This is something i’ve been meaning to write about a long time — Radar Masukami in his latest podcast talks about another podcaster’s discussion of whether or not your friends that you make online are your “real friends” — Radar says of course they are. I would agree. I’m actually surprised how often I hear from people at the gallery things like “well how can you be friends with someone you only know over the computer?” its really something that some people have a hard time imagining– i’ve even had them debate with me trying to tell me that my friends are “friends”.

Selavy Oh’s “micro performance” where she made her face melt like a nazi seeing the inside of the ark of the covenant for me, was a great piece of concrete philosophy in this debate, and here’s why: It really freaked me out! I don’t even really know Selavy - and there are plenty of people who are more my online friends than she is, but even someone i would consider kind of a digital acquaintance when she made her face melt it really bothered me. It made me feel kinda sick like it would make you feel if someone you cared about was ill.

To me this is the proof of the friend pudding- its how you feel. If your virtual friend told you to shove it and you are genuinely upset, I’d call that a real friendship. Its the 1-to-1 coincidence of the avatar in virtual space with the presence and attention of an actual human who is actually your friend no matter how remote they are physically, that makes the virtual experience accrue emotional overlays. When i see that blue face i subconsciously expect to have a conversation with an interesting and creative person so I associate that face with something pleasant and seeing it destroyed becomes unpleasant. Just like the song that i picked to mean that my girlfriend is calling me now makes me have a Pavlovian response of grinning ear to ear whenever i hear it.

My point is that these things happen– the associations of images with feelings because this is how we are built as human beings- we can’t help it, and this is why SL can sometimes tap into your emotions in a way that other kinds of digital interactions don’t– simply because there is more to be subconsciously associated with feelings. You might smile when you see the little icon that means your friend is on IM but if there’s a unique entire tele-presence there i think the potential is much more powerful

Posted by jvanb on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 9:19 pm.