electropolos - communication and comunity on irc.txt

1000 HOWTOs for various needs [WINDOWS]

communication as having four distinct features in comparison to 
conventional forms of interaction: an absence of regulating feedback, 
dramaturgical weakness, few social status cues and social anonymity.   
Conventional systems for regulating interaction fall apart. The 
structure of IRC causes its users to deconstruct the conventional 
boundaries defining social interaction. "Anonymity [and] reduced 
self-regulation" become, as I shall discuss, pronounced in computer-
mediated communication.(29)

_ANONYMITY_
Although the social and economic status generally associated with the 
use of such high technology as computer systems offers IRC users, as 
I have indicated, some general context within which to place each 
other, they know little else about each other, and that little is 
open to manipulation by the user.

Users of Internet Relay Chat are not generally known by their 'real' 
names. The convention of IRC is to choose a nickname under which to 
interact.(30) The nicknames - or 'nicks' as they are referred to - 
chosen by IRC users range from 'normal' first names such as 'Peggy' 
and 'Matthew', to inventive and evocative pseudonyms such as 
'Tmbrwolf', 'Pplater', 'LuxYacht' and 'WildWoman'.(31) The 
information which one user can gain about others on IRC consists of 
the names by which they choose to be known and the Internet 'address' 
of the computer by which they are accessing the IRC program. The 
first is easily changed. IRC supports a command that allows users to 
change their nicknames as often as they wish. The second is not so 
easily manipulated, but still open to tampering provided that the 
user has some technical skill. Essentially there is nothing that one 
IRC user can ascertain about another - beyond the fact that they have 
access to the Internet - that is not manipulable by that user. 

Our conventional presentation of self assumes that we cannot change 
the basics of our appearance. Physical characteristics, although open 
to cosmetic or fashionable manipulation, are basically unalterable. 
What we look like, we have to live with. This is, however, not the 
case on IRC. How an IRC user 'looks' to another user is entirely 
dependant upon information supplied by that person. It becomes 
possible to play with identity. The boundaries delineated by cultural 
constructs of beauty, ugliness, fashionableness or unfashionableness, 
can be by-passed on IRC. It is possible to appear to be, quite 
literally, whoever you wish.

The anonymity of interaction in IRC allows users to play games with 
their identities. The chance to escape the assumed boundaries of 
gender, race, and age create a game of interaction in which there are 
few rules but those that the users create themselves. IRC offers a 
chance to escape the language of culture and body and return to an 
idealised 'source code' of mind. 

The changes that a user might make to his or her perceived identity 
can be small, a matter of realising in others' minds a desire to be 
attractive, impressive, popular:

     *BabyDoll* Well, I gotta admit, I shave a few lbs off of my
     wieght when I tell the guys on irc what i look like..

However, the anonymity of IRC can provide more than a means to 'fix' 
minor problems of appearance - one of the most fascinating aspects of 
this computer-mediated fluidity of cultural boundaries is the 
possibility of gender-switching. While secondary characteristics such 
as hair colour are relatively easily changed in 'real life', gender 
reassignment is a far more involved process. This aspect of computer-
mediated communication has had little attention given it. Sproull and 
Kiesler note that "unless first names are used as well as last names, 
gender information is also missing", but do not discuss the 
implications of this.(32) IRC destroys the usually all but 
insurmountable confines of sex: changing gender is as simple as 
changing one's nickname to something that suggests the opposite of 
one's actual gender. It is possible for IRC to become the arena for 
experimentation with gender specific social roles:

     <Marion> I've tried presenting m,yslef as male on occasion - to
     be honest I found itdull
     <Barf> Umm, I've gender switched once or twice for about 2 hour
     or so - mainly to lead another male up the garden path as a
     practical joke; but never a serious gender switch.
     <Marion> how did you find being perceived as female?
     <Barf> I wasn't really being perceived as female, since I was
     basically just calling myself by a female name and utilising my
     knowledge of being male to get the other male all stirred up
     <Barf> I did find it mildly irritating that I should get so much
     attention and be immediately fixated as a sex object simply by
     pretending to be female 
     <Marion> to be honest, I didn't like being male becuaseI missed
     the flattery that women tend to get 
     <Marion> being expected to give attention ratehr than recieve it
     was quite a shock!
     <Barf> ahh - that is one reason that I tend to dislike unequal
     ratios in the sexes - the females get all the attention.(33)

The potential for such experimentation governs the expectations of 
many users of IRC. Gender is one of the more 'sacred' institutions in 
our society, a quality whose fixity is so assumed that enacted or 
surgical reassignment has and does involve complex rituals, taboos, 
procedures and stigmas. The attitudes taken by individual users of 
IRC differ as regards the possibility for gender concealment. Some 
view it as 'part of the game', others are hostile toward users who 
gender switch:

     <saro> KAREN IS A BOY
     <saro> KAREN IS A BOY
     <saro> KAREN IS A BOY
     <SmilyFace> aros: so?????????
     <Karen> yes aros I heard you 
     <FuzzyB> Takes a relaxed place beside Karen offering her  her
     favourite drink.

Whatever may be the attitude of individual users of the IRC program 
to such examples of gender experimentation, the crucial point is that 
it is an inherent possibility offered by the IRC software. 
Exploitation of this potential is an accepted part of the 'virtual 
reality' - a popular phrase amongst users of the Internet - of IRC. 
It becomes possible to play with aspects of behaviour and identity 
that are not normally possible. IRC enables people to deconstruct 
aspects of their own identity, and of their cultural classification, 
and to challenge and obscure the boundaries between some of our most 
deeply felt cultural significances. A willingness to accept this 
phenomenon, and to join in the games that can be played within it, is 
an aspect of the culture of IRC users. 

