real world because of them:
It is impossibly difficult to look across the range of Jake-like characters and not think that, at some point, the virtual has crossed over into something real. Or, at least, the virtual has real effects–either on those who live it, or on those who live with them…. The Net enables lives that were previously impossible, or inconvenient, or uncommon. At least some of those virtual lives will have effects on non-virtual lives–both the lives of the people living in the virtual space, and the lives of those around them (p. 20).
So while at the moment we continue to make the distinction between your online and offline self, it is clear that both still effect each other and those around you. And with the growing popularity of social media, your online and offline self are quickly becoming one and the same, and even multiple versions of them. But however you live your life, either in the real world or in cyberspace, it will still effect you in both and effect others around you in both. We’ve heard plenty of stories about how relationships that were only online quickly turned to offline relationships or how infidelity in a video game caused a real world divorce.
It is evident that “real world vs. cyberspace” is really becoming more like “real world = cyberspace”, with a fluid movement between the two that becomes a whole other world that is different from how we view our “real world.” We are just beginning to reconcile between the two, and we still have much time, discussion, experimentation, and thoughts regarding it and how (or if) we should behave and be controlled in cyberspace and how to change it.
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