confessions-temptation in virtual reality
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8/6/2019 Confessions-Temptation in Virtual Reality
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more quirky character, or so I thought ± no one bothered to talk to me. To add salt to injurythe cyber group at the park suddenly switched to talking in Spanish.
In desperation I decided to assume a female persona. Fortunately the icon did not require me
to wear a skirt. The long hair sufficed to establish my new identity. I was now Jessica, and
what a pleasant surprise awaited me. People suddenly were more than happy to talk to me,
Jessica, my cyber double! Unfortunately, the conversations tended to become insipid,especially since I avoided asking whether people were looking for love and pretended not to
understand the sexual innuendos from amorous males. Overall, my encounters in VR turned
out to be less satisfying than engaging in the proverbial small talk concerning the weather
with a stiff-lipped Englishman.
Roxy turned out to be a surprise catch for a visitor. It was a µreward¶ for hard work in coming
up with a splendid name that suggested class and distinction (of course, I am keeping this
name a trade secret). But my brief encounter with Roxy triggered many troubling and
conflicting emotions in me, emotions that have nothing to do with µlove¶.
Initially, I had an exhilarating sense of freedom upon becoming an avatar. All of a sudden, I
had the power to reconstruct a totally new identity and define my new personality anyway Idesired. No one could tell me what I should be or shouldn¶t be. But it quickly struck me that
this freedom can easily slide into fantasy. In psychological terms, I could end up indulging in
an exercise of transference, attributing to my cyber double all the qualities which I dreamed
of but which I could not achieve in real life.
The basic anonymity that accompanies the ambience of VR also encourages freedom from
inhibition. Since I can take on a multiplicity of personalities, changing them at the will with a
click of the button of my mouse, I don¶t have to fear being held responsible for saying wrong
things or having values that are not politically correct. It has been said that the bar is the
devil¶s best imitation of Church fellowship. I guess he has upgraded his software, thanks to
VR. Virtual chat rooms are even better than the bar. I can simply teleport myself to another meeting place if I should find anyone annoying.
But one can¶t help feeling assailed by doubts that continually gnaw at these exhilarating
feelings. Cyber visionaries assure us that the ability to change personalities gives users thefreedom to explore the limitless potential of their psychological moods and impulses. But, if
one can assume any identity ± even those that run counter to our basic personality types, or worse, gender ± then it can only result in a life of incoherence and contradictions. What
happens to the real me as it becomes split into a multiplicity of personalities? Can I just pretend that my alter egos are purely fictitious if I take on these personae and live them out
several hours daily? What happens to our souls, or, that enduring center of personality to
which we can appeal as the agent who keeps its word and takes responsibility for the deeds
we do? Is it not the case that we despise people of shifting character writing them off asunreliable chameleon or schizophrenics?
If avatars mutate constantly in VR then to whom am I talking on the other side of the net?These uncertainties bring to mind the classic case of a college student who found that he was
falling in love with the lady who had been net-chatting with him for some years. Judgingfrom the net exchanges he could only envisage his partner as a charming lady. Eventually, he
suggested that µshe¶ meet to seal their relationship with marriage. At that point, the other
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party confessed that µshe¶ had all along been a fifty-year-old man masquerading as a younglady.
Mark Slouka has documented a more classical case in his book, War of the W orld s. He
describes how a married graduate student, Avram joined a MOO group (one of those MUD or
Multi-User Dialogs) using an assumed identity named ³Allison´. Avram allowed Slouka to
join one of his chat sessions with ³Janine´. Slouka discovered that ³Allison´ was having alesbian relationship with ³Janine´. They had even ³had sex´ in virtual reality. Not
surprisingly, when Slouka engaged in conversation with Janine Avram became distraught,
and jealous and quickly grabbed the keyboard from Slouka! One can only assume that the
virtual personality had become a significant part of his real life, especially if he spends hours
on the net. On the other hand one also wonders whether ³Janine´ is a he or a she in the first
place.
Slouka considers Avram to be a normal person despite anticipating that Avram¶s online affair
with ³Janine´ will last ³for the rest of their lives, or until that day when one of them fails to
log on.´ But the question is ± is it normal to keep one¶s intimate relationship with another
party, albeit, over the net a secret from one¶s spouse, a normal way of life?
What are we to make of deception through false impersonation over the net? Not
unexpectedly, the cyber world manifests a dark side despite its initial promise to be a place of
open and uninhibited interaction? Precisely because of the essential anonymity that is
promised over the net, some users feel free to indulge in abusive talk and destructive
behaviour. Thus we have users who engage in cyber exhibitionism by surreptitiously
exposing the private parts of avatar icons. Others commit µcyber rape¶ by taking over another
user¶s avatar and making the icon participate in µcyber-sex¶. It comes as no surprise to find in
Dr. John Suler¶s online book, The Psychol ogy of Cyber space a significant list of avatars
invested with personalities associated with psychological types such as µnarcissistic¶,
µschizoid¶, µparanoid¶, µmanic¶, µmasochistic¶ and so on. What can one expect from VR if it is
inhabited by such µnetizens¶? So much for the brave new world of VR.
My brief excursion into the world of VR must by all accounts be judged as disappointing.Admittedly in the short term, the excursions can be an entertaining; but the hangover after the
chat sessions leaves one with a sense of disappointment. How flat the conversations actuallyturn out to be in the absence of body signals and tonal language. Furthermore, if faceless chat
members could be anywhere over the globe, one can switch them off at will. It is so muchsimpler than having to spurn someone in a face-to-face encounter. But by the same token, it is
easy to do it precisely because the interaction, notwithstanding the fanciful avatar icons and
the elaborate 3-D landscape, is largely diminished?
The reality of the VR is it encourages of transient encounters rather than long-lasting personal
relationships, notwithstanding the exceptions in case of people like Avram. Thankfully, thehangover that follows hours of cyber excursions leads me to appreciate better my friends inthe real world. Indeed, it strikes me deeply that the cyber world is at odds with the central
proclamations of Christianity ± that God made creation as a theatre for us to enjoy hisglorious handiwork, that the Incarnation confirms God¶s serious redemption of fallen creation
and that salvation finds fulfillment in a community that heals broken relationships. It is in thisspirit that Chesterton remarked that Christianity, is indeed, the µworldliest¶ of all religions.