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Online National CommunitiesAuthor(s): KACPER POBOCKISource: Polish Sociological Review, No. 134 (2001), pp. 221-246Published by: Polskie Towarzystwo Socjologiczne (Polish Sociological Association)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41274800Accessed: 10-11-2015 16:46 UTC
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polish
2(134)
1
sociological
review
ISSN 1231
-
1413
KACPER
OBLOCKI
Warsaw
niversity,
University
ollege
trecht
Online National Communities*
Abstract:
his
rticle
ealswithmanifestationsf
banal
ationalismn
the nternet. ationalisms
understood
n he eutral
ense,
s a
concept
imilaro
lass,
ace nd
ender
nd n his
rticleefers
to
stablished
emocracies.
he
rgument
s that he
nternet,
efined
s
semantic
yberspace,
irrors
the
ystems
f
meanings
rom
he
real"
orldnd
hiss
why
here
re ulturalndnationalivisions
on theweb.
The
meaning
f -mail
ccounts,
apster
usic
ommunity,ortals
nd
earch
ngines
is
demonstrated
n
a
structuralist
nalysis
f he
yberspace.
everal
mplicit
ays
n
which ational
communities
re
eproduced
n
hosenternet
enres
re
resented.
number
f elated
ssues,
uch s
the aturef nlineommunicationr
virtual
ommunities"s
discussed
s
well.
"
I'm
not
consumerut
human
eing
-
Onet.pl
dd
"
The
most irtual
f
ll
activitiess the
activity
f
eading
book
-
Bill
Gates
"To
ut
t
nother
ay:
ne an
leep
with
anyone
ut
ead
nly
ome
eople's
words
- Benedictnderson
"
Postmodern
hetoric
lacking
a
compassionate
asis n
hared
xperience
and
ommon
ractices,
as ut
o
righten
he
insecure
nd o rain
ommandos ho
ttack
common
ense
-
MichaelHeim
There
hould
havebeen
no
nationalism n
the
nternet
or
ommonly
ationalism
representsarkpastwhereas nternetmbodiesbrightuture. Nationalism"nthe
*
I
would
ike o
xpress
y ratitude
owards
rof,
r
hab.
Joanna
urczewskaor
er
uidance,
advicend
ncouragement,
s
well s thank
n
nonymous
eviewer,
ytze ijkstra,
ax
Hamon,
hieu
Besselink,
anga
oros nd
Joanna
ruszewskaor
heir
elpful
emarks.
f
oursehe
uthors
the
only erson
esponsible
or he
ontent
f
his
rticle.
omments
re
welcome.
would
ike o
dedicate
this
aper
o
my
amily
nd
Hanga.
Author's
ddress:
niversity
ollege
trecht,
ocial
cience
ept.
ostbus
1-426,
508 K
Utrecht,
Holland;
-mail:
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3/27
222 KACPER OBLOCKI
popular
understanding
onnotes
ethnic
leansing,
hauvinism,
enophobia,
thno-
centrism,acism nd so forth. nternet n theotherhand, ooksahead. Internet
users
re
mostly oung
nd
they
tand
n
thefront ow f the
digital eneration
f the
new "better"
entury.
They
do not
remember
enocide,hunger, ollution,
uclear
threat,
arbed wire
and
so forth.
All
caused
by
the
"bleak"
ideologies
ike
Nazism,
communism,
nd also nationalism.
They
are
"fitter,
appier,
more
productive,"
s
well
phased
in
one
of the Radiohead
songs.
The new
generation, epresented
nd
symbolised
y
the nternet
sers,
s
supposed
to be freeof all the
nightmares
f the
20th
entury,
ationalism
mongst
hem.
This
hope
can be
easily
raced
n
Sid
Meier's
Alpha
Centauri one ofmost
opular
computer
trategy ames.
It isset n2060 when hefirst
pace
craftwithhuman rew
was
supposed
o eave
Earth
nd
colonise
nother
lanet.
Nevertheless
roblems
tart
from
he
very eginning.
An
introductory
ovie
nforms
s that
s the
ship
enters
"the
Alpha
Centauri
ystem
he rew
plits
nto evendistinct
ractions,
ivided
not
by
nationality,
ut
by deology
nd their
ision or henewworld."
Certainly
ationalism
is
a
relic,
playermay
think.We soon
discover,
onetheless,
hat
he
origin
f the
conflict
was
slightly
ifferent.Characters
f the discordant
ractionseaders
had
been
in fact constructed
n the basis of...
popular
national
tereotypes
rom
he
end
of the 20th
entury.
For
example
"Academician rokhor akharov"
labelled
as "The Scientist") peakswith strongRussian accent about the significancef
physics,
Colonel
Corazon
Santiago"
"The
Survivalist")
esembles romantic uban
guerrilla,
nd Chairman
Sheng-Ji ang
("The Despot")
is a dead
ringer
or Mao
Zedong.
In
this
way
nationalism neaked
n
to
Alpha
Centauri,
ven
though
t was
supposed
to
stay
n Earth. Just
s it sneaked
n
to other
spects
of our "brand
new"
lives.
As a matter f factnationalism
emains ne of the
mportant
lements f the
social world
n
today's
well established
emocracies. Of course it is not the
same
sort
f nationalism
hat
parked
genocide
n
Kosovo.
A
sheer blution f thisnotion
has been carried
within he astfew
years,
nd "nationalism"
cquired
new,
neutral
meaning. t no longerresembles Wagnerian pera thatmakes isteners feel ike
invading
oland,"
ust
to
paraphrase
ne of the
Woody
Allen
dialogues.
It is now
more ike some
smooth
able musicwe
do
not
really
notice. Just
s the
designers
f
"Alpha
Centauri"
did not
really
notice
hat he fractioneaderswere
n
fact
divided
by
nationality,
nd not
by
deology.
Our
very
wn
Alpha
Centauri
hathas been first
iscovered nd then ubconse-
quently
olonised,
namely
he
nternet,
as become
n this ense nationalised
s well.
Generally peaking
writing
n the
nternet as been
an
extremelynrewarding
ask.
The web
has
drasticallyhanged
ts
very
nature everal imes ver
the
past
ten
years
and surprised veryone, specially hose whohad already o precisely lueprinted
Internet's
uture
nd who can be held
responsible
or
notions uch
s
"global
village."
Yet another
problem
s that o
far
mostof
the
writing
n
the nternet
ad more
n
commonwith old
genre
of traveller's
ales,"
ccounts f adventurous
rips
rom he
civilisedworld o
newly
iscovered,
xotic ealms" hanwith
areful
cientific
nquiry
(Wellman
nd
Gulia
1999:
331-332). Ironically nough,
big
bulkof the debate
on
the nternet s
nothing
lse
but nescient
epetition
f candid
hopes
and worries hat
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ONLINENATIONAL OMMUNITIES
223
werevoiced
soon
after he
discovery
f
telephone
Fischer 1992).
Therefore t
may
seemsurprisingor omestarrynthusiastshatwhathadbecomefeasible
couple
of
years
go
did
not
necessarily
ave to come truenow.
Now
everyone
an
makevirtual
friends
n remote
parts
of the
world,
ross national
borders nd
seek
information
from
unlimited" ources.
Everyone
an also
read about a
sumo
fight
n a
Japanese
magazine,
r download unknownmusicwith wkward
itles
nly
to enrich
neself
with new cultural
xperience.
The
point
s
that he
majority
oes not
do so.
