Three years ago, I was just a freshman sitting in my dorm's
computing site, typing away on IRC (Internet Relay Chat), a virtual coffee
shop with text only. Now, a seasoned senior, I am a resident on the
colorful internet community called Geocities. I believe one of the
reasons I prefer Geocities to IRC is its resemblance to a real world
community, not to mention the user-friendly interface. In Geocities, I am
given my own home page, where the friends I met on Geocities come over
and visit my page and learn all about me. This experience is similar to
friends coming over to your apartment, hanging out and having a cup of
java. Members of the community in Geocities receive their own e-mail
address and URL for their web pages. My home page is like my apartment
and my URL is the address of the apartment. In this paper, I will attempt
to analyze this virtual community and compare it with the real world (RW)
community.
First, I would like to start with the criteria for membership in
Geocities. To be a resident of Geocities, one needs a computer. The
computer needs to have either Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer to
allow access to the World Wide Web. Once a person has entered Geocities,
they can either remain a visitor or become a member and enjoy many
privileges such as a free personal home page, free e-mail accounts, and
GeoAward Points (with them one can receive discounts on merchandises in
the Geo Store). If a person chooses to become a permanent resident, he or
she needs to go through several steps to find a "home".
The first step I did was to find a neighborhood I liked, the
reason being my home page need to be consistent with the theme of the
community that I choose to "live" in. Geocities offers twenty-seven
communities, which include Athens, a community based on education,
teaching, and philosophy; Broadway, a place to discuss the excitement of
stage shows; Capitol Hill, where political opinions are voiced; Hollywood,
where people's home pages feature actor and actresses; Paris, a city full
of good wine and marvelous art; and many more. Once I decided which
community I wanted to live in, I found a vacant spot. This step is
almost like driving around a neighborhood looking for a "For Sale" sign.
One can accomplish this task by either entering the range of block one
would like his house to be in or ask where there is a vacancy. Once I
found a vacant lot, I registered and started to build my very own web
page.
Before I began constructing my page, the community needed some
information from me. The information required was my real name and the
zip code. This information is kept private, unless otherwise instructed.
The next step was to select a member name, which is like a nickname. I
went through several choices before settling on Darling, the reason being
I had a good time chatting with that particular name. However, this name
was taken so I chose Geishagirl. Then, I was asked to enter a description
of my web page. My statements for the page is: X-File fans, Look Here!
Fox is so hot, he sizzles. Dana needs Fox to rescue her". It sounded
silly, but I did not care because no one is going to know my real name or
who I am. The only thing that people who visit my site will know is that
I am a X-File fan. The description needs to fit in with the web page
anyone is constructing, and one needs to keep in mind that the theme needs
to relate to the community one choose to residing in. I chose to live in
Hollywood because this neighborhood corresponded to the intended theme of
my home page.
Next, I entered in my e-mail address so the Hollywood community
can register and send me information on my Uniform Resource Locator for my
web page and the initial password to my membership account. The e-mail I
received gave me my membership name, password, the neighborhood I have
picked, my URL, my e-mail address in Geocities (mine is
geishagirl@geocities.com, so next time you stop by, drop me a few lines),
and restrictions on your home page. The rules are not many, but one needs
to abide by them to avoid unnecessary booting.
One essential requirement or rule for your home page on
Geocities is that on all of your html (hypertext markup language-for home
pages only) pages has a reference back to Geocities. This reference, or
link, can be the main neighborhood page that you live in, or the Geocities
Home Page (this is why your page is free, you are providing free
advertisement for the Geocities company). Aside from the link to
Geocities, you should refrain from certain subjects when constructing your
page, such as stated in Geocities rules and restrictions. One cannot
include "materials that are grossly offensive to the web community, these
include expressions of bigotry, racism, hatred, or profanity". Your page
should not promote any illegal or commercial activity, which includes
posting pornographic images, using copyrighted materials without the
approval of the author, and "violating Internet standards for the purpose
of promoting your home page". If you breach any of these rules, your home
page will be removed or deleted without warning. At the end of the
Guideline page of Geocities, there is a comment from the staff of
Geocities, and it states that, "Within the guidelines stated above, we are
committed to provide a forum for all points of view. If you disagree with
some of the opinions expressed by certain members of our community we
encourage you to create your own free Personal Home Page and make your own
views known. To us, this is the definition of community." Geocities is a
place where people from all over the world go and build home pages to
express who they are. "The pages created by Geocitizens contain an
incredible array of facts, opinions, information, entertainment, and
interesting information". The purpose of Geocities is to build an
environment where people feel comfortable living in and that includes
allowing people to voice their opinions and views about their community.
