Cyberculture--The New Subculture
An excellent paper 2 example by Christine Jones.
My 23-year-old son, Shaun, is a charter member of a new subculture--the cyberculture. (or virtual culture). I intentionally use the term "charter" because he began his involvement in this particular culture at the beginning of its formation around 1995, when he was only 10 years old. At that time he took an after-school class to learn how to use personal computers and then encouraged his teacher to start an after-school computer club, which he attended until we moved the next year. He learned quite a bit from his mentor and acquired his own computer and convinced his father and I to set up an account with AOL, which connected him to the internet and the cyber world of which he has been a part of ever since. It has played a major role in his life, and though he may at times take part in other groups, the majority of his social interaction takes place in this subculture. He has also earned his income through it since he was 12 years old. Therefore I thought I would do my second paper on cyberculture with the objective of gaining a better understanding of it as a subculture.
A subculture is one that exists within a larger culture but that has beliefs, values and norms that are different from the dominant one. The members of a subculture usually interact frequently amongst themselves and have cultural markers--language, appearance, or behavior--that identify them (Anderson and Taylor 66). Cyberculture or virtual culture is one such subculture. They communicate with each other via computers using e-mail, web sites and online bulletin boards or forums, chat rooms, blogs, virtual communities and online computer games. Members form many kinds of relationships, from casual to intimate, without ever meeting each other face to face. It has it own set of rules for behavior, language, ideas, practices and rituals (121). The majority of my son's friends, clients, and business dealings are within this social structure.
In order to get a better understanding of the various aspects of cyberculture, I decided to interview my son and drew up a list of questions. These questions were formulated to find out about the language, norms, beliefs and values that make up cyberculture--these being the sociological elements that define a culture (59). I decided to explore these elements with an emphasis on the language to see how they inter-relate.
Language is a very important aspect of any culture because it is the major means by which the members of the culture communicate and interact with each other. As explained in our text, "Language is a set of symbols that, put together in a meaningful way, provides a complex communication system" (59). To be a part of any society, culture, or group, it is essential that you know the language. In fact many sociologists think that language may be the most elemental part of a culture in that it does not merely convey meaning but actually shapes it. According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, "...language determines other aspects of culture because language provides categories through which social reality is understood" (59). For this reason I will focus on the language of cyberculture, and through it examine the other three elements.
When asked about the language used on the Internet, Shaun said that the use of acronyms is very common because it saves time in typing. The form of cyber-communication, and where and between whom it is taking place, determines the degree acronyms are used. E-mails may contain none or many, depending on who is using them. On the other hand, in chat rooms, close knit forums and in gaming they are used a lot. Some common acronyms used in cyberculture are TTYL (talk to you later), AFK (away from keyboard) and BRB (be right back). Ones that are not as commonly known are QFT (quoted for truth) or IRL (in real life). I will come back to their use and meaning later in this paper. A person's status can be assessed by their facility with cyberculture acronyms because they are numerous, and just like with American slang, certain ones come into popularity and then fall out of favor. An example of this is LOL (laughing out loud) that is apparently considered old and over-used, so now those that are "in the know" in cyberculture might use ROFL (rolling on floor laughing) instead. In other words using LOL might mark you as being in the out-group rather than the in-group of cyberculture just as using the outdated words--groovy or boss--would in our young dominant culture (143-144). Currently, it is also considered savvier to write these acronyms in lower case rather than upper case letters.
Another form of language used in cyberculture is what is referred to as nerdy speak. Nerdy speak are terms that are used in cyberculture communications and are specific to it in some way. One example of this is the use of numbers in the place of certain letters in words. An example would be to use a 4 in the place of an 'A' or a 3 in the place of an 'E'. For example one might write re4lity for reality, or s3x for sex. According to Shaun this began as a form of encryption to thwart spam blockers trying to prevent junk e-mails and to confuse those who might be trying to bust porn sites or others who were participating in deviant Internet activities. In time it came into popular usage. However, it has apparently become a marker for those who are trying too hard to be cool in the cyberculture world and has fallen out of favor.
