For non-English speakers around the globe, the presence of the English language on the Internet might seem overwhelming. The dominance of English is so prominent that the Internet could just as well be named the ‘Englishnet’ (Fouser et al. 2000). English is the number one language online and is currently used by 478 million of a total of 1.7 billion online users (Internet World Stats, 2009). One can say that the future promises (or threatens with) a monopoly of this language, competent to dominate the world of popular culture, business and technology. Throughout this essay we will look at arguments from several perspectives, moving with the dynamic world of technology fanatics and withstanding the influence with purists of English and minority languages. From one perspective, this essay argues that English potentially weakens foreign languages, as it creeps within tech-talk of new generations. From another perspective the widespread use of English in media supports bilingualism and enriches current tongues.

On account of an increasing popularity and usability, the Internet progressed into a common discursive space (Papacharissi, 2002). Borders between countries seem to blur or even disappear in cyberspace, which consequently is promoted as something that Jones (1997) calls a  ‘new public space’. He argues that internet-based technologies provide a means for discussion between geographically distant people, but that it frequently fragmentizes discourse at the same time. Papacharissi (2002) mentions examples like disjointed conversation style observed in chat rooms and even remarks that the Internet actually decentralizes communication. This is, in my opinion, generalized and relies largely on factors like bandwidth speed, software compatibility between users and usability. Communication through chat rooms can therefore not be compared with a videoconference in High Definition video quality. That English however could cause decentralization is plausible, as it’s range enables discourse to be spread out over the whole of cyberspace.

Although the hegemony of online English seems obvious to global users alike, it remains uncertain if English weakens, replaces or enriches other languages. In the light of research in combined fields of linguistics, globalization and media, this essay discusses whether English is truly capable of influencing minority languages around the world through popular multimedia channels. It places arguments about the capability of English to replace minority languages, and subsequently the unification of technology users. In a case study, we will examine Dutch, the native language of the Netherlands and the influence of English forms of multimedia. This essay attempts to raise awareness, not of a threatening linguistic revolution, but of the extend of discourse about the matter in contemporary language theories.

Language hegemony in cyberspace and beyond

A position as the dominant Internet language has enabled English to permeate through the world of technology. However, some experience this as problematic, a degradation of other languages. Communication by e-mail or cell phone is argued to be ‘indexical’ and blameworthy of deterritorializing speakers by Marc Jaquemet (2005). In my opinion, these particular ways of communication, despite the fact that they are depersonalized and biologically unnatural, in a sense contribute to the education of the user. It provides the possibility to expand territories, perhaps not in a geographical sense, but certainly within the ‘virtual sphere’ (Papacharissi, 2002). Without doubt, increase of converging Internet and mobile telephone technologies had had a major impact on the way we use written English (Katamba, 1994).

In popular culture including music, television and cinema, it has been branded a ‘cool’ language, recited in by film celebrities and sung in by pop artists. “‘Trendy’ youth culture, in particular, recognizes the consumer appeal of English, which is copiously used in brand names, in advertising, in street signs and in popular media the world over” (Svartvik and Leech, 2006). A significant feature of English is its versatility in comparison to Asian languages for it combines phonographic and logographic elements, to be adjusted by users in any desired fashion. ”As the most commonly used language on the Internet and in computer-mediated communication, English is subject to the largest number of idiosyncratic additions and deviations from the largest number of users” (Fouser et al., 2000). Francis Katamba (1994) argues that language used in e-mail and texting has enriched our communicative repertoire. According to him, it has added characteristics used in spoken language, and translated it for modern day use in. For instance, limited length messages on mobile phones or Twitter. These types of messages converge spoken and written English into a modern form that renews constantly within the dynamics of cyberspace.

Dutch, Dunglish, English

The Netherlands is one of many countries where the English language has developed. It made its way into Dutch society through a range of channels: international companies, computer games of the 1980’s, British and American pop music, but largely, technologies in this age of computation. Both the USA and the UK caused this, respectively, Americanization and Anglicisation that provides the Dutch with an increasing knowledge of English. At the end of World War II, when the Netherlands was liberated by American, British and Canadian troops, products and habits from these countries soon set an example in Dutch culture. Linguistic influence from the US manifested through media such as cinema, brand names, and the Internet, whereas Britain was celebrated for literature and popular music. All imported products, plays and films made their way into the Netherlands, preserved their original English names, and the language’s ‘coolness’ was born. It was therefore that around the computational turn the English language words like ‘Internet’, ‘e-mail’ and ‘games’ predominantly remained in English.

