Cyberculture and Cybersexuality - Essay Example

Introduction Last decades of the twentieth century are marked by the events which scientifically transformed modern social and cultural reality. As a matter of fact nobody will doubt the fact of active occurrence in life of society of the newest information technologies, as a result of rapid development of electronics. We may observe the formation and distribution of special type of mentality and view of life, conceptualized in a number of philosophical, sociological and cultural theories, which received wide popularity under the general name "postmodernism". Since the middle of 1960s sociologists and social philosophers actively discussed a question on the introduction of the most developed countries in a qualitatively other stage of social development characterized by them as a post-industrial or information society which main distinguishing criterion is the defining role of information technologies in all spheres of people and society life. In general, information technologies cannot be considered as something belonging exclusively to the world of techniques for they have so deeply got into the life of people and society, that it is obviously not possible to isolate them from the general world outlook and cultural context any more. The quantum leap in the information industry urgently specifies necessity of the analysis of the newest technologies through a prism of world outlook changes. We should admit that those changes are observed in all spheres of human life and also in the sphere of human sexuality. In the context of Cyber Sexuality, they claim that digital communication technologies have led to a more isolated society. Theoretical Background This issue is very topical as on revealing of relationship between the information technologies which have created unique opportunities for new vision and perception of a social (an in particular sexual) reality on the boundary of the third millennium will allow to give to concept "cyber sexuality" more concrete and powerful theoretical status in order to protect it from unilateral and unduly prejudiced interpretations. In 1984 William Gibson (1984: 51) has published the novel "Neuromancer" in which for the first time he has entered the concept of a cyberspace: "Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced by billions of legitimate operators ". After Gibson's novel gradually cyberspace has began to be considered as a space created by the world telecommunication network and other computer communication systems. Social consequences of functioning of new information technologies are extremely various: they change a way of a person's activities, person's social communications, organizational forms and the content of social interactions. In this connection a subject of attention of researchers became the influence of information technologies on mentality of the person, communication mediated via computers and peculiar features of person's activity in the Internet. In 1960s in connection with the development of TV and other electronic means of information communication Herbert Marshall McLuhan has noted the change of a way of thinking. He has stimulated modern researches of sociology of culture, on having allocated the influence of "means of communication" on the change of ways of thinking and social organization. Since then mass-media communications become the object of attention of Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio, Slavoj Zhizhek and Umberto Eco - those thinkers who have moved the research of the virtual reality created by means of telecommunication technologies from the level of intuitive representations up to analytically-theoretical level and have tracked a birth different kinds of simulacrums, their influence on the connectedness of space as bases of social reality. Any social relation arises and supports own existence owing to the information. The channels of reception of the information (verbal, visual, audio, etc.) studied Rudolf Arnheim, R. Bart, Umberto Eco and other researchers. For the studying a problem of socialization in virtual space following directions of researches have great value: the concept of information society, which was developed in various variants and under various names ("post-industrial", "informational" society) by such scientists as Jean Fourasti, Herbert Marshall McLuhan, Elvin Toffler, D.Bell, Alen Touraine, Manuel Castells, John M. Martin and others. The research of phenomenon of sub- and countercultures are studied in works of Stan Cohen. Sociological analysis of virtual reality and virtual communities one may find in works of S.Thomas, Mark A. Smith and Peter Kollock. Discussion of Issues Human sexuality is formed in social interaction in appliance with inter-subjective denotations, set down by the culture and inner subjective perception of individuals. The rationalization of culture brings community to a possibility to have social control over individuals through the sphere of sexual, private, and intimate. In this case sexual sphere often becomes a polygon of fighting for the norm. In this case cyber sexual sphere gives a lot of space for people to feel themselves absolutely free in expressing their sexuality. "What, then, of 'cyber culture' Setting up a distinction between cyberspace and cyber culture is a false dichotomy, I think: cyberspace is always cyber