Dornath

The rise of educational technology in the last few years has largely mirrored the rise of platform capitalism, and in many cases is being driven by the same companies. Microsoft and Google, big players in the space of classroom management software through their Teams and Classroom platforms respectively, have integrated themselves deeply into the public school systems of Canada and elsewhere in the world. Students are becoming more familiar with these platforms, and are learning at an earlier age to link their physical and digital existences. To pretend that the digital realm is different from the physical realm is to engage in denial about how the world of humans functions.

We've been meshing our 'meatspace' lives with the digital for decades. Stories abound about the people who have lived entire lives digitally in spaces like the Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs or MMOs for short) World of Warcraft, EVE Online, or Final Fantasy XIV. There have been marriages, funerals, lifelong friendships, and bitter enmity -- some of which has often blurred between the two realms. The recent rise of interest in a 'metaverse' reflects a reality that has long been solved by some of these game worlds. Gabe Newell, head of the massive gaming marketplace Steam & company Valve was quick to point out that these are "solved problems" in a recent interview when discussing how the corporate metaverse concept seems to mostly be worse versions of character creators that exist in MMOs today. EVE Online in particular is an interesting case study. To put it very bluntly, EVE is for crazy people. A quick search on Google reveals tips for joining a 'corporation', a collection of players that play together, that reads very similar to tips to succeed at a job interview. Andrew Groen's Empires of Eve uses narrative research to show how the game has become much, much more than just that. Players have used the skills they developed as administration for an EVE Corp to land 'real' jobs, showing that the 'soft' skills they have learned at play have become essential to their careers. Others have had threats to cut power lines to their physical homes in order to win important battles in a space war (I've been unable to determine if the power lines were actually cut or if this was simply a threat). EVE is an interesting case specifically because you can purchase a currency that is used to extend your subscription to the game, and the currency is a digital item that can be destroyed, which has led to the ability to apply some creative mathematics to determine the real world cost of some of these battles in terms of space ships destroyed. It is a fascinating digital space to watch, although I will never have the inclination to take more of an active role in the galaxy of EVE online I find plenty of stories that show how what we can learn in a digital world.

References

Fenlon, W. (2022, February 25). Gabe Newell: 'most of the people talking about metaverse have absolutely no idea what they're talking about'. pcgamer. Retrieved March 9, 2022, from https://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-metaverse/

Fenwick, T. (2017, February 5). Space popes, judges, scientists: Meet the people obsessed with 'eve online'. VICE. Retrieved March 9, 2022, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/78yeaz/space-popes-judges-scientists-meet-the-people-obsessed-with-eve-online

NightCrawler_85 (NightCrawler 85), Sabriz_Adoudel (Sabriz Adoudel), Xercodo (Xercodo), yellow_parasol (yellow parasol), Dan_Morvis (Dan Morvis), Staberinde (Staberinde), DeMichael_Crimson (DeMichael Crimson), TK421_Kelly (TK421 Kelly), Alincer_Trossereides (Alincer Trossereides), Alexander_Ore (Alexander Ore), Anathema_Device (Anathema Device), & Merovee (Merovee). (2017, June 20). How to find the Corp that is right for you. EVE Online Forums. Retrieved March 9, 2022, from https://forums.eveonline.com/t/how-to-find-the-corp-that-is-right-for-you/4451

Stanton, R. (2021, May 26). The University of Iceland is starting a course on eve as a 'friendship machine'. pcgamer. Retrieved March 9, 2022, from https://www.pcgamer.com/the-university-of-iceland-is-starting-a-course-on-eve-as-a-friendship-machine/

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

To say that social media influences our identity is a dramatic understatement. Humans, being social creatures, crave social interaction and validation from others. Certainly these interactions start rather limited, but as we grow & mature and expand our social circles we start to determine who we are through both an additive and subtractive look at the people around us, is it any wonder that with the sheer massive amount of potential social connection that the internet & social media allows that it would shape our sense of self?

There's a long standing theory from 2004, which I would argue has been thoroughly debunked in the intervening years, that asserts "normal, well-adjusted people may display psychopathic or antisocial behaviors when given both anonymity and a captive audience on the Internet." (Caldwell, 2013). Though the comic by Penny Arcade is perhaps the most widely known version of this theory, as Caldwell notes the theory was first written about by psychologist John Suler. Of course, you really only have to go look at most Facebook or Nextdoor, or CBC comment sections, posts to see that even where social media platforms have endeavoured to sidestep the antisocial behaviour theorised by Dr. Suler by doing away with anonymity the antisocial behaviour remains. People will now happily post, with their full government names, some of the worst and most bigoted statements you have ever seen. And they will even be celebrated for it in their own circles, and be boosted by algorithms, in order to spread their opinions even further. Facebook and the social media empire under Mark Zuckerberg prioritises your attention and engagement far more than they care about accuracy or user safety on their platform, going so far as to use their visibility algorithms to surface posts to user feeds that would make them angry or otherwise emotionally charged to encourage them to stay and engage with the platform more (Merrill & Oremus, 2021). A similar phenomenon takes place with 'fake news' as people employ dis/mis-information to get under our skin and inspire us to refute the lies and thus engage with the content more, or to agree with the clearly smart and good writer who just happens to confirm all my closely held beliefs. There has been a similar practice in politics of late, with clearly manufactured culture war talking points and news programs that nonetheless get attention. Suffice to say, I think the advent of social media broke some of our brains ability to interact with the wider culture in a healthy way and we have yet to wrangle our way free of the mental damage.

