The more I thought about this post as I was reading through the assigned articles for this week the more I came back to a semi-serious thought that video games, and online multiplayer games in particular are the best social media that we have created so far. The more I think about it, the more I believe the statement is true, despite all the various caveats that go along with the declaration.
Video games as a social media have a prohibitive cost to access (The hardware, the utilities of power & internet, the cost of the software, etc). There are serious cultural issues as well, some of which are outlined in a 2015 study on sexism that found male players of an online shooting video game were more likely to behave with hostility towards a female-coded voice compared with a male-coded voice player on their own team (Kasumovic & Kuznekoff). The results of this study are very in line with the popular perception of the culture that online game players exist in -- there is a reason the cultural zeitgeist has so many references to the pre-pubescent boys who say vulgar things about everyone's mother on Xbox Live after all. I would hesitate to ever present a space like this without making the weaknesses of the form and culture very clear. I mean, if we look at the negative comments made about interactions on Facebook from the Clark, Algroe, & Green article and connect that to the constant nightmares that are seen in whatever Meta is trying to do now with their Meta Horizon Worlds platform ( I had to look up what this was even called.) we can see that you cannot simply make an online platform and be met with immediate success at having people form genuine connections. Clark, Algroe, & Green make the explicit call to improve social interaction with active social engagement, with an intent to increase intimate connections (2018).
What I am suggesting, tongue firmly in my cheek, is that Clark, Algroe, & Green hit the nail squarely on the head when they claim that MUD awareness is down and this is clearly the reason modern social media is bad.
MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV, online cooperative games like Monster Hunter, massively popular shooters like Fornite or Call of Duty, and the like are the modern day MUD. Sony has shipped over 32 million Playstation 5 units in the 2+ years since the device launched (Porter, 2023). Several tracking websites lists the monthly active user count for Final Fantasy XIV to be consistently more than 18 million players. And importantly, these online media products function as a space to allow people to congregate and take part in activities. To follow the suggestions laid out by Seidler et al., positive outcomes from social media stem from joining communities of shared interest and actively contributing online may lead to an increase in comfort for engaging in emotionally rich conversations, which may hopefully decrease the social problem of male loneliness (2020). I posit that it is impossible to feel lonely when participating in a massive 40-player raid in Final Fantasy XIV or a focused 6-person raid in Destiny 2. These are social experiences that employ game mechanics that require collaboration, and strong communication skills to succeed, and come with their own reward structures inside of the social media space of the game while also building strong emotional connections between people.
While these spaces are clearly not perfect, given how popular video games are and how many people turned to these online spaces to maintain their social gatherings during the first few years of the COVID-19 pandemic it would feel strange to me to leave them out of this discussion on social media & interpersonal connections.
References
Clark, J. L., Algoe, S. B., & Green, M. C. (2018). Social network sites and well-being: The role of social connection. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(1), 32-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417730833
Final Fantasy 14 Active Monthly Players. (2022, November 6). Final Fantasy XIV. The Game Statistics Authority : ActivePlayer.io. https://activeplayer.io/final-fantasy-xiv/ (Accessed Feb 26, 2023)
Kasumovic, M. M., & Kuznekoff, J. H. (2015). Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female-Directed Hostile and Amicable Behaviour. PLOS ONE, 10(7), e0131613. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131613
Porter, J. (2023, February 2). Sony’s PS5 just had its biggest quarter of sales since release. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/2/23582579/ps5-sony-q3-2022-earnings-console-sales-chip-shortage (Accessed Feb 26, 2023)
Seidler, Z. E., Wilson, M. T., Rice, S. M., Kealy, D., Oliffe, J. L., & Ogrodniczuk, J. S. (2020). Virtual connection, real support? A study of loneliness, time on social media and psychological distress among men. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 68(2), 288–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020983836