This language ‘invasion’ is not the first one to sweep the Netherlands. In the 16^th century, languages like Latin and French had the same influence as English has in contemporary times. Subsequently, Dutch started embedding words from both languages, which nowadays are widely used in the Netherlands (Genootschap Onze Taal, 2009). The question remains if English has an equal effect, a thought alerting Dutch language purists, who dub it an “English Invasion”. On television, program titles such as Life & Cooking, So You Wannabe a Popstar and Holland’s Got Talent does make one wonder if the country is on the verge of a linguistic revolution. In recent Dutch politics, politicians are currently pleading for introducing English lessons to the education system for children at the age of four to prepare them for international business and communication. Those who did not grew up speaking English, verbalize in ‘Dunglish’ in attempting so, which is a portmanteau of Dutch and English and signifies improper direct translations from Dutch. English users, and especially ones of older generations, share this inexperienced use of ‘techno’ English. Svartvik and Leech (2006) argue that in this so-called ‘e-revolution’ the vocabulary of English has been extended in many ways, even transfiguring exiting words as ‘wizard, ‘cookies’ and ‘virus’. Older generations and language purists in both English speaking countries and the Netherlands fear that these practises will somehow undermine the standard language, diminishing a long literary heritage. Modernists accredit the e-revolution for infusing the language with vigour and creativity.

Employing a relatively small language like Dutch, is forcing the Netherlands to open up for these linguistic influences, especially for the good of international business and education. In gaining competence in English, many countries in Northern Europe have a head start; brands, undubbed (and subtitled) films and a strong link as another Germanic language contribute to an advanced tradition of learning the lingo. Svartvik and Leech (2006) even note: “In the near future, it has been predicted that all Dutch speakers will be bilingual in Dutch and English.” Here, bilingualism is presented as a new option for the future course of what was previously called an ‘English Invasion’: cooperation between languages, working parallel, but in separate fields. After all, even though English has made its way into areas such as business and technology in the Netherlands, Dutch is predominantly used for all other fields. Nonetheless, the former areas have enabled English to settle deep within Dutch social culture, which has potential to apply irreversible alteration to the ancient linguistic heritage of the Netherlands. As for smaller minority languages, for example the Dutch local Frisian tongue, the Internet offers opportunities to spread written communication in dialects and languages that previously were used principally for oral communication. Endangered languages can benefit from the Web, which works as a medium in the search of fellow dialect speakers (Svartvik and Leech, 2006, Warschauer et al., 2007).

Globalisation

As mentioned above, the English language has been able to expand through the technological/electronic revolution. Svartvik and Leech (2006) draw upon two other overlapping eras in world history that have proved to be beneficial for the language, which are imperial expansion and globalization. “…These three processes have piggy-backed on one another so that, for example, the electronic revolution has given birth to the Internet, and thereby generated e-mail, e-commerce, e-business and numerous other ‘e-activities’ which further caused globalization (Svartvik and Leech, 2006). In the early years of the Internet, when users foresaw its immense popularity, a feared result was that it would encourage global use of English to such a degree that other languages would be crowded out (Warschauer et al., 2007). Certain language upholders have made serious arrangements in order to prevent infiltration of English. Warschauer (et al., 2007) notes how “ Local opposition to English online has sprung up most notably in France, where a 1994 law mandates that all advertising must be in French and where the Finance Minister reportedly banned the use in his ministry of English-derived terms such as “email” or “start-up,” in favor of French terms such as courier électronique or jeune pousse.” The province of Quebec in Canada has even introduced the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), better known as the Language Police, in order to align on international French and fight Anglicisms. In this and many other places, feelings of patriotism eventually prevent second languages from penetrating the heritage of a native tongue.