Web
research hows
learly
hat,
t least n
Europe,
people
tend
to visit
web sites
that re
in
their wn
anguage,
re
created
by
their
ompatriots
nd
refer o
the
very eality
they
re
living
n
Ammelrooy
000,
Jupiter
MMXI
2001,
Kopyt
000,
Perello
2000).
We arecertainlyimited yourtechnology. ut also ourtechnologyecomes imited
by
us
and the
way
we use it.
The idea that nternets the true
global
village"
was born
whenthe
netwas still
in
handsof
a
tiny
orthern merican
ffluentnd
cosmopolitan
lite.
The
pioneer
leaders of seven fractions
n
"Alpha
Centauri"
ndeed can
communicatewith ach
other. But as their
mpiresgrow
n
size
communication
etween
members f all
the seven
different
ommunities
bviously
ecomes
ncreasingly
ifficult. s
on the
web. It is
only
now
that he
nternet s
truly lobal
Castells and
Borja
writing
n
1997
suggested
hat
n
1996
there
were around30
million
nternet
sers
12).
Today
30 million s a number hatPreecegivesas a number fusers of a
single
nternet
service
ICQ
instant
messaging
Preece,
2000:
60).
Even
the "third
world"
goes
online.
Durktonwrites hat n
Jamaica
offices re
now
being
wired
up
fore-mail
when
they
don't even
have
phones" 1996:
63).
As
the
nternet
xpanded,
t
also
became
less
homogeneous
nd
now
more and
more
different
oices can
be
heard.
Internet sers
from istant
art
of theworld
have
ess and
less in
common
just
as
television
iewers nd
newspaper
eaders n
distant
arts
f
the world
have
little n
common. nternet lso
lost ts nitial
adicalism.
t is
less and
less
the
homelandof
anarchists,
ackers,
ebels nd
so
forth.
Now
people
use
itfor
hings
ike
hopping
r
findingnformationnmedical reatment.n this ense t s banal.
I
Banal
Nationalism
Just s
the web is
now
more
casual,
nationalism
as
also
become
toothless.
Until
recently
ut
n
the
same
row
with
notions
ike
fascism,
ommunism
nd
liberalism
and regarded o be of almostpathological haracter, ow,as BenedictAnderson
advocates,
s
by
considerable
umber
f
scholars
hought
o
be
similar
o
concepts
like
kinship,
lass or
gender
1991:
141-143,
Thompson
001).
Ernest
Gellner
grees
and
writes
hat
a
Man
without
Shadow
[is]
the
Man
without
Nation"
1993:
6)
and
ndeed
t s
not
possible
o
have
no
nationality.
oreover
we
stopped
noticing
he
presence
f
our
nationality,ust
as
we
usually
o
not
notice ur
shadow. n
the era
of
global
village,"
s
Michael
Billig
oints
ut,
the
United
tates f
America,
rance,
he
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224
KACPER
OBtOCKI
United
Kingdom
nd
so on continue
o exist.
Daily,
they
re
reproduced
s nations
and their
itizenry
s nationals."
(1995:
5-7).
Billig
calls this
type
of nationalism
in well established
Western
democracies
banal,"
and
defines
t as
covering
the
ideological
habitswhich
nable the stablished ations
f the
West o be
reproduced"
thathave
notbeen
"removed rom
veryday
ife"
but
are
"'flagged',
n
the ivesof ts
citizenry"
n a
daily
basis. Therefore
[t]hemetonymicmage
of
banal
nationalisms
not
a
flag
which s
being onsciously
aved
with ervent
assion;
t s the
flaghanging
unnoticed
n the
public
building" Billig
1995:
5-8).
An
interesting
evelopment
an be observed
n
countries
hat
o
farhave been
labelled as counties
f "Easternnationalism"
Smith,
973:
27-31).
Szacki,
writing
in 1997,complains hat anguages ike Polish do nothavetheAnglo-Saxon, eutral
connotation
f
nationalism
24-26). Compared
to
what
Jakubowska
1990)
wrote
seven
years
arlier
bout the Polish
national
ymbols
hat
had
more
n
common
with
an obscure
mutation
f
Christian
Mysticism
nd
victim
mentality
hanwith
notions
like
citizenship,
t is
a
remarkable
hange.
Mr
Olisadebe
the first olish football
player
with
n African
ackground
does
not
have
to
weep
when
reading
Mickiewicz;
nor
he has to
walkbare
feet
o
Cz^stochowa;
normourn
he
uprisings;
n
order
o be
accepted
by
he
public, lay
n thePolish
national ootball
eam,
wear thewhite
agle
on
his chest
nd
sing
he national
nthem efore he
game.
Certainly
lso
in Poland
many eople stoppednoticinghepresence f their hadows.
The
above
development,
s it is demonstrated
n
this
paper,
can be also traced
on
the Internet.
An
extensive
nalysis
f the online
banal nationalism
will
follow,
but
one
example
would be
helpful
here. One
of
the
most
mportant
xpressions
that
are used on
the web
is "asl." It standsfor
"age/sex/location."
his is often
the
very
first entence
of
an on-line onversation
ust
after
aying
hello."
In this
context location"
means
ust
as much
s "national
belonging
n
the neutral ense"
(if nationality
nd location
are not
congruent
henusers would
say e.g. "Spanish,
but
currently
n
Germany").
Here
age, gender
nd
nationality
re
put
nto
the same
basket. The underlyingssumptionsre thatnationalitys a concept imilar o age
and
gender,
nd that
t is of
high ignificance
ecause
people
ask for t
in the
very
beginning
f
an online
ncounter.
Imaging
National
Community
Banal
nationalism
an be toothless
n two
ways. Initially
t s toothless
s
an
infant,
and then t ooses
itsdentition
nce
it
getsgrey
hair.
BenedictAnderson
beautifully
described owbaby-nationalismouldedbaby-nations,hat reformed s "imagined
communities"
ue
to "interaction etween
system
f
production
nd
productive
relations
capitalism),
technology
f communications
print),
nd
the
fatality
f
human
inguistic
iversity"1991: 42-43).
These three lements
ogether
with he
modern
apprehension
f time construct
community
o a
large
extent n
purely
imagined
asis. Anderson raws
parallel
between
maging
nation nd construction
ofmodern ovels.
n
both he
haracters ho
may
o
different
hings
t the ame time
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ONLINENATIONAL OMMUNITIES
225
without
nowing
bout
each
other
re still
onnected or
he
"omniscient eaders."
"AnAmericanwillnevermeet,or even know he namesof morethan handful f
his
240,000,000-odd
ellow-Americans.e has
no idea of
what
hey
re
up
to at
any
one time.
But
he
has
complete
onfidence
n
their
teady,
nonymous,
imultaneous
activity."
1991:
25-26).
Furthermore:
"The bsolescencef he
ewspaper
n hemorrowf ts
rinting
...)
createshis
xtraordinary
ass
ceremony:
he lmost
recisely
imultaneous
onsumption
'imaging')
f
he
ewspaper-as-fiction.
e
know
hat
articular
orning
nd
vening
ditions
ill
verwhelmingly
e
consumed
etweenhis our
and
hat,
nly
n his
ay,
ot hat.
