Humans
‘know the world through sensation, perception and conception…’ (Tuan, 1979) and
the growing need to create new identities on the internet is not new to the human
psyche. For as long as humans have sung and danced, we have taken on personas
endowed with greater meaning than the everyday world could accommodate. The
animalist beliefs of early times gave people an otherwise impossible gift of
spiritual power as they took on the psychological ‘skin’ of their totem. So too
do we crave this freedom of personal re-invention and now find it in the form
of warriors, mages and hobbitses; Tweeters,
bloggers and Facebookers; even Second Lifers. Our myth and ritual now takes 'place' in 'Cyberspace'.
Anonanymity
is freedom, such as the week-long Carnival of Venice aptly demonstrates, where
commoners and aristocrats could mingle freely under the guise of their masks.
But this freedom has been greatly restricted and repressed by religion, and
even as we have cast off the shackles of religious dogma, the pressure to
conform is greater than ever. Every waking minute of every single day, we
expose ourselves to a public scrutiny, whilst imposing that same level of
conformity on everyone around us. The ‘Snakes & Ladders’ of public opinion
begins with celebrity and ends with what you choose to wear to work, school or
a recreational activity.
The difference between the costume and
theatre of the past and the digital escapism of today is the people we share it
with. The day after a tribal/pagan celebration, everyone is still on that same
high, the experience still vivid in everyone’s mind, and that energy translates
into everything that follows in the days to come. It becomes ‘real’. But when,
for instance, a ‘Second Lifer’ emerges from their digital reality, no one is
there to share it. They have to re-enter the ‘Matrix’ to recover all that was
gained.
The term ‘Cyberspace’ refers to ‘…the generic
intangible electronic domain (Bell, 2001).’ This invention of modern times ‘creates a space
where reality and fantasy can be manipulated to create many desired
possibilities…’(Sand, 2007), but why are we not free to do so in the real
world? Because someone is probably
watching. Not participating, just watching.
For a flaneurial visit to the world of 'Second Life' via Facebook, try this link- https://www.facebook.com/groups/2403527805/
Sand, S. (2007). FUTURE
CONSIDERATIONS: Interactive identities and the interactive self.
Psychoanalytic Review, 94(1), 83-97. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/195046742?accountid=16285
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