Information accessibility for foreign users

As the Internet was initially designed by and for Americans, it utilised merely the Roman character sets, which was why English became the default language on the Net (Svartvik and Leech, 2006). In 2000, Robert J. Fouser (et al.) notes that this forced users in both Japan and Korea to exchange computer-mediated messages through public and commercial online systems. Unfortunately, little of this activity ended up on the actual Internet since few computers in the western world are programmed to write these languages. Nowadays, operating systems are including these character assets that has opened a world of opportunities for communication from Asia. With sophisticated online tools such as Google Translation, the accessibility of English web sites has significantly improved. Furthermore, by engaging with this language, users are able to utilise the logographic elements in English that provide a greater visual variety and makes it easier for readers to follow lines of text (Fouser et al., 2000). Think for example about expressing emotion through so-called ‘Smileys’, which was made possible by adding western characters on Asian computers; a process named ‘ASCII-ization’. This refers to the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, the character set on western computers (Warschauer et al., 2007). Vice versa, the demand of language compatibility for diasporas around the globe causes North American software companies to supply their products in a range of languages, even for the local market. Hence, this electronic revolution happening to English is also happening to other major languages (Svartvik and Leech, 2006). Popular websites like eBay, BBC News and Youtube have chosen to rather focus on accessibility instead of promoting English and are available online in many smaller languages like Irish and Czech.

The world’s biggest websites are currently built to cover an impressive amount of tongues and tools like Google Translation provide means through which the majority of bilinguals and monolinguals find their information online. In Languages in a Globalising World, Mark Fettes (2003) draws on the fact that “Before the advent of high-speed desktop computers and internet connections, machine translation and multilingual software existed primarily as specialised and expensive series for large corporations and governments.” As the Web gets cheaper and usability becomes more compatible, many users find way to read a foreign language effortlessly. Unfortunately this does not apply for countries with very small online representation, which constructs a certain dependency on these online translation tools. “If current trends are representative, the center of gravity of the Internet will remain in North America and Europe for the foreseeable future. Africa, and most of its linguistic diversity, is likely to remain out of reach of the Internet” (Paolillo, 2007). Zizi Papacharissi (2002) argues that the Internet in fact decentralizes communication. In a sense, this statement is plausible as the Internet could geographically spread a single conversation out over the entire globe. Although, due to the increase of multilingualism on the Net, dispersed speakers of certain languages (ex. French in Quebec, Louisiana, France and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) are able to converge in virtuality.

It is only a matter of time before every single webpage will be readable by everyone. Online translation software is progressing towards compatibility with every written language in the world by translating entire websites with a single mouse click. Online, monolingualism is no sin as long as one is speaking the right language. Largely, translation tools diminish all efforts of learning other languages. Translators on cell phones and MP3 players ensure smooth communication on the street and on holiday locations.

Learning a major language; time and tools

Do we need to learn another major language anymore? Mark Fettes (2003) argues we do not: “…the investment of time and energy to acquire limited proficiency in several standard languages will increasingly be seen as costing more and delivering less than high-quality professional services.” He predicts that consequently, seekers of active bilingual competence automatically converge on the most widespread second language, which in many cases is English. Plausibly, this focus strengthens world English. Yet, he argues; “translation into and out of English also constitutes the most tempting market for language technology, meaning that the marginal benefits of learning English are likely to fall faster than those for learning other languages” (Fettes, 2003). In short, Internet users who wish to start learning a major world language will probably make use of the online tools instead of spending costly time on intensive education.

Although the electronic revolution caused an increase in language diversity on the web, the urge for global communication does not ensure that people from different cultural backgrounds will also be more understanding of each other (Papacharissi, 2002). Cultural differences are not viable to be filtered out by translation software and online immersion into someone else’s culture has not yet reached the point of sophistication to manage this. For now, Internet culture offers a rich alternative for real-life contact with others when there is no physical opportunity available. To successfully master a second language, however, one must behave appropriately to that specific culture, use it in daily life and think in the language (Todd and Walker, 2000). Once a future Internet is able to persuades learning users to do so, we will be looking at a stronger hegemony of world English.

Conclusion

As an important new communication medium, the Internet is bound to have an important long-term effect on language use. As most of the information online is written, this means that either a common language or improved translation tools will be necessary. Throughout this essay, varying arguments and theories were engaged with of both native and non-native English speakers. It is clear that learning a language online can improve global communication, even though it does not greatly contribute to actually learning about the attached culture. Svartvik and Leech (2006) note how the appetite for learning English had little to do with love of the language; more with the opportunities for self-betterment and prestige this certain language can carry. Furthermore, they present us with the argument that English does not overtake a country’s social culture but rather makes it bilingual. In the 16^th century, the Netherlands succumbed to Latin and French language under pressure of neighbouring countries, hence the fears of this happening again in this era of computation.