Contrast
ugar,
he se fwhich
roceeds
n n
unclocked,
ontinuous
flow;
t
may o
bad,
ut
t
oes ot
o
ut f
ate.)
he
ignificance
f his ass
eremony
Hegel
bserved
thatewspaperserve odern an s substituteormorningrayersisparadoxical.t sperformednsilent
rivacy,
n he air f he kull. et ach ommunicantswellwarehat
he
eremony
e
performs
is
being
eplicatedimultaneouslyy
housands
ormillions)
f
thers
fwhose
xistencee s
onfident,
yet
fwhose
dentity
e
has
not he
lightest
otion.
urthermore,
his
eremony
s
ncreasinglyepeated
at
daily
r
half-daily
ntervals
hroughout
he alendar. hat
ore ivid
igure
or he
ecular,
istorically
clocked,
magined
ommunity
anbe envisioned?t
he
ame
ime,
he
ewspaper
eader,
bserving
exact
eplicas
f
his
wn
aper
eing
onsumed
y
is
ubway,
arbershop,
rresidential
eighbours,
s
continually
eassured
hat
he
magined
orlds
visibly
ooted
n
veryday
ife.
...)
F]iction
eeps
uietly
and
ontinuously
nto
eality,reating
hat emarkable
onfidencef
ommunity
n
nonymity
hich
s
he
hallmark
fmodernations"
1991:
2-36).
It is
mportant
o remember hat similar
rocess
an
be
stimulated
y
other
me-
dia,such s television,adioor the nternet.t also canbe executed n a smaller cale
and
knead other
magined
ommunities,
ot
necessarily
n
national
basis
(Ovarec
1996:
5;
Muniz and
O'Guinn
2001).
Reproduction
f
Communities
lready
magined
Once
a
national
magined
ommunity
as
been
established
he
activity
f
making
it "real"
has
to
be
performed
n
daily
basis,
so
the
community
oes
not
vanish n
a vacuum.This"reproduction"ies atthevery oreofbanalnationalism. illigwrites
that:
"For
uch
ailyeproduction
o
ccur,
ne
might
ypothesise
hat
whole
omplex
f
eliefs,
ssump-
tions, abits,
epresentations
nd
ractices
ust
lso
be
reproduced.
oreover,
his
omplex
ust
e
reproduced
n
banally
undane
ay,
or heworld
f
nationss
he
veryday
orld,
he amiliar
errain
of
ontemporary
imes"(Billig,
995:
-7)
This
"complex"
nevertheless
as one
factor hat
s
slightly
ore
significant
han
other
nes,
namely anguage.
It was
important
hen
nationalism
was still n
cradle
(Anderson1991: 40-45, 77, 145) but it is even moreimportant or thewalking-
stick
nationalism
Billig:
1995:
17-19).
"[F]rom
the
start he
nation
was conceived
in
language,
not in
blood"
(Anderson
1991:
145)
and
therefore
[w]hat
eye
is
to
the over
that
particular,
rdinary ye
he or
she is
bornwith
language
whatever
languagehistory
as
made his or
her
mother-tongue
it is to the
patriot.
Through
that
anguage,
ncountered t
mother's nee
and
parted
with
nly
t
the
grave, asts
are
restored,
ellowships
re
imagined,
nd
futures
reamed"
Anderson
1991:154).
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226
KACPER OBLOCKI
Nevertheless
anguage
s not
only
he
main
factor
hat
magined
ommunitiesre
embodied n,but languagealso drawsprecisely he borderlines etweendifferent
national
communities.
According
o Anderson
[w]hat
imits ne's access to other
languages
s not
their
mperviousness
utone's own
mortalityAnderson
1991:
148).
We have to
accept
thatwe do not
speak
all the
languages
n
the
world,
ust
as we
have to
accept
that
our
language
s
not
spoken
everywhere
n the
planet.
"The lex-
icographic
evolution
n
Europe
(...)
created,
nd
gradually
pread,
the conviction
that
anguages
...)
were
...)
the
personalproperty
f
quite specific
roups
their
daily
peakers
nd readers
and moreover
hat hese
groups, magined
s commu-
nities,
were entitled
o their utonomous
lace
in a
fraternity
f
equals" (Anderson
1991: 84). No nation magines tself s the wholehumanity. herefore aradoxi-
cally
nationalism
s
an international
octrine
Billig
1995:
10, 21-21;
Anderson
1991:
37-38).
Moreover
[b]ilingual
ictionaries
made visible
n
approaching galitarian-
ism
among anguages
whatever
he
political
realities
utside,
within he
coversof
the
Czech-German/German-Czech
ictionary
he
paired anguages
had
a
common
status"
Anderson
1991:
71).
Subsequent
ranslations
f texts
rom ne
language
to
another
raternised
hose
anguages.
National breathing pace"
Nevertheless,
ven
a
beginner
nterpreter
ould
gree
that here
re
some
things
hat
simply
annot
be translated
nto ther
anguages.
Communication
s to a
large
xtent
based
on context
and sometimes ontext
f
anguages
X have no
equivalent
ontext
in
anguage
Y. Anderson
writes:
"[e]arlyazettes
ontained
aside rom
ews bout
he
metropole
commercial
ews
when
hips
would
rrive
nd
epart,
hat
rices
ere urrent
or
hatommodities
n
what
orts),
swell
s
colonial
political
ppointments,
arriages
f he
wealthy,
nd oforth.
n
other
ords,
hat
roughtogether,
n
theame age,his arriageithhathip,hisrice ithhatishop,as he erytructuref heolonial
administration
nd
market-system
tself.
nthis
ay,
he
ewspaper
fCaracas
uite aturally,
nd ven
apolitically,
reated
n
magined
ommunity
mongspecific
ssemblage
f ellow
eaders,
owhom
hese
ships,
rides,
ishops
nd
riceselonged"
1991:
2,
mphasis
riginal).
For
Ernest
Gellner,
who
understands
ation s
a
"marriage
f
polity
nd culture"
(1993:
1,
13),
the
possibility
f effective
ommunication
etween
trangers
who
nev-
ertheless
hare
common
xperiences)
was
one of the
most
mportant
chievements
of
modernisation.
Thanks to
standardised
eneral
education
and
general
iteracy
now
we are
"explicit
nd
reasonably
recise" 1993:
33),
so two
persons
ducated
n
differentorners fthenation-statean communicate ith ach otherwithnoprob-
lem.
The
expansion
fnational
elevision
nd national
adiofurther
trengthened
his
process.
All
these
developments
reated
situation
where
the
imits f the culture
withinwhich
people]
were educated
are also the
limits f the
world
withinwhich
they
an,
morally
nd
professionally,
reathe"
Gellner
1993:
36).
Paradoxically
thenthe
development
f
culturally omogeneous
modernnations
nd nation-states
created
situationwhere
here ommunications
pending
etween
ompatriots
hat
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ONLINE
NATIONAL OMMUNITIES
227
operate
within he same
cultural
nd
symbolic
rameworkut t
grows
ncreasingly
difficultetween
people
that haredifferentultural
breathing paces." Obviously
such
breathing
paces"
overlap,
therwise herewouldbe
no internationalelations.
Nevertheless,
s
Rogers
writes one of the most bvious nd
fundamental
rinciples
of
human ommunication
s that he ransferf deas
most
requently
ccursbetween
a source
and receiverwho
have certain imilarities"
Rogers
1973:
300),
and
thus
international
ommunication
equires
ome extra
inguistic
nd
symbolic
ffortshan
communication
etween
nationals.
II
There
would
have been no nationalism
n the
WorldWide
Web
if
the
structure
f
the nternet
as not based on written
anguage.
This
observation,
owever
bvious
may
seem,
gains
relevancewhen
we
compare
nternet o
telephone.
