Week 6 article review - wendy

No matter living on-line or offline, we cannot avoid making connections with people,so relationship is a significant topic to talk about. Carter (2005) used cybercity to investigate the human relationships in virtual world. According to the research, Carter(2005) revealed "the complex interaction between trust, intimacy, disclosure and time" (p.149). She referred to the notion of pure relationships, which "is not anchored in the social and economic conditions but is ‘free-floating’ " (Carter, 2005, p. 156). Freedom, commitment and intimacy are the three core elements in a pure friendship. People are voluntary to make a friend, under this premise they establish an active trust on each other after a period of interaction. This kind of trust "brings about disclosure and disclosure is the basic condition of intimacy" (Giddens, 1991, p. 61).

It seems that making friends is much easier than that in real life. First, the gender, age and even nationality don't matter. The avatars people see are not the controllers really look like in real world, so they begin to know each other from inside, which works better to bring people close. However, the process of making friends in reality is from outside to inside, the appearance plays an important role, no matter people recognize or not. Second, people feel more open and safe with on-line friends because of the distance. They can easily share a secret with a friend in virtual world and do not need to worry if he or she will leak. These acts of disclosure make the friendship on-line stable. Third, the residents in cybercity regard everyone sharing the same social space as a potential friend. For instance, if two avatars go into a shop at the same time, the probability of communicating is higher than that in real world.

Moreover, the data shows that most people think these on-line friendships can move into offline life but the preconditions are truth, time and effort. As far as I'm concerned, I will never meet them in the real world. Because if I do so, they will become same as the friends in my life and I cannot feel safe and be open with them any more. On the other hand, I believe the friendships on-line are true. I want to be friends with you, not because of your look, your money or your position, but only the real one inside your body, such as the same thoughts, hobbies or experiences. It's difficult to establish pure friendships in reality, I think this is one of the reasons why people choose to socialize in virtual world.

References
Carter, D. (2005), Living in virtual communities: an ethnography of human relationships in cyberspace. Information, Communication & Society, 8(2), 148-167.

Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern
Age, Polity Press, London.