culture in that we cannot separate cyberspace from its cultural contexts" (Bell, 2001:8). In the sphere of sexuality the exception of reality generates peculiar new cyber sexuality where our bodies released from material environment join together in a virtual space. In strict sense it is ideological imagination as here there are two thing which can not be combined: sexuality (inseparable from reality of a body) and the "spirit" disconnected with a body, as though in the modern reality where our corporal existence more and more is exposed (or it is considered that is exposed) to ecological misfortunes, HIV-infection, etc. and suffers from extreme vulnerability of a modern narcissistic subject afraid of actual mental contact with other person. We are capable to invent a space where it is possible to receive corporal pleasure on getting rid of own body. To put it briefly, to reach the state of unimpeded contact, free floating sensation in virtual space where miraculously survives desire. Let us consider ambiguity which defines a way of our attitude to our cyber characters. On the one hand, we keep an external distance, understanding that there is a game with fictitious images: " I know that I am completely not what they consider me to be (not such courageous, not such sexy), but I am pleasant to forget from time to time my own "self " and to put on a nice mask, thus it is possible to relax, to get rid of burden of own "self", and own responsibility." On the other hand, a cyber image whom we create for ourselves can appear in a greater degree our real "self" than our "really life" image (our "official" image), as in such cyber images there are visible features of our "self", which we are not dare to open in real life. Let's say when a women anonymously play MUD she can represent herself as sexually free woman and enter in relations which on taking place in real life, would bring chaos in her representation about own identity. Both these parts certainly are indissolubly connected. The fact that we perceive the virtual image only as a game allows us to eliminate usually existing barrier, which preclude from comprehension of our "a dark side" in real life and freely express our libido potential. When a calm and shy man chooses for himself in cyber reality a mask of the spiteful and aggressive person, it is possible to conclude that in this way he expresses a suppressed half of his own "self", of his "original personality" (Turkle, 1995: 205). However the same man can claim that he is a weak type dreaming about more aggressive behaviour to hide his cowardice and weakness in real life. On realizing his fantasies in cyber reality, we cope with deadlocks of the dialectic contradiction between desires and refusal of them. When a man "attacks" a woman with rich allusions promising to her sexual pleasure, the best answer will be: "Hey, give it a rest, or else you should fulfil your promises!" In cyber reality it is possible to carry out them, actually doing nothing, and thus to avoid the excitements and worries connected with real activity. One feels that he/she can do it, and as one knows that he/she actually does not do it, he/she does not feels neither inconveniences, nor shame. Sex in a cyberspace is not accompanied with "face to face" contact; here is available only external impersonal space in which everything, including our own most intimate internal fantasies, can be articulated without any restraint. But in this pure "stream of desires" we can deal with an unpleasant surprise: a person released from habitual limits may turn in a person of boundless sadomasochistic violence and feel impetuous aspiration to domination. Usually cyber-sexuality is accused in that instead of rather passion and intensive contact with other body we receive a remote, mediated via techniques procedure. But this break and this distance with direct emotions add specific smack to sexual experience, do they As a matter of fact people use for example pornography not only when they do not have enough real partners but also to add exquisiteness to real sex. Thus the status and the effect of the sexual "flavour" are again ambiguous: it is possible to spoil the game, but it is also possible to strengthen the pleasure. In order to conceptualize two poles of such uncertainty, it is necessary to address the opposition between "gaming" and "working through" difficulties of real life (Turkle, 1995: 200). On the one hand one can simply play the difficulties in cyber reality, on the other hand one can use cyber reality to reveal variety and a randomness of the components making his/her own "self", and thus to cope with them. In the second case the screen of the interface functions similarly to the psychoanalyst: ignoring of symbolical rules which regulate our activity in real life allows to explicit the suppressed content which otherwise we could not meet face to face. In this case we again deal with logic of acceptance through denying: we accept our fantasies as we know that it is only a game of cyber reality. The same duality is observed in life of society. On the one hand, there is a dream of a new society in which decentralized networks will allow individuals to communicate and build a collective political system, the transparent world where there will be no place to secrets of an impenetrable bureaucratic state. On the other hand, the use of computers and cyber reality as