Are we able to adapt to the challenges of the digital environment? Are we changing or staying the same? And how do we find the optimal measure of presence in the two worlds? We are talking with a specialist in the field of cyberpsychology.
You have been researching communication on the Internet for 30 years. What has changed during this time?
Alexander Voiskunsky: In the 80s, we were already exchanging messages with might and main on the internal network of Moscow State University, but today contacts on all continents are available to everyone. Translation software allows you to transfer information in any language, be it Swahili or French, and the quality of translation has increased markedly.
But if in the early years everyone tried to expand their social circle as much as possible out of sports interest: “oh, I have contacts from 75 countries!”, “I have already participated in 38 online conferences”, now this excitement has subsided. We are increasingly encapsulated in our groups, it is important for us to impress the reference community, and that is where we pump up the reputation.
«Pumping reputation» — how and why?
We post meaningful statements and interesting news, comment on events, trying to demonstrate erudition and wit, defend our views and at the same time make sure to show ourselves playful or unexpected and thus attract new friends and followers-subscribers. For non-public personalities, such weak ties are almost the only source of social capital.
What are weak ties?
These are connections that arise in short communication with those who turned to us on the occasion with some kind of request or with whom we ended up together for a short time in a common group or project.
We know something about these people, but do not seek to meet and learn better. Out of courtesy, we say to them: “in touch” or “well, call!”. But if this person disappears, we will not remember him and will not be upset. As a rule, we have much more such contacts on the Web than in real life.
But superficial contacts are probably useless…
We may not feel their benefit for a long time, but when we want, for example, to find a Danish teacher or rent an apartment, we will announce it in public — on our page, and someone will surely help.
Having numerous circles of communication, we are better guided in those situations that life presents — from the actions of scammers and the sale of surplus crops in the country to volcanic eruptions — we know, understand, better evaluate and take into account for ourselves, and this is priceless.
Weak ties adorn life, make it more interesting, more enjoyable. We build them and lose them, but at the same time we remain ourselves: an extrovert remains an extrovert, and an introvert remains an introvert.
Obviously, extroverts have a great life on social media. And what about introverts?
It used to be that introverts were even more withdrawn. Now we know that all the tendencies of the personality that we had the good fortune or unhappiness to discover in ourselves and manifest are intensified on the Web.
Extroverts continue their activity, and introverts can find that niche, community, where they will be understood and where they can feel more confident. Let’s say they subscribe to multiplayer games not so much for the game, but to communicate outside the brackets, to find interesting conversationalists.
Even the most radical silent and loners who in the last century sat in the kitchen, turned away from the world — in Japan they are called hikikomori — began to find like-minded people on the Internet. Hikki groups now exist in many countries, obviously, in this way they realize their meager need for communication.
In a word, there is a place on the Web for every taste, but at the same time there is no mass contact of “everyone with everyone”. And this is rather good: not everyone is ready to constantly face opinions and values uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthat contradict their own. Users are tired of quarrels and choose a more favorable social circle for themselves.
Are there special rules for online communication?
There is a golden rule for all time: do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you. In the context of globalization, it sounds even more radical: do not do anything that could even potentially harm you and others, like and unlike you.
In general, I really like that from the very beginning, a democratic style of messaging has developed on the Internet. No one writes: «Dear sir, may I be allowed to know your opinion.» More often like this: “Hi, Sergey, what do you think about this?” Sergei may be three times older than the sender, but that’s ok!
Does the style of online communication affect offline?
This is a mutual influence. New speech formulas appear, for example, on the phone we ask: “Where are you?”, After all, we can find the subscriber at the intersection of streets, in Philadelphia or Shanghai. And on the Web, this phrase takes on a different meaning: maybe it’s night for you now, then I won’t torment you with questions, I’ll wait until you return.
Previously, the phone was a priority: if the call was heard in the doctor’s office, he was distracted from the reception and picked up the phone. Then came the formula: «I’ll call you back.» Another new rule: I will only pick up the phone if I get a call from a number I know. It is clear what caused this: we are constantly being imposed services of various kinds.
And now we text a stranger before we call — it seems like less of an invasion of personal space. Once a colleague, an American professor of psychology, complained: “I can’t go into my daughter’s room without first sending an SMS asking if I can come in. Because she is busy with her own affairs and how appropriate my appearance is for her to judge.
How do new rules appear?
No one specifically invents them and teaches others — this is group creativity. In some communities, a rude tone has developed, swearing is allowed, while in others this is not. At one time, a lot was written about the so-called “language of padonkuff”, it seemed that slang with alternative spelling, as unlike the dictionary as possible, was firmly established on the Internet. But, having become massive for a while, this style of communication has gone nowhere.
In communities where participants already know each other a little, certain norms are usually established, ways of responding to news, attracting attention. And then the rules of the group that enjoys authority can be recognized in other groups.
Does virtual reality make us happier?
The Internet continues to do what we have already begun to do to ourselves. If we are going to be happy, then we will be happy online. And vice versa. The Internet is a huge value, but also a huge array of information that today falls on everyone almost from birth.
How to find your route in this array and not get lost in it, find those interlocutors and friends who may be far away, but with whom it is good and interesting — everyone decides this task for himself.
Internet content is endless, it’s addictive. How do we determine our rate of stay on the Web?
Only through trial and error. British psychologists Andrew Przybylsky and Netta Weinstein, authors of the “Goldilocks Digital Hypothesis”, argue that it is possible to determine what level of online life is just right for us empirically, like Goldilocks or Masha from the Russian fairy tale “Three Bears”, arranged by Leo Tolstoy. Sitting down on the chairs of bears and a bear cub — bigger or smaller — the girl determined which one fit her.
Likewise, if we limit ourselves too much, we may feel that we are deprived of important information and communication. And by allowing the network life to absorb itself, we note that it has supplanted other activities that are significant to us.
And yet, even noticing the bias, we are sometimes unable to free ourselves …
I don’t see anything special in this behavior, some people behaved in the same way before the digital era: they played cards, washed bones for neighbors, watched TV to exhaustion. If someone has a desire to be distracted, then he needs it. And if he has no other interests, then the Internet is not to blame.
The network, of course, facilitates doing nothing, but no one canceled work on oneself. So finding your own measure is a completely working method.