It has been
done often
e.g.
Poster 1995:
83,
Heim 1998:
12-13,
Sussman
1997:
72-76)
for
Internet
losely
resembles
elephone both
are
horizontal
networks).
The secret
of the nternet evertheless
ies
n
the
very
act hat ts
tructures based on
written
languagehypertext),
hereas
elephone
s
structurally
uild
uponrandomlyssigned
digits.
For
example
fwe want o find he
home
page
of
Sting
the British
op
star,
we
could
expect
hat
his
namewould
be
somehow
ncorporated
n
the ite
ddress. So we
type
n
www.sting.com
nd
t urns utto be a web
ite f
"competitive
nline
gamer."
We
trywww.sting.co.uk,
nd then:
www.sting.uk.com.
othof them
ead to a
page
of
an
Internet
evelopment ompany.
Www.sting.org
s a
siteof n
e-mall.
Nevertheless
one ofthose
pages apparently
as
a link
o
anther ne
www.sting.compaq.com
and
here t s whatwe were
ooking
or.
It would not be so
easy
f
we had
only telephone.
No one
would start
ialling
random
numbers
n the
faith hat ne
of the
combinations
may
ead
to
Sting's
house.
Finding ting's elephone
number s
virtuallympossible
without
upporting
neself
with
telephone
ook. This
example
hows
hat
he
nternets a
muchmore
"open"
medium han he
telephone
s such.
But also the
tunning
imilarity
etween
ooking
for
ting's
nline ite
and
navigating
n
real
space
shouldnot
be
overlooked.
Typing
in
those
site names
could be
compared
o
looking
or
Sting
CD
in a
music
tore.
Firstwe
go
to
"pop"
section
nd
find
ut that t
s
not
there,
henwe
go
to
"British
pop"
and stilldo not
find
t,
nd
finally
e ask an
assistant nd
they
oint
t
"rock
foreign"
ection
where
ll
the
Sting
CDs are.
1
t
muste
rememberedhat
he
nternet,
ust
s a
nation,
s
"sociologicalrganism
oving
allen-
drically
hroughomogeneous,
mpty
ime"
Anderson
991:
5-26),
nd
herefore
ll
he
xamples
rom
theWorld
ideWeb hat
give
re
ubject
o
geing.
his s
why
he eader
hould
ot e
urprised
f,
reading
hese
ords
couple
f
years
fter
hey
ad
een
written,
ome
ebsitesam
referring
o not
exist
nymore,
r heir
ontent
s
omehow
ifferentowhatt
was n
etween
une000 nd
April
00
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228
KACPER
OBLOCKI
Internet s
Space
Indeed
"picking p
a
new
book can be
compared
o
a
stranger
ntering
new town"
(Dillon,
McKnight,
Richardson
1993:
179)
and
this
analogy
s
even more
true n
case of
hypertext
hat
we
have on the
Internet. It is
not an
accident that
most
of
the
nternet
ocabulary
s
spatial:
"home
age,"
"cyberquatting,"
Internet ite"
"Netscape Navigator
"
sites
have their
maps,"
we
"visit"
www
pages,
and
there
re
"webmasters,"
ust
as we
have
housemasters.
One
of
the
most
popular
sites
n
the
world "AltaVista"
erives ts name
from town n the
mountains nd
it means in
Spanish
high
view." The
trademark
f AltaVista s a
snowy
mountain,
nd a
search
engine ndeed could be comparedto a mountain hatwe climb fwe wantto have
a
better iew
on
the rest
f the
cyberspace
n
order o find
whatwe
are
looking
or.
We
think f he nternet
s
spatial
irst
ecause
t
has
some
permanent
eatures hat
remind s
of the real"
space,
and
second
that
navigating
n theweb
tself eminds s
of
navigating
n real
space.
The
Internet
ranscendsndividuals
one
person
annot
"shut own"
he
nternet,
s one
can shut own
ne's Personal
omputer.
ervers hat
operate
24
hours
day
have
became
ndependent
ntities
with life n their
wn,"
s
we
think.
ites
re "not
us"
and
they
re
always
n
the ame
spot
ofthe
yberspace,
nd
they
o not
change
overmuch.
AltaVista s at
www.altavista.com4
hours
day,
nd
eventhoughome of tsfeaturesmaydiffer,tsgeneral ayout the nterface always
remains he ame.
Just ike a
mountain.
Such
"navigation ...)
can
be
conceptualised
n
psychological
erms s
involving
four
evels of
representation:
chemata,
andmarks,
outes and
surveys
nd
that
several f
these evels re of
direct elevance
o
hypertext
esign" Dillon,
McKnight,
Richardson1993:
172).
Schemata
are frames
hat exist t all
levels
of
scale from
looking
t theworld n
terms f
east
and
west
or First nd Third
Worlds,
o national
distinctions etween
north nd south"
172).
There are
"global"
("basic
or
raw
knowledge tructure")
nd
"instantiated"
"the
product
f
adding pecific
etails
to
a global chema ndtherebyeducingtsgenerality")chemata173). Cognitivemaps
of document
paces
are
created
byglobal
chema
nstantiation.
t can
occuron
three
levels:
landmarks,
outes and
surveys.
Landmarks re
"features f
environment
which
are
relatively
table and
conspicuous.
We
recognise
ur
position
n
terms
relative
o these
landmarks,
.g.
our
destination s near
building
X or if
we see
statue
Y
then
we must e
nearthe
railway
tation
nd
so forth"
173).
In
our
example
www.compaq.com
ould be such a
landmark,
incewe know
hat
Sting'shomepage
www.sting.compaq.com
s
ocated
omewhere ear t. Route s
the
ability
o
navigate
from
oint
A
to
point
B,
using
whatever andmark
nowledge
we have
acquired
to
makedecisions" 173). Ifweforgotting's ite ddress,we canalways o thewaywe
got
there.
Typing
n
www.sting.com.uk
inked
us to
www.sting.compaq.com
we can
always
epeat
his onlinewalk."
Finally surveyor map)
knowledge.
his allowsus
to
give
directions r
plan
ourneys
long
routes
we have not
directly
ravelled s well
as
describe
elative
ocations
f
andmarks ithin n
environment"
174).
This s the
ability
f
moving
rom ne
page
to
another nce
we have
become
accustomed o the
global
schemata
f
nternet
ites.
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ONLINENATIONAL
OMMUNITIES
229
Another
mportant
eason
forwhichwe think
f
the
Internet s
spatial
s that
navigation
s interactive,.e. we
actually
eave
footsteps
n the
cyberspace.
The
following
xercise
may
xemplify
his:
try
o visitwww.amazon.comnd
search for
a book
title.
A site
with nformationn this ook would
open.
Then close
the nternet
browser,
nd next
open
www.amazon.com
gain
on the
startpage ou
would see
advertisements
f books either
y
the same author
you
searched
for,
r of book
on
similar
opic.
Amazon.com
remembered"
our
"cookie"
as
well as the sites
you
visited
nd
responded
o
your
consecutive isit.
Similarly
"virtual uicide" that
Argyle
nd Shields
1996: 135)
witnessed onsists f
removing
ll the
tracks f one's
presence
n
the
cyberspace
e.g. posted messages.
This is
the crucial difference
between he nternetndothermedia one does not eaveany rackswhen apping
between
elevision
hannels,
r
reading newspaper.
Almost
very
lick four mouse
is recorded.
Internet s Semantic
pace
This is
why
he
nternet
s
commonly
eferred o
a
"cyberspace."
