Virtual Worlds as a Means to Promote Intercultural Communications

          Intercultural communication is a challenge due to several seemingly uncontrollable factors, but the Internet has provided the human race with a means to open doorways between otherwise disconnected cultures.  Communication between cultures is made difficult by the way we look, the way we speak, and the way we communicate by nonverbal communications such as proxemics, kinesics, chronemics, and paralanguage.  However, humans have developed new technologies that when introduced to other cultures bridge the gap between cultures to a certain extent.  Social networking sites and online role playing games create a world where people can rise above preconceived notions about who or what they should be.  Despite the positive aspects of global social networking, this medium will not solve all of the problems facing intercultural communication and understanding.  Eventually we must emerge from our artificial characters from virtual worlds and face our actual identities in the mundane world. 

            The United States and the Islamic world have been at odds for many years.  Joshua Fouts and Rita King decided to study an online, virtual world called “A Second Life” to witness the impact that this virtual world has on communication with Islamic culture (Fouts & King, 2009).  Rather than control the process through inviting specific people, but rather by seeing what was already unfolding within this second virtual world, running parallel to our own (Fouts & King, 2009).  In online virtual worlds people create avatars, which are the cyber representations used to interact in the world or game (Levine, 2007).  When creating an avatar a person can become anything they want to be.  Most avatars are very similar to the physical characteristics of the actual person, only much better looking (Levine, 2007).  Some even choose to create avatars that do not resemble the user in any way (Levine, 2007).  Within these virtual worlds, while using an avatar, people are able to open up without fear of physical harm and where imperfections can easily be hidden (Fouts & King, 2009). 

            People in the real world are challenged with barriers caused by language, as well as nonverbal communication.  Proxemics, also known as personal space; kinesics, which means physical movements, facial expressions, and how we make eye contact; chronemics, the way cultures use and follow time; and paralanguage, the verbal sounds we make to accentuate our speech, these nonverbal gestures are all impacted in face to face intercultural interactions (Jandt, 2010).  In an online virtual world, with created avatars to represent individuals, many of the barriers to intercultural communications, such as visual appearance and nuance of speech, are eliminated.  A four foot, eighty-five year old, German grandmother can be a sumo wrestler and nobody would know.  This opens doors to communication, but not without limitations. 

            The people living second identities in a second life, or any other online social network, are using alter egos instead of their true identity.  An alter ego works for Superman and Batman because they are not real people.  Real people have a real character and that character may not reflect the same values and norms that their pretend character represents.  I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize the fact that avatars are pretend and not real.  In a pretend identity a person may behave entirely different than in real life.  So the assumed cyber identity may even develop a tolerance that the real person, outside of the virtual world does not actually embrace.  If we can pretend to be something we are not, then we can pretend to behave in ways that we do not.  These are still pretend, much like little girls dressing up like princesses and then going outside to make mud pies, it is the mud pies I wonder about.  Another serious drawback I see in virtual identities in pretend worlds is the temptation to get lost in them.  Much like a junkie looking for the next fix, some people might become hopelessly addicted to their false persona and never leave the virtual to return to the real world.  For online virtual worlds to have a positive effect on intercultural communication there needs to be honesty between avatars.

            Virtual worlds will and do affect intercultural communication.  Some of these influences are incredibly positive and door opening between cultures.  Unfortunately, not all living in a virtual world has a positive impact on intercultural communication.  The Internet has provided our global culture with a means to expand communication beyond our usual barriers. Social networking sites and online role playing games create a world where people can rise above preconceived notions about who or what they should be.

References

Fouts, J.S. and King, R.J. (2009). Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds (2008-2009). Carnegie Council: The Voice of Ethics in International Affairs. Retrieved June 6, 2011 from http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/programs/archive/002/index.html#.

Jandt, F.E. (2010). An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in a global community (6^th Ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Levine, K. (2007). Alter egos in a virtual world – NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12263532