The real problem

Avatars, metaphysics and online social interaction

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12654942
AutoresDavid J Gunkel (0000-0002-9385-4536, Northern Illinois University, autor correspondente)
Ano2010
Volume12
Fascículo1
Páginas127-141
Data de publicação2010-01-19
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1461444809341443
OpenAlexW2100332753
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas13

It is often assumed that the problem with ‘virtual reality’ — the concept, its various technological deployments and the apparently oxymoronic phrase itself — has been our understanding, or perhaps misunderstanding, of the virtual. The real problem, however, is not with the virtual; it is with the real itself. This article investigates the undeniably useful but ultimately mistaken and somewhat misguided concept of the real that has been routinely operationalized in investigations of new media technology. The specific point of contact for the examination is the avatar. What is at issue here is not the complicated structures and articulations of avatar identity but the assumed ‘real thing’ that is said to be its ultimate cause and referent. In addressing this subject, the article considers three theories of the real, extending from Platonism to the recent innovations of Slavoj Žižek, and investigates their effect on our understanding of computer-generated experience and social interaction

Aesthetics · Avatar · Epistemology · Human–computer interaction · Identity (music · Linguistics · Metaphysics · Operationalization · Referent · Sociology · Subject (documents · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Digital Media and Philosophy · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Psychology