There have been
different
efinitionsf
this
notion
Bromberg
996:
144,
Shields
1996:
5,
Burrows,
Featherstone995,Heim 1993:78-79,Robin 1995: 135-137),nevertheless e under-
stand
yberspace
s "semantic
pace" (Dillon,
McKnight,
ichardson 993:
186-7).
In
fact he
nternetmirrorsheworld f
culture,
nd
not,
s Michael Heim was des-
perately
rying
o
argue
Heim
1998:
156-158),
the worldof
nature. It is semantic
because
t s
structurally
ased
on
language
hat however efined
consists f
a self-
contained
ystem
f
igns
nd
meanings.
he
computer
tselfs a
meaning-generating
machine,
s Andersenwrites:
being
a
sign
can be a
primary
letters,
ocal
sounds
and
pictures)
r
a
secondarycar
as
a
sign
f
status,
louds s
a
sign
f
rain)
function
of
objects; ...) computer ystems
esemble etters
more han louds nd
carsbecause
their
rimary
unctions
to enter nto
emiosis"
1997: 2).
Also
Heim
agreesthat:
"[l]ike
the chess
board,
the
computer
elivers
self-contained
ystem
f
meaning."
(1998: 144).
But
some
people forget
hat t
is
humanswho create
those
meanings
and
manipulate
with hem
hrough
he
computer
nterface.
We
compose
and
read
messages.Very
ften
eople
refer o
computers
s
independent
ntities ho can
take
actions n
their
wn,
.g.
in
one of
thePolish
quiz
shows
presenter
onstantly
sks
the
"computer
o eliminate
wo
wrong
nswers."
The
point
s
thaton both
ends
of
the
communication
ine
there re
two human
beings
nterpreting
he
signs
hat re
transported
ia
themedium.
nternets not
bout
technology,
or
bout
nformation,
but t
s about
communication
Putnam
000:
171).
And
about humans
who send and
receive
messages.
Linguistic
iversity
nd
National
Cyberspaces
Therefore
verything
hat
ravels
hrough
ires nd blinks
n
computer
creenshave
in
factbeen created
by
humans nd
belongs
o the
very
world
we live n.
Given the
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11/27
230
KACPER OBLOCKI
already
mentioned
mportance
f nationalism
n
the
contemporaryociety,
he web
shouldthusreflecthosedivisions. he most bvious
xample
ofthe nationalisation
of
the
cyberspace
s the
linguistic
iversity
n
the web. Indeed we cannot
speak
of one semantic
yberspace,
ecause
many anguages
are
used on the
Web,
and
cyberspace
s contained
n thewritten
anguage.
As a research f The
UnitedStates
Internet
ouncil
shows,
nly
1%
of nternet sers re native
English peakers
nd
this
number
willbe
deteriorating
Reuters2000).
For
example
AltaVista,
ne of the
largest
nternational
earch
ngines,
ffers
nly
ne
option
we can
manipulate
with
the
anguage
thatwe
want
displayed ages
to be in. We can
choose
from
Chinese
to
Swedish,
nd the
list of results
displayed
eflects he
linguistic
ivisions f the
cyberspace.
All the
anguages
re ordered lphabetically,xcept f
English,
which s
on
the
very
op
of the
ist,
nd this hows he
egalitarian
spect
of
nationalism, hat,
just
to
say
t one
more
time,
nationalism
ndeed s
an
international octrine.
So
by
choosing
or
xampleHungarian
we limit ur search
only
o the
Hungarian
portion
of
cyberspace.
hoosing panish
wouldfocus
ur attention n the
Spanish,
heLatin
American
s well as
any
other
arts
f
cyberspace
n
Spanish.
n this ense
anguages
separate
people
on
the
web,
since
anguage
s the
key
for
being
ble
to
make sense
of
whatwe see on
the
screen,
ut
t also links or nstance
paniards
nd
Latinos
n
this ase.
The above
becomes clear
when
one
uses Latin American
earch
engines,
like MexicanMexicochannel.net,hat ften inks opagesconstructednSpain,and
Spanish
ike
Terra.es hat ften
ink
o
Portuguese ages.
I
refer o
Mexican,
Spanish,
Hungarian
pages,
but how can we
recognise
hat
a
page
is of this
or that
nationality?
he most
mportant art
of
every
ite,
ts
http
address
or
location
in
software
t is used
interchangeably)
onsists
f
following
parts:
"www"
prefix
in majority
f the
cases),
name and domain. Most of the
siteshave extensions
hat
ncorporate
amesof nation-states:
"pi"
stand
for
Poland,
."de" for
Germany,"jp"
for
Japan
nd so forth. t
is as banal as it
gets.
We take
those two etters
or
granted,
ust
as we take our Shadows for
granted
s well.
But
theveryfact thatthis nformations giventogetherwith ite name and itsprofile
puts
nationality
n the "first ivision" f
site characteristics.
verygood
example
for heernationalisation
f
cyberspace
s the
very
ritish co.uk"
domain.
Generally
domains nform s
on what s the
specialisation
f the
page.
For
example
"com"
standfor
commercial,"
"edu" for
ducational,
"gov"
for
governmental
nd so on.
Apparently
co.uk" means
the
same
what "com.uk"would
mean,
but the latter
s
rarely
sed. On
the other
hand there
re no
sites
ike "co.fr" r "co.de."
Only
the
British se ."co"
instead f "com."
Yet
another
ntriguing
ssue
s
that,
ust
as
English
s
privileged
n
the
fraternity
f
languages istednAltavista.com,imilarlyhere s no "usa" domain.As Posterwrites,
"Internet
ormalizes
merican sers"
1995: 83)
which s
quite
understandable
ince
the nternet
s to a
large
extent
n American nvention
nd still
significant
art
of
its users s
American. Also the "it"
and ."es" extensions re American
nventions,
and
it
is an
excellentmanifestationf
Americanbanal
nationalism,
ince t locates
nationality
s such on
peripheryBillig
1995:
5-7).
"They
have
nationality,
ot
us" seems to
be
the
thought
ehind t.
Generally
iteswithno national xtensions
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12/27
ONLINENATIONAL
OMMUNITIES
231
are American.
This is
why
www.officialtomwaits.com"as
no national
xtension,
but
"www.voovoo.art.pl"
oes ("Voo Voo" is a Polish rock
band).
Nevertheless
even
the most
popular
domain
names,
such as
."com,"
can
reveal
atentnational
divisions.
For
instance
yping
n
www.dictionary.com
eads us to an
American
part
of the
cyberspace,
ut
www.dicionnaire.comto
French,
www.diccionarios.comto
Spanish,
nd www.slownik.com
to Polish.Those four
ddresses
orrespond
o
four
different
breathingpaces":
American,
rench,
panish
nd
Polish.
Limits f nterface-to-interfaceommunication
The
very
act hat
nternet ommunication
s based
on written
anguage
lmost xclu-
sively,
nd that here s no
face-to-face
ommunication,
ut
only
nterface-to-interface
contacts,
makes he nvisible orderlines
etween
ifferent
inguistic
nd
national
n-
line
breathingpaces"
evenmore
rigid.
n real
ife ituations
peasant
from
inland
would
get
on well
with shoemaker rom
Kenya
somehow,
most
probably y using
their
ndex
ingers,
ather han
ongues,
or
definingbjects Fischer
1973:
317).