The flip side of this, I think, is the types of social media that exist in games & play. Code describes the nature of the performer-audience dialectic and how important it is to bear in mind that "‘audience’ members need to be aware that people may be presenting a Self that may only be a small part of the actual nominal identity of the ‘performer’" (2012). While this might result from various forms of disclosure, forum signatures or profile pages are some ways this was handled in the past, it is very clear when I spend time with my friends or others in online virtual spaces that I am not actually an undead wizard making fun of the snooty lizard with my dwarven friend that these are avatars and characters that allow us to experiment with different facets of identity. The various subcultures that have developed through online play in the many years since the employees at Blizzard first powered on the World of Warcraft servers and reinvented what it meant to exist together in a virtual space. Though she refers more to politics and protests, Milan's point on the central nature of performance as an aspect of social media can be seen in how people behave and interact in these online social spaces (2015). Marriages, funerals, and other ceremonies have taken place in virtual worlds; the social links made through online connections are no less real than ones made in person, but the ability to perform different aspects of identity is unparalleled in the virtual space. Game spaces have allowed various subcultures the freedom to form and grow without being bound by physical limitations, and much can be learned about how to take part in a healthy and successful social media space from the way that virtual worlds can help foster positivity and creativity.

References

Caldwell, D. (2022, November 3). Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. Know Your Meme. Retrieved February 6, 2023, from https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/greater-internet-fuckwad-theory

Code, J. (2012). Agency and Identity in Social Media. Digital Identity and Social Media, 37–57. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1915-9.ch004

Merrill, J. B., & Oremus, W. (2021, October 26). Five points for anger, one for a ‘like’: How Facebook’s formula fostered rage and misinformation. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/26/facebook-angry-emoji-algorithm/

Milan, S. (2015). When Algorithms Shape Collective Action: Social Media and the Dynamics of Cloud Protesting. Social Media + Society, 1(2), 205630511562248. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115622481

@wuooods. (2020, April 19). Hello my name is Firstname Bunchofnumbers and i have some incredibly shitty opinions. Twitter.com. Retrieved February 6, 2023, from https://twitter.com/wuooods/status/1252051656344317953?lang=en

As I was reading through these sources and documents I felt a growing sense of wariness and a nagging sense of familiarity with Bernays, which frankly was confirmed to be a feeling of evil as the BBC documentary reminded me that he was one of the chief architects of the United Fruit Company coup. Working to manipulate & create the conditions required to manufacture consent is an inherently fascist methodology, whether with good or ill intention. The belief that people have to be controlled will inevitably lead to the conclusion that someone needs to do the controlling.

Bernays could only have dreamed of the influential power he could have wielded in this modern media landscape. It is no surprise that the US Military is heavily engaged in recruitment using new media models. In an article written by the publication Dazed at least one of the influencers, Haylujan, that is profiled is explicitly a member of the Psy-Ops division of the US Army (Yalcinkaya, 2023). Due to the post-ironic nature of some internet subcultures it does not matter that the viewers are aware of Haylujan's status as a Psy-Ops agent -- her audience is willingly participating in what amounts to a very effective recruitment strategy. Whether it is due to the nature of TikTok as the platform Haylujan uses or not, the subculture is easily manipulated into expressing support for and potentially enlisting in the military.

As Bernays says however, there must be clear objectives and plans before taking on a consent engineering project. In recent years the US Military has also tried to engage their recruitment tactics on Twitch where they have met with significantly less success. In a Vice produced documentary and podcast, several experts and interviews seem to conclude that they struggle to connect with their youth targets for recruitment (Waypoint, 2022). In fact during several of the streams a US Navy recruiter was frequently asked what his favourite war crime was and ended up playing games with users who had named themselves 'Gamer Word', a synonym for the n-word, or used other offensive screen names. After a short while, this effort was shut down by the military. Frankly, I consider it a positive that regular citizens were able to cyberbully an institution such as the US military.

It seems that the more people know about the engineering of consent as a practice, the more likely they are to recognise it when it is in progress. The effectiveness is called into question and is no longer a guarantee of success. The failed coup by Juan Guaido and US backed interests is a direct parallel to the successful coup that Bernays took part in -- I wonder whether that would have worked as well today as it did then.

References

Bernays, E. L. (1947). The Engineering of Consent. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 250(1), 113–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271624725000116

RESET Roundtable: War Games part 1 and 2. (2021, February 12). VICE. Retrieved February 14, 2021, from https://play.acast.com/s/vicegamingsnewpodcast/resetroundtable-wargamespart1and2

Waypoint. (2022, June 2). How the Army uses Esports & Twitch to Recruit | Reset [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zalOT7PXCDM Y

alcinkaya, G. (2023, January 10). How E-girl influencers are trying to get Gen Z into the military. Dazed. https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/57878/1/the-era-of-military-funded-e-girl-warfare-army-influencers-tiktok