Media Experiment 6

In the box-office and critical successful film Avatar, directed by James Cameron, the characters embark on a journey, but only a mental one as they plug into a machine that connects their minds to an avatar where they can roam on a different planet in an alien body. While this film is definitely fiction, it is not too far from reality as nowadays more and more people are living their lives through virtual worlds. Additionally, lead character Jake Sully notably acts different when his body is present versus when it is mediated.

Sam Worthington in 'Avatar'

The first technology that I examined was my relationship with friends on the social networking site Facebook versus my relationships with friends when my body is present. I came to realize that for me personally, I spend the majority of my time on Facebook complimenting others. There is a “like” button but not a dislike button available so we are constantly liking each other’s pictures and statuses letting one another know that we approve of what we are seeing or reading. When commenting a picture, the majority of the time I am giving the other user a compliment about the way they look. In comparison, in person I find myself to be much more critical. If someone says something that I don’t approve of I will always let him or her know and if they ask how they look I sometimes am honest with them even if the truth is not what they are looking for. I think the biggest reason for this is because Facebook is such a public website, nothing is private and you wouldn’t want others to see you being cruel to another user. Also, like McLuhan discusses how we are more in touch with one another because of this media but we are less physically in touch. I think that is important because I can tell someone in person that I do not like the shirt they are wearing but make sure the tone of my voice is non-threatening so they are not so easily offended. In the virtual world, there is no real tone or intonation so it is difficult to give any kind of constructive criticism without the person immediately being offended which is probably why I am essentially a nicer person on Facebook.

Snapshot of my Facebook profile

The next technology that I examined was electronic mail, or e-mail. I realized that my communication through e-mail is much more professional than when my body is actually present. Even when I am e-mailing my own mother I find myself to use proper formatting, punctuation, and spelling in my messages. This is probably due to me constantly using e-mail as a source of communication with potential and current employers, and professors, so it this has impacted my communication with all individuals on e-mail. Whereas in person even when talking to an employer of mine I am much more informal and casual because I do not want to sound too stoic and professional in a conversation. I feel that e-mail is a good tool to communicate quickly and effectively but it is by no means a true representation of their character because I am so much different in person.

Snapshot of my Electronic E-mail

Going back to the film Avatar, lead character Jake Sully experiences something somewhat similar as his personality in the virtual world strays far from when his body is actually present, although the worlds do eventually collide. Even more noticeable are the advantages that Jake Sully gets from this virtual world because of his inability to walk in the real world. Mirzeoff says it best when he discusses that these virtual worlds can be particularly liberating for those with a disability. So while some may believe that these virtual worlds are no place for individuals to be living, someone like Jake Sully will wholeheartedly disagree because of the advantage it gave him physically.

This experiment has helped me realize something very important. Where is authenticity? This is a question that many authors have posed in readings and we have discussed this in class numerous times. While it can easily be argued that based on my experiments there is clearly no authenticity in the media, I would actually argue the opposite by using Goffman’s arguments from past discussions on the “presentation of self.” I believe that even though my communication in e-mails and Facebook may not seem like my actual personality, when combined with my physical personality they all make up a part of who I really am. I say this because I agree with Goffman that life is a stage and everything we do, when the body is present or when it is not, is a performance and all of it is authentic and part of our personalities