On
the
nternet
here here s no face-to-faceommunicationnd
virtuallyvery iece
of
informations
cultural,
ross-cultural
ommunication
s
extremely
ifficult.
n
other
words onlinewe have to be explicit, ecause language s almost ll we have and
we are
deprived
f thecontextwhatwould
explainpeople
that
we
communicate
ith
whatwe
actually
mean. Even the
smiley
ace
)
-
that s
supposed
to
substitute
he
real-life mile s
purely
ultural
ecause
people
that
do
not
knowwhat
t standsfor
read it as
a
colon
and a
bracket
ut
together
or
ome
bizarrereason.
Some chat
(and
RPG
and
MUDs)
developers
ry
o solve this
problem
by
adding
options
of
emotional
xpression,
ike
"Janina
iggles,"
r
"Janina
rins."
Nevertheless
ne
has
to understand hat
giggle"
nd
"grin"
mean
n
the
English
anguage
nd
those
who
do not
peak English
will
notbe able to
participate
n
an
English
anguage
hat,
RPG
orMUD.
Navigating
n
cyberspace
n
a
language
we do not
speak
can be
equally
difficult.
Finding
nformation
ouldnotbe
easy,
ven
though eneral
chema
of
all
the ites s
very
imilar. f
one knows owto
move round n a
German
portal
hen
navigating
n
a
Japaneseportal
ould be
slightly
asier but still
not
enough
o feel
as
comfortable
as at home. In
this
respect
navigating
n a
Japanese
city
when
having
navigated
in a
German
city
s much
more
consoling.
For
instance t is
much
easier to find
a
real
shopping
mall n
a
foreign
ountry
han
finding
shopping
mall in a
foreign
cyberspace.
German
n
a
Japanese
ity
s
bombardedwith
nformationhat
s cross-
cultural whenhe seesclothes nwindows nd abelswith rices, eoplecomingn nd
out this
s
likely
o be a
mall.
Online
this xtra
non-linguistic
nformations imited.
If
one wants
o find
Japanese
hen ne either
as to
know he
ddress
lready
(and
obviously
ot
many
Germansknow
ddresses f
Japanese
-malls),
se a
search
engine choose
between
nternational
nd
Japanese
if
does not
peakJapanese
hen
will
ook for
t
n
an
international
earch
ngine
nd
those
have imited
nformation
on
non-English
ages),
or
try
o
improvise
nd
type
n
things
ike
www.shopping.jp.
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13/27
232
KACPER OBtOCKI
The
latter an turn
ut to
be
ineffective
fwe
do not know he
anguage.
And
even
f
we
actually
ave found hee-mall ddress, hen
buying
omething
s also muchmore
difficulthan
n real ife.
n
real
ife ll
you
have
to do is
ust
to
pick
up
what
you
want,
go
to
the
cashdesk,
mile
to
the
shop
assistant o
compensate
ornot
speaking
he
language,
ay
and leave.
Online
we have
to
click he
right
cons,
o
from ne
page
to
another,
ill
n
forms
a lot of
nearly
ureaucratic ork hat
requiresmanipulation
of
precisely
hose
nd not other
in this ase
Japanese
signs.
Even
sending very
enthusiastic
-smile
:)))
to the
webmaster ouldnot
help
overmuch.
Is "Cyberspace"Real?
Perhaps
hemost
popular opic
related o
cyberspace
hat
undits
ave been
dwelling
upon
is
the relation f
cyberspace
o
physical pace.
Some
argue
that
cyberspace
is a
parallel
reality, easonably
ndependent
rom he
physical
ne.
One MUD
(a
combination
f a
role-playing
ame
and
a
chat)
useradvocates his dea
bygiving
he
following
xplanation:
"I tendo ecomeetached
nd lso
ompartmentilize.
hiss
specially
rue hen
'm t
computer,
because
t eemsike
becomeetachedrom
y hysical
elf.
hiss
not
ust
mudding
r
playing
ames,
or eingn he et;hisswhenever'm t computer.lose rackf ime,nd on'teel ungryr ired."
(Bromberg
996:
49-150)
The idea that
igns
an substitute he
objects
hey
enote s
well
known,
nd
the
case of Charles
Morris hows
nicely
hat s
also rathernaive.
Morris,
describing
conditioning
f
Pavlov's
dogs,truly
oticed hat he bell that s
rang
before
dogs get
their ood
gradually
ecomes
a
sign
of
this
ood. Then he concluded hat ince both
a
bell
and
sight
f
food ead to the same
reaction,
amely og
salivates,
here
s
no
difference etween
he two
1949).
Nevertheless e
happened
not to notice hat he
dog
actually
oes
not
eat the
bell,
ust
as it
does eat the
food,
nd therefore here s
quite differenceetween sign nd theobject tdenotes Kotarbiriska957:92-93;
Black 1949:
253). Having
heabove
in
mind,
he
following
dealism
eems to be
very
airy: [t]hequality
f
virtual
ife
n
theNet s not
yet
ndistinguishable
rom he
real'
thing,
ut
while
cyberspace
s
not
yet hyper-real,
here s a
progressive rocess
of
conditioning
nvolvedwhere ndividualslearn' to
identify
heir nline
experience
s
real"
(Interrogate
he
nternet,
996:
130-131,
my mphasis).
As Bauman
noticed,
we,
and the
respondent
who
argued
thathe does not feel
hunger
n
the
cyberspace
is
no different
n
this
respect,
have to
"sink
our]
teeth nto some
quite
real
bread
before
we]
abandon
[our]selves
o
munching
mages"
in
Ritzer 1998:
143).
We
maybuya sandwich n an e-grocery,ut we cannot, t least notin 2001,eat itby
clicking
ome icons on the screen. This
culinary xample
hows hatwe
still
annot
get
rid of
the
"meat,"
as the
body
s
referred o
in
the
cyberpunklang
Sobchack
1995).
But this
s
only
n
illustrationf a more
generalproblem
hat,
s
Robin
writes,
"we
are
deeply
rooted
n
the
Reality
We Live In
(1995:
135-137). "[W]e
discover
thatnot
only
re we
forced o live
nsidethe
physical
world,
we
are made
of it
and
we are
almost
powerless
n
it"
(Lanier
in
Robin,
139).
All the
ideas of
consensual
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14/27
ONLINENATIONAL
OMMUNITIES
233
hallucination
as William
Gibson
calls
cyberspace
Bromberg
1996:
144),
can be
compared
o Kantian transcendental
magination,
ooted n a coherent nd unified
subjectivity,
n the
unity
f
mind nd
body,
the
"
transcendental
ynthesis"
f our
sensible
nd
intelligible
xperience'
Kearney
n
Robin 1995:
140).
Actually eople
who
makecontact nline
ery
ftenmeet
ater n
in
real ife
Argyle
nd
Shields:
1996:
59;
Muniz
and
O'Guinn
2001:
417;
Parks
nd
Floyd 1996).
Marriages
f
people
that
"fell
n
ove,"
s
Rheingold
1994)
suggests,
hen
hatting
n the nternet ake
place
in
the
physical
eality.
hose
people
wouldnothave meet
without
he
nternet,
ut t
does
not
mean that
hey
an
spend
ll their ives here.
Referential
ature f
Cyberspace
On
the
other
hand we
have
another
orthodoxy
hat
predicts gloomy
future f
ghost-like
umans
ngulfed
n simulacrumhat s
only poor
version f the
good
old
realityWellman
nd
Gulia
1999:
332-333).