_REDUCED_SELF-REGULATION_
Researchers of human behaviour on computer-mediated communication 
systems have often noted that users of such systems tend to behave in 
a more uninhibited manner than they would in face-to-face encounters. 
Sproull and Kiesler state that computer-mediated behaviour "is 
relatively uninhibited and nonconforming."(34) Kielser, Siegel and 
McGuire have observed that "people in computer-mediated groups were 
more uninhibited than they were in face-to-face groups."(35) Rice and 
Love suggest that "disinhibition" may occur "because of the lack of 
social control that nonverbal cues provide."(36)

Internet Relay Chat reflects this observation. Protected by the 
anonymity of the computer medium, and with few social context cues to 
indicate 'proper' ways to behave, users are able to express and 
experiment with aspects of their personality that social inhibition 
would generally encourage them to suppress: 

     <Barf> Yes.. Oh well - I'm just saying that I switch
     personalities all the time, and my usual personality on IRC and
     my usual personality on Fidonet are at extremes, and I've never
     really shown my real self on any computer medium.
     <Barf> I'm deliberately creating fake personalities instead of
     highlighting less obvious parts of my personality, so I do the
     opposite of what my real self would do.
     <Marion> by doing something it by definition becomes an aspect
     of yourself - what you call your 'real self' is most likely the
     way you would like to see yourself or the way you usually are 
     <Barf> I'm experiment in being different people, and that
     involves doing things that I don't want to do to make the fake
     character consistent and believable
     <Barf> No - my fake characters often do things and behave in
     such a way that I wouldn't want to ever be like
     <Marion> woulsn't want to - perhaps not - but if it occurs to
     you to encat it then it is part of your potentiality 
     <Barf> Ah - but the reason that I experiment with different
     characters is so I can see how other people react and then adopt
     the good parts of the character that provoked a favourable
     response - however I don't compromise my own individuality and
     will continue  
     <Barf> to do things that I like to do that not everyone else
     would like me to do.(37)

IRC encourages disinhibition. The lack of social context cues in 
computer-mediated communication obscures the boundaries that would 
generally separate acceptable and unacceptable forms of behaviour. 
Furthermore, the essential physical impression of each user that he 
is alone releases him from the social expectations incurred in group 
interaction.  Computer-mediated communication is less bound by 
conventions than is face-to-face interaction. With little regulating 
feedback to govern behaviour, users behave in ways that would not 
generally be acceptable with people who are essentially total 
strangers.     

The lack of self-regulation amongst users of IRC can be both positive 
and negative, as far as interaction is concerned. The safety of 
anonymity can "reduce self-consciousness and promote intimacy" 
between people who might not otherwise have had the chance to become 
close.(38) It can also encourage "flaming", which Kiesler, Siegel and 
McGuire define as the gratuitous and uninhibited making of "remarks 
containing swearing, insults, name calling, and hostile 
comments."(39)  

Users of IRC often form strong friendships. Without social context 
cues to inhibit a free exchange between people - to encourage shyness 
- computer-mediated interlocutors will often 'open up' to each other 
to a great degree. Freedom is given, either to be someone whom you 
are not, or to be more yourself than would usually be acceptable.  As 
one user of the system sums it up:

     *bob* by nature I'm shy..
     *bob* normally wouldn't talk about such thingsw if you met me
     face to face
     *bob* thus the network is good..  (40)

Personal relationships amongst participants in computer-mediated 
communication systems can often be deep and highly emotional. Hiltz 
and Turoff have noted that some participants in such systems "come to 
feel that their very best and closest friends are members of their 
electronic group, whom they seldom or never see."(41) 'Net.romances', 
long distance romantic relationships carried out over IRC, can result 
from the increased tendency for participants in CMC systems to be 
uninhibited:(42)

     Channel    Nickname  S   User@Host (Name)
     +custard   Ireshi	  G   *@*.*.*.OZ.AU (Libby)
     +custard   Lori	  H@  *@*.*.washington.edu (Lori -
     Daniel's beloved)
     +custard   Daniel	  H@  *@*.*.*.edu.au (Daniel - Lori's
     beloved)...
     <Lori> After just a few chats on irc, it became obvious to me
     that this was someone I could easily become very good friends 
     with him...
     <Lori> The more we talked, the more we discovered we had in
     common...
     <Lori> By this time, I knew I was starting to have "more than
     just a friend" feelings about Daniel...
     <Lori> I told him that I was starting to get a crush on him...
     <Lori> Anyway, it's grown and grown over the months.
     <Daniel> A few mishaps, but we've overcome them, to bounce back
     stronger than ever.
     <Lori> And, as you know, we'll be getting together for 3 weeks
     at the end of November, to see if we're as wonderful as we think
     we are.

Such expressions of feeling are not in any way thought to be shallow 
or ephemeral. Far from being unsatisfactory for "more interpersonally 
involving communication tasks, such as getting to know someone", as 
Hiemstra describes researchers of CMC behaviour as having 
characterised the medium, IRC has in this instance fostered an 
extremely emotional bond between two people.(43) Users of IRC are 
able to so dispense with the conventional boundaries surrounding