tools of reorganization of society leads to creation of a society inside of the machine, reducing individuals to isolated monads lonely sitting in front of their computers and finally remaining in uncertainty whether a man or a woman on the screen who they communicate with, the is a real person, fictitious person, an agent combining some "real" persons, or just a computer program. And at this level there is all the same uncertainty. A person in cyber reality is a case of an imagined deceit, as it has a false image of "self" (for example, a coward representing hero in MUD) and a symbolical deceit as it disclose the truth about "self" under the mask of game (on accepting a mask of aggression in a game form, a person demonstrates the true aggression). There is one more thing that should be taken into the consideration: cyber-sexuality may lead to society of people with internet addiction. The Internet addiction is a wide term designating a plenty of problems of behaviour and control over inclinations (Young, 1998). The cyber sex addiction became a specific subtype of the Internet addiction. Initially it is viewing pornography and/or making cyber sex. Polls have shown that men usually prefer to watch pornography, and women - to make cyber sex. Features of the Internet as a communication environment create rather attractive conditions for making cyber sex and preconditions of occurrence of dependence on this inclination. First of all, anonymity of electronic communications allows in many respects to visit secretly erotic chats, not being afraid to be caught by other people (especially married people). Anonymity keeps as fiduciary a place of residence, a place of work, etc., which cannot be traced (of course if you are not an IT genius). Usually cyber addiction begins in chats where people can communicate in real time, subscribing the invented names. In fact anonymity and privacy of sent messages can become first steps to occurrence of cyber addiction. Very soon harmless conversations can turn to emotional conversations which develop into cyber making sex. Secondly, convenience of ways of such communication (ICQ, chats or role games) appear to be very simple way for communication with other people and for close enough acquaintance. It can begin as a simple exchange of messages or dialogue in chats, but it can fast grow in cyber addiction, secret phone calls and even real sexual relations. Conclusion As a whole it is possible to fix the presence of opposite, polar estimations and forecasts concerning perfection of new information technologies and their applications in human life. On the one hand, in public consciousness have taken root myths about exclusively nocuous influence of computers on consciousness of people. However they are resisted with an enthusiastic estimation of exclusively positive, beneficial influence of new information technologies on society as a whole. Into scientific turnover are entered such terms as: virtual community", "-community", meaning association of users of the Network in groups with the common interests; "on-line community" and in opposition "off-line community", specifying interactivity of communication and interaction of people in cyberspace in real time. The concept "community" before mass use of Internet was considered first of all as a "territorial community". However the word "generality" has many meanings and consequently it is almost impossible to give exact definition of this concept. Thus, it is possible to draw a conclusion that "community" is one of the most indistinct humanitarian terms, which as a matter of fact until today has not got an exact definition. Very often in scientific works the term "community" is crossed with the term "communication". The term "communication" first of all is considered as the organization of socio-cultural and economic interaction of people, groups, organizations, enterprises, states and regions with the help of information means. Thus, the concept "communication" is closely connected with the concept "community", which is a kind of an alliance of the people, expressed in their association in groups, communities for a joint life and activity. So to conclude we may say that on the one hand people in modern society people really become more isolated on from the other. Cyber sexual relation sometime stand for real relations as that is much more easy to realize own desires and fantasies just not doing anything, just sitting in front of the computer monitor. But on the other hand it is not a secret that in the age of new technologies people often fell that 24 hours it is just not enough. Sometimes such cyber sexual relations is the only way to have at lease some kind of sexual communication as the person just do not have time and too tiered to take some active actions to have true relation. That is why we should not be so critical. Cyber communication not only divides people in society but also gather them! Works cited: BELL, D. (2001). An introduction to cybercultures. London, Routledge. GAUNTLETT, D., & HORSLEY, R. (2004). Web.studies. London, Arnold. GIBSON, W. (1984). Neuromancer. New York, Ace Books. TURKLE, S. (1995). Life on the screen: identity in the age of the Internet. New York, Simon & Schuster. YOUNG, K. S. (1998). Caught in the net: how to recognize the signs of Internet addiction--and a winning strategy for recovery. New York, J. Wiley. Read More