Indeed
"[w]e
must
alance the dealist's
enthusiasm
or
omputerized
ife
with heneed to
ground
urselvesmore
deeply
n
the
felt arth
ffirmed
y
herealist
s
our
primaryeality"Heim
1998:
43).
The debate
on
"realness"
of the nternet
eems to
be
very
imilar
o the debate on "realness"
of iterature. he goldenmeanthatHeim asks for s whatSheriffalls "referential
function
f iterature"
ased
on Peirce's
heory
f
meaning.
heriff
rites:
"Peirce
ould ave
ound
implistic
he
hinking
urrent
oday
hat
here
s
somehowfixed
ulf
between
igns
nd
eality;
hat
ince
verything
or s
s
sign,reality"
s
fiction.Let
s
not
retend
todoubt
n
philosophy,"
e
urges,
what
e
do not oubtn urhearts"
5.265).
he ore fPeirce's
pragmaticism
s refutationf bsolute
dealismnd ealismnd n nsistence
pon
he
nterdependence
of
eality
nd
hought"
Sheriff
989:
41).
It seems also
to be thecase thatmass media
and
personal
ontact re not here to
struggle
or
upremacy
ver
the meansof nter-human
ommunication,
ut ikewise
theyhavecomplementaryoles Rogers1973). Just nasmuch s thetelephone nd
face-to-faceontacts
f East Yorkers esearched
y
Wellman
eem
not
to
cancel
each
other
ut,
but
ctually upplement
ne another
Wellman
nd
Potter
999).
Therefore
the bold statement:
if
you
are not on the
nternet,
ou
don't exist"
Preece
2000:
6)
is
paradoxically
rue.
"Reality"
nd
cyberspace
re
interconnected
Wellman
nd
Gulia
1999:
332-334;
Muniz and
O'Guinn
2001),
and now
any
can
hardly
xist
independently. yberspace
s
a
sole extensionf thereal
world,
or
t
reproduces
he
system
f
meanings
rom he world
we
are
living
n.
Signs
n the
cyberspace
have
not been takenout of the
blue,
but first ere
created
n
this
very hysical
world nd
then aunched nto hecyberspace,ndsecondthey eferothisvery hysicalworld.
We
do not
speak
new
anguages
n
the
cyberspace,
ut the
very
nes thathas been
created and
used
in
this
very eality
or
ges
already.
Of course those
languages,
used also in
cyberspace,
volve,
nd
very
ftennew
developments
re born
n
the
cyberspace
hat
descent" o
our
daily
ives,
ust
as
the
lready
mentioned
miley
ace
:).
But
cyberspace
nfluences ur
daily
anguages
ust
as much
as
advertising
nd
other
phenomena.
Also
www.sting.compaq.com
efers o a
real
person
iving
n
the
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15/27
234
KACPER OBtOCKI
physical
world.
t could not exist
without
im.
But also
Sting,ust
like other
rtists,
takes moreand morethepossibilityfhaving website orgranted.Forexample t
is more
convenient
or
rtists o
put
the
yrics
f their
ongs
online,
hanto
publish
it
n a
booklet
old
together
with
CD,
and more
and
moreoften
rtists o so. CD
covers
have
inks o artists'
websites,
o
in
this
way hey
re also
a
part
f the
package.
In a
way
a booklet
without he
homepage
s not
complete.
Indeed,
one of the ten
most
popular
key
wordsusers
type
n
when
using
search
engine
s
"lyrics" Alexa
Research
2001).
TVuth s. Fiction
Nevertheless
ome
may
ay:
"well,
what
bout
all
the new communities
hat tarted
flourishing
n
the
yberspace?
hey
do not
refer
o
anything
lse
in
theoffline orld."
What about
chat
rooms,
Amazon.com,
Napster,
virtual ities
where
people
meet
when
using
ar
simulator
oftware,
nd
many
more hat xist
olely
n the
yberspace?
Indeed this
oint
s
valid,
nd
t eems
t s
mportant
o
know f n
online
phenomenon
has
an
equivalent
n the real
world,
r not.
And
it
s even more
mportant
hen
we
are
speaking
bout online
communities,
s it
will
be
shown ater. These
exclusively
cyber
phenomena,
nevertheless,
ould be divided
nto two
categories.
There are
"mythical"
nes that re meant o
be
imaginaryust
as Alice's Wonderland as meant
to be
imaginary,
nd
that now
serve a similar unction o
myths Bromberg
1996:
145-147;
Robin
1995:
139).
The best
example
or
t
could
be
TheStone.com,
virtual
site where ubscribers
an solve riddles nd do treasure
hunting.
The other
ype
s
theones that
have
typological
quivalents
n
thereal
ife,
utno
literal ne. Here the
example
of Amazon.com
would suffice: ndeed there
re
bookshops
n
real
life,
ut
no
specifically
mazon.com
ookshop.
The distinctionetween
ruth nd
fiction,
ust
as in thecase of televisionEco 1998), sfairly igid ndpeople generally
end o
keep
it.
Generally peaking graduate
from
Oxford
would not
subscribe
o
Cambridge's
alumninewsletter.
We want o
keep
online he ame relation etween ruth
nd
false.
In
otherwords:
what
s true
fflinehouldbe also true
nline,
nd what s falseoffline
shouldbe also
falseonline. For
example
n
netiquette
IRL' stands or
in real ife."
It is
an
exclusively
n-line
xpression,
n
expression
hathas been coined on-line
nd
is used on-line
o refer o
the
world
off-line
Preece
2000:
101).
"In
real life
am
a
doctor,
ven
though
now am
an
alien"(sic ),
as one
of the
MUD
players
would
say Bromberg
996:
147-148)
for nstance.
To illustratets
mportance
we
need to
saythat t is clearly n abbreviation,nd abbreviationsre generally oined in the
process
f
repeated
use ofthe
whole
ong xpression,ust
as
BTW in
netiquette
tands
for
by
the
way,"
nd TIA
standsfor
thanks
n
advance."
And
obviously
here
re
several ccounts f frustratederds
elling
heir irtual
friends" hat
hey
re a tall
and attractive lond
Talko
and
Pi^tkowska
000),
but the
generaltendency
s that
in
mostof the
banal
situations
nlinewe tend to
keep
the borderbetween
rue nd
false.
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16/27
ONLINE
NATIONAL OMMUNITIES 235
Abolition f
Territory
We extend
the
"real world"onto
the
cyberspace,
r we
project igns
nto the
cy-
berspace,
ecause
the atter
as
some
crucial
dvantages. hysical
world s to a
large
extent
onstrained
y
ime
nd
space,
which an make
communication ore
difficult.
Those
barriers
o not
exist n the
cyberspace,
r to be
more
precise
will
disappear
completely
n
a
couple
of
years.
An e-mail
arriveswithin
couple
of
seconds to
a few
hours,
but this
will
approach
zero
very
oon. So now
there s no difference
if we chat
with omeone
from he nextroom or the
nextcontinent
Castells
and
Borja
1997:
1). Cyberspace
n
this
respect
s
yet
anothernail
to the coffin
f the
physical erritoryCastells 1989;Muniz and O'Guinn 2001). Furthermorehecy-
berspace
s,
unlike
physical pace,
unlimited.New
domains an be created n a
split
of
a
second,
and there s
enough
Lebensraum or
veryone.
And
the
United States
Internet
ouncil
has
recently
ntroduced ewdomains.
Of course ome domains
re
more valuable
than
others,
nd
this s
why
Madonna is
fighting
n a
court for the
www.madonna.comomain
name thathas been
"cybersquatted"
y
omeone
hoping
to make
profit
rom
egistering
t first.