This definition of community coincides with how we think of RW
communities. A RW community in our society should be democratic, where
everyone is allowed to voice their beliefs and discuss it with people who
might share the same views. In the real world, I think that everyone would
like to live in a community where the members have shared interests. Our
desire of residing in a town where we feel comfortable is sometimes
hindered by resources. The advantage of Geocities is that no matter where
you are or how much money you have, you are free to choose where to live.
The people that live next to me have similar taste in lifestyle, some
people have pages on models, some contain materials about movies and TV.
The people in Hollywood enjoy the entertainment circle and want to talk
about it all the time. Which leads me to bring up the next issue I would
like to discuss, which is communication within the community.
The most prominent form of communication would be conversing in
one of the 27 chat rooms which resembles the town square for the
communities. People gather there to discuss all kinds of topics, but not
necessarily the topic that is represented by the community name. This
type of communication is done in real time. One can choose to remain
Anonymous or log in with a nick name. The later is preferred because
people in these chat rooms tend to get unhappy with someone who is
Anonymous. However, what is the purpose of having a nickname if people on
the other end are not going to know your real identity anyways? On the
other hand, though, one can argue that having a nickname provides the
person in the chat room with a virtual identity that allows a sense of
friendliness and repoire with other fellow members. Also, if you choose
to stay Anonymous, the other people in the room have no way of determining
your gender. This lack of gender will hinder any potential communication
that would revolve around courtship or flirtation if the sex of the person
in question was ambiguous. The age of the people in chat rooms range from
early teens to late thirtes. And the main idea of chat rooms is to flirt
and pass sexual innuendos. There usually are no formal topics to discuss.
One just start chatting with whomever they want to. I usually log on to
these chat rooms as a female and this usually entices the men in the room
to talk to me. There are two things I would like to point out that stood
out the most during my observation time in the chat room. The first
interesting phenomenon occurred when I used names that imply sexiness (I
chose these from novels). When I was "Darling" or "Sweety" I
attracted so much male attention, it was like drawing moths to a flame.
Whereas when I used names like "Sue" or "Mary", I received
minimal attention from the male members in the chat room. The
conversations I had with the supposed men (how do I know they were not
lying about their gender?) as the character "Darling" were always
oriented towards cypersex. Almost all the men Darling talked to asked her
to have sex. An example of one of these conversations would go like
this:
- "Hey Darling, what's up?
- "Fine, how are you doing today?"
- "Fine, are you (m) or (f)? age?"
- "Female, 21 and you?"
- "27 and m, are you interested in some fun? What are you wearing?"
The above conversation was between me as Darling and a person named
Nympho(m). I do not have to tell you what happened next, but basically a
good time means cypersex. I decided to experience these situations from
the opposite side of the fence. I tried to become a member of the opposite
sex but I could not proceed any further after a few minutes because I did
not know how to act and talk like a man. First of all, I had no idea how
to flirt to girls. For some reason, the male version of flirting requires
a degree of vulgarity. I did not want to say anything that might offend
anyone and push them to leave the room or instigate a fight. I just
didn't want to be someone that offended me when I was "Darling". Once when
I logged on as Darling, a Mr. Ed was so vulgar and disgusting that "he"
described me in a sexual position to everyone in the chat room. I was so
embarrassed that I left the room quickly. These situations can to
contrasted to experiences in singles bars. Instead of being approached
with some come-on lines like "your eyes are full of shining stars", you
are asked to have cybersex as soon as you exchange greetings with someone
you have never met, someone you don't even truly know the gender of. You
could be a woman pretending to be a man, having sex with man who is
playing a woman character. In this instance, the virtual community is
different from that of the real world. In the RW, you know who you are
talking to at a bar, at a church, in a classroom. You know their family,
their professional lives, their Sunday golf games. You would not propose
to have sexual liaisons with them. There wouldl be serious consequences
if such examples were to occur.
However, in the chat rooms, one can have sex or outrageous
conversation with another without knowing the real identity of who they
are talking to. If I had a casual one nightstand in one of the chat
rooms, I am not going to hear gossip tomorrow in the bathroom regarding
what I did the night before in the chat room. The anonymity is great.