In nerdy speak a person in cyberculture might be referred to as a noob or a leet. A noob is someone who is new and inexperienced to the culture and a leet is an established and respected member. How well a person uses the language of the cyberculture in their communications will mark them quickly on this particular continuum. Another example is the term owned. Owned refers to any unfortunate incident that befalls a person and is derived from the gaming arena of cyberculture. If a person playing one of the virtual on-line games gets knocked out of the game or loses all they had acquired, they are said to "have got owned" by an opponent. Gradually it's use became broader and now if someone gets thrown in jail, loses their home or girlfriend, or has some other misfortune befall them they might tell others in their cyber community that they got owned.
Norms are the particular expectations within a culture that govern how to behave in given situations. These expectations may be implicit or explicit. Implicit norms are those that are simply understood by members of that culture and need not be stated. Explicit norms are rules that are more formally communicated or laid out and may involve specific sanctions if violated (62). Norms in cyberculture vary depending on where and what you are doing but many of them are focused around the rules governing communication. According to Shaun one of the major rules governing the norms involves communicating in a way that is easily understood. Since members are not seeing each other they must rely on the written form of communication because body language, voice tone, gestures and other forms of nonverbal communication are not involved (122). People do not want to spend a lot of time and effort trying to decipher what a person is actually trying to communicate. Grammar and syntax is important, though not necessarily like that expected by an English literature professor. For example it is expected that people will use spell-check, good punctuation and not use run-on sentences. Using the cyber language that is appropriate for the group is important. It is also a norm that people will be polite. If a person is entering a chat room or forum in which they are not known it is expected that they will introduce themselves--not just barge in with whatever it is they are seeking or wanting to say. When the norms are not followed the person may be subject to such sanctions as being ignored, corrected, criticized or even blocked from that community.
Beliefs are what shape reality or a group's view of the world. They are certain ideas that members of a culture more or less share that form the basis of that culture's norms and values (63). When asked about beliefs, Shaun said there was one major one that would be comparable to the dominant US belief in the importance of individual freedom. It is a belief in the freedom of information. The right to have free access to information is a basic underlying belief in cyberculture and though its members may differ on ideas about how it is accomplished and what restrictions should and should not be permitted, it does seem to form the foundation of their worldview.
Values are closely connected to beliefs. The beliefs of a culture form the basis for the values of that culture--standards of what is desirable or morally correct (63). What is good or bad, held in high or low esteem, is determined by a culture's values. To help illustrate some of the values of cyberculture I will go back to two terms I used earlier in this paper--QFT (quoted for truth) and IRL (in real life). The Internet is a means for the exchange of information, and cyberculture, which is closely associated with the Internet, is a subculture built on that exchange. However, information covers a very broad range in this medium. In chat rooms and computer games as well as other areas, you may create a great deal of information that would not be considered factual or acceptable in the dominant culture, but is acceptable in cyberculture. You can make up a whole new identity for yourself--different name, appearance, gender, age and even appearance--and this is acceptable (120-121). However, there has to be delineations made and that is the source for these two terms. If a person writes something that is indeed factual, in both the cyberculture and the dominant culture they will stress it by labeling it QFT (quoted for truth). This term originated in forums that maintain permanent records of the posted communications of its members. If someone writes something that they present as factual, others may reply that they are being QFT, meaning that they will be held responsible for that information being true and if it turns out not to be, they will lose credibility. Since cyberculture values access to information, those who prove to be a reliable source of it gain status and are valued in the community.
On the other hand, IRL (in real life) helps maintain the boundary between the cyber world and the real world. A person will use this term to differentiate them by pointing out that what they are saying pertains to the real world or the reality of the dominant culture. For example, if they are telling another that a close friend died they will say IRL, meaning that a friend in real life died versus someone who plays in their game was killed off or a certain person is simply no longer a participant in their cyber community.
It has been very interesting to learn about cyberculture and gain a better understanding of what makes it a counterculture, albeit one that most of us have some interaction within. I have enjoyed learning more about it through its language, norms, beliefs and values. It is a significant subculture of our dominant culture and the interaction and influence between the two is vast and promises to become even greater.
Bibliography
Anderson, Margaret L. And Taylor, Howard F. 2008." Sociology in Everyday Life" Thompson/ Wadsworth,: Portland Community College, US.
Cameron, Shaun. Personal Interview. 10 Feb 2008.