Nevertheless,
enerally
peaking yberspace
is
unlimited,
inceeven a site ike
www.colourless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously.com
is
theoreticallyossible.
Ill
Networks
nd
Communities
Telephone
nd
Internet
There couldhavebeenno
nationalism n
the
nternet
nly
f
heweb
belonged olely
to
the
private
domain. The
comparison
etween
the
telephone
nd
the
Internet
demonstrates his
well.
We said
thaton
telephone
we
usually
do not
dial random
numbers,ndthat t smainly ecausetelephone s a mediumsnotbased onwritten
language.
And ifwe dial an
accidental
number,
hen his s
usually
mistake nd
we
apologise
the
person
we
speak
to for
onfusing igits.
On
the
other
hand
we do not feel
embarrassed f
ooking
for
the
homepage
of
Sting
we
get
to
the
homepage
of a
"competitive
nline
gamer."
We do
not send
e-mails
aying:
I'm
sorry
visited
our
homepage,
ut
was
looking
or
omething
else,
and..."
But we do
apologise
f
we had
sent
omeone
else an e-mail
that urned
out to be
containing
iruses.
Just s we
do not
pologise
when
ntered
nto
liqueur
store
while
ooking
or
bookshop,
utwe do
apologise
when
we knock
o
someone
else's doorbymistake. he differences that hetelephone elongsmostlyoprivate,
and
the
nternet
mostly
o
public
domain,
s well
as
telephone
upports
networks,
whereas
he nternetn
general
upports
ommunities.
There are
several
easons or
t.
Telephone,
utting
side
the
possibility
f
a "con-
ference
alk"
used
mostly
n
business,
s
generally
one-to-one
ommunication
ool.
The
Internet an
be
one-to-one
e-mails),
ne-to-manynewsletters,
ndividualweb-
sites),
or
many-to-many
most
websites).
We
get
angry
when
someone we
hardly
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17/27
236
KACPER OBtOCKI
know ends
us another diotic
hain
etter,
r whenwe
get
ome more
unk
n
our
inbox. t is so because itviolates ur
private pace
wehaveunappreciated uests,n
other
words.We
delete this
nstantly,ust
as we
kindly aybye
to
unappreciated
visitors.
functions
n almost he same
way
s the
telephone,
t
belongs
to
the
private
omain
and
supports
etworks.
he networks e have
in
mind re
in
most
of the
cases
egocentric
nd
first-order,
ince
we
usually
end e-mails r
speak
on the
telephone
with
eople
we know
lready.
f
we
still ssume hat here re no
telephone
books
for
telephone
ook
is a
ext,
nd
ust
as
newspapers
nd websites
up-
port
communities
hanks o
the
process
of
maging
f
others),
henthe
onlyway
of
speaking
with
omeone
we do not
know s
by sking
or
his or her
telephone
number
from ne ofourfriends.n this
way
ournetworksecome
second-order,
ut still it
is
a
network,
ot
a
community.
n
e-mail,
r a virus an
span
the
globe
in a
cou-
ple
of hours
only
hanks o intertwinement
f
personal
networks,
ndeed this
s the
best
proof
or he
"strength
fweak ties"
Granovetter
973),
but
maging,
n
strictly
Andersonian
erms,
s
here
still
mpossible.
Even
conceptualisation
f networks
s
"personal
ommunities"
Wellman
nd Potter
999) brings
n
only
onfusion,
ecause
there
s
no
"central"
ntity
n Wellman's
personal
ommunities,"
uch as
a
newspa-
per,
that
very
member
nd
all
the members
t the same time
an
consciously
elate
to.
An
individual,
rrespective
f their
bilities,
annot
replace newspaper,
r other
similar
media,
n
serving
s themeans
ofcommunication
nd
dentity-shaping
rocess
between
nonymous,
eographically
eparated
ndividuals.
Debate on Virtual
ommunities
As
Barry
Wellman
noticed,
he debate
on virtual ommunities
ave been
extremely
"presentist"
nd
unscientific,
nd
many
pundits
have written
bout communities
n
cyberspace
s if social scientists
ave
not been
pondering
ver the nature
nd fate
of
communities
n
the
social worldbefore
Wellman
nd Gulia
1999:
333).
These
are the sourcesof bothextreme nthusiasmbout thepossibilities pened bythe
"discovery"
f
the
cyberspace,
parked
y
n influential
ook
byRheingold
1993)
in
which
he described
his
experiences
n
one of the
first
arge-scale
irtual ommunities
as
well as orthodox
cepticism.
For some
people
virtual ommunities
ecame the
panacea
for
the
fall of the
public
man"
(Sussman
1997:
277-278),
and forothers
it was
simply
threat
o "the real
thing."
To
a
large
extent he
rootsof the
dispute
lie
in the
very
fact that
different,
nd sometimes
ven
contradictory,
henomena
taking
lace
on
the web
were all
put
into the
same basket
and labelled
as "virtual
communities."
or
example
accounts
of
genuine
trong
olidarities hat
developed
betweenmembers fonlinecommunities,ike nthehope-bringingrticle yArgyle
and
Shields,
who
describehow newsletter
roup
members
mourned he
death
of one
of
their -mail
friends
1996),
were confronted
ith ommon
bservations
hat
most
oftheonline ncounters
re
superficial
nd
give
false
mpression
f
ntimacyPreece
2000:
21).
Then the
following uestion
would be raised: "can social lifeflourish
n
the
cyberspace?,"
nd then
ome,
who
became
convinced
y
tories ike
Rheingold's
or
Argyle's,
would
answer
yes,
t
can,"
and
others,
who for
example
chattedonce
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18/27
ONLINE
NATIONAL
OMMUNITIES 237
with
trangers,
ound
t
uninteresting
nd abandoned the
dea,
would answer
no,
it
cannot."
Sometimes
ven
people
abuse the accountsof
strong
olidarities or their wn
commercial
urposes.
Internet
evelopers
long
time
ago
discovered he
magic
of
media
that,
ust
as
described
y
Anderson,
an
support ociability
y
making
n
individual
magine
olidarities
ith ther
people. Developers
ike
Wonnacott
2000)
think hat
they
an
create communities
ut of
blue,
on basis of
virtually
nything.
Downloading
Winamp"
one
of the most
popular
oftware or
playing
music
from
a
computer)
nevitably
orcesus to
find ut about
"Winamp
Community."
When
sending
sms
message
o someone
else from
Mtnsms.com,
e are informed
n
detail
that ourcommunity"as this nd thisnumber fmembers,hat n a joined effort
send this
nd
this
number f
messages
ast
month,
which
s
on
average
this nd this
number
f
messages
erday
nd so on
and
so
forth.Mtnsms.commission tatement"
is
a beautiful
xample
or
how
trong
as the
designer's
eterminationo
give
sense
of
unity
o the
networked
sers
who use
this
particular
ervice
ust
like
they
use
telephone:
"1.
We
r
all connected
2. Less
is
better
3.
Now
is the
only
moment"
Unfortunatelyo oneexplainswhat hose hree oints resupposed omean.The
conclusion
s that
here re certain
imits o the
self-fulfillingrophecy
mechanism,
and it
appears
that
moreelements
re needed for
genuine
olidarities o be formed
between
sersof
similar
roducts
Muniz
and O'Guinn
2001).
The
point
s
the
concept
f
community
as
been one of
the
most
p
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