This feature provides an outlet for people who are usually so guarded in
their speech and manner in face to face situations. I know whenever I am
in a chat room, I let myself go. I say things that I normally will not
say on the phone or at a party. There is no such thing as a first
impression in the chat rooms. If I don't like someone and their
statements, I will tell them. Conversations in these rooms are very
straightforward. People say what is on their minds without the run
arounds. People ignore the ones that they don't like, that they feel are
annoying. I remember there was this "Robert" in my community chat room
whom no one would speak to. I think it was the way he conducted himself.
He didn't make any friends, yet he wanted to know how to bold the letters.
He just kept on asking and asking. Then, he started to call everyone
stupid. That was a bit childish, but someone was nice enough to tell him
what to do and send him on his merry way. When the nice person told
Robert all he had to do was use htm, Robert became confused. We all got a
laugh out of that. I mean, there he was, saying that everyone was stupid,
yet, he had no clue what he was suppose to do. Who was the stupid one?
In real life, we would not ignore him in the first place. If this was a
party, we would have to be polite to him because social norms dictate us
to do so. And when he did make a fool out of himself, we wouldn't talk
about his stupidity right in front of him like we did in the chat room.
Instead, we would have politely waited until he left to laugh about him
behind his back.
I would say that even though there are a lot of role playing in
the chat rooms, the true selves do come out. Call it the desired self,
call it the true self, no matter what, it is apart of you. I wish I can
speak my mind in the real world without hurting someone else's feeling but
it is difficult when you know who you are talking to. However, the chat
rooms allow your freedom to express your deepest emotion without feeling
guilty because you don't know who you are talking to. It is a general
rule to not say anything too nasty, but one can speak one's mind. Rules
are apart of any community whether real or virtual, which leads me to my
comparison of virtual community to the ones in the real world.
When comparing the differences between virtual community to that
in real life, one finds many differences. Like I mentioned before, when
you are in virtual space, you have no clue who you are speaking to.
Instead of facing a real person, you are facing a computer with text
running up and down. You receive clues as to what the other person you
are talking to is feeling by reading their lines instead of understanding
their body language. In real life, when someone feels uncomfortable, they
squirm around in their seats or wring their hands. But in virtual
community, you have no idea what they are feeling by looking at mere
words. If one says that they are "happy", do they mean smiley happy, or
laughing happy? If they say they like you, you can't see the lecherous
look they will give you if you were in a real life situation. This
faceless experience is probably one of the reasons that most people enjoy
utilizing these virtual chat rooms. One can make endless first
impressions by changing identity. In the real world, sometimes all you
have to do is speak to that person to know what kind of personality they
posssess. Contrary to the real world, these chat rooms hide the
personalities of the people in it. One has less information about who one
is talking to. This faceless characteristic is the reason why people are
disinhibited when talking in virtual chat rooms. This form of letting
one's self go is another reason why a lot of people enjoy spending time in
these communities. You don't have to be afraid that what you say will
hurt your image because no one knows your name. You cannot have this
degree of freedom in the RW, so virtual communities provide outlets of
expressions that are otherwise not accessible to them..
Even though real world communities differ from virtual ones, they
also share many similarities. The purpose for joining these virtual
communities is to talk to people and discuss shared interests. This
process is similar to choosing a community where you feel you will be
comfortable living in and that your neighbors will share your interest of
having a safe town. The definition of community is a group of people
living in the same place. Well, my web page is residing in Geocities and
I am surrounded by people that live on my block. I live on 6368 Hollywood
Hills and there are many more that live on the same street. I would also
like to say that where I live and chat, mutual respect does exist. People
don't violate rules that might offend other's enjoyment in Geocities. I
believe that is one of the ideals when building a community, virtual or
real.
Besides having mutual respect for your neighbors in cyberspace,
the community also has plenty of communication. If someone doesn't like
what is happening, one can talk about it. Once the problem is out in the
open, people can solve it. This problem solving is essential to have a
well-maintained community. If people are not satisfied with their
community, they are not going to have much community spirit. Also, if the
problem is not solved, then people are not going to feel comfortable
living there and sooner or later the community is going to have less and
less members. The communities on Geocities allow people to voice their
dislikes and likes. To have feedback allow the community a chance to
correct themselves in areas in which they are lacking, and to reinforce
areas where they are strong in. This feature is essential to have a
well-structured community.
Aside from the fact that virtual community utilizes the faceless
interaction, it does fit the ideal community standards. It allows people
to voice their opinions thereby maintaining a good environment. When
people speak up and problems are solved, a community spirit is kept.
Everyone is satisfied and no one is grumbling about something they do not
like. In a lot of ways, the communities of Geocities are ideal
communities.
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