Jones (1997) argued that internet-based technologies frequently fragmentizes discourse, so the question is whether dispersed online conversation can be acknowledged a proper use of language. Others have noted that the boundary between any spoken and written language gets blurred in email, which overlaps with texting to some extent (Katamba, 1994). The English language itself seems to evolve because of this e-revolution, so one can argue if it is really the ‘English’ language that dominates, or merely a techno-dialect. Some researchers like Francis Katamba (1994) find that this language (or dialect) enriches the vocabulary of many Internet users. This would mean that a shared online language could contribute to improved communication around the world. That this will actually occur remains uncertain at this point. “Most contemporary linguistic studies are still under the influence of the Babel myth: of the ideological desire to maintain a linguistic boundaries, allocate people to their respective territories, connect languages with the emergence of the sense of national identity,” argues Marco Jaquemet (2005). It is indeed this ideology that triggers the arousal of fanatics of the e-revolution, of who many support a single common language (which most of them already master). It is by intricate research to determine whether an online language monopoly is either good or bad. Substantiated arguments argue that English is well on the way to becoming the first ‘global language’ (Svartvik and Leech, 2006). As mentioned earlier, this does not necessarily mean that it attempts to overtake minority languages. The actual ‘death’ of a language in general is rare in this day and age, as the Internet is able to shelter it, as it did with Old Norse and Egyptian hieroglyphs. If a linguistic revolution seems imminent, supporters of minority languages are likely to raise awareness and commence political discourse. The online dominance of English is clear, but the Internet welcomes more than a single culture and the online language is therefore not yet on its way of becoming a true Virtual Empire.

References

Fettes, Mark (2003) ‘The geostrategies of interlingualism’ in Languages in a Globalising World by Jaques Maurais and Michael A. Morris, Cambridge University Press.

Fouser, Robert J., Inoue, Narahiko and Lee, Chungmin (2000) ‘The pragmatics of orality in English, Japanese and Korean computer-mediated communication’ in Words on the Web by Lyn Pemberton and Simon Shurville, Exeter: Intellect Books.

Genootschap Onze Taal (Our Language Association, 2009) ‘Verengelsing’ (Englization), online, http://www.onzetaal.nl/dossier/verengelsing/, [Accessed on 12 March 2010].

Internet World Stats (2009) ‘Internet World Users by Language; Top 10 Languages’, online, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.html [accessed on April 6, 2010].

Jaquemet, Marco (2005) ‘Transidiomatic practices: Language and power in the age of globalization’, Language and Communication, 25

Jones, S.G. (1997) ‘The Internet and its Social Landscape’, in S.G. Jones (ed.) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Katamba, Francis (1994) ‘English Words, Structure, History, Usage’, Oxon: Routledge.

Paolillo, John C. (2007) ‘How Much Multiligualism? Language Diversity on the Internet’ in The Multilingual Internet, language culture, and communication online by Danet, Brenda and Herring, Susan C, Oxford University Press

Papacharissi, Zizi (2002) ‘The Virtual Sphere: The Internet as a public sphere’, New Media Society, 4; 9, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Svartvik, Jan and Leech, Geoffrey (2006) ‘English; one tongue, many voices’, Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan.

Todd, Zazie and Walker, Stephanie (2000) ‘Multilingualism on the Net: language attitudes and use of talkers’ in Words on the Web by Lyn Pemberton and Simon Shurville, Exeter: Intellect Books.

Warschauer, Mark, El Said, Ghada R. and Zohry, Ayman (2007) ‘Language Choice Online, Globalization and Identity in Egypt’ in The Multilingual Internet, language culture, and communication online by Danet, Brenda and Herring, Susan C, Oxford University Press

Idling malls –
The emergence of online consumerism

Written by Pieter Groenendijk, © 2010 University of Sussex

Introduction

“Online shopping will replace traditional shopping sometime after there is technology available to have satisfying sex over the net.” (Alan Langford, 2008)

Since the emergence of the web shop in the early 1980’s, retailers have begun to operate a web store alongside their physical shops. These commercial web sites were initially designed to represent and promote a company’s image, but as this essay will prove, the popularity of the web shop creates other possibilities. Even back in 1981, Michael Aldrich, pioneer of online shopping, predicted “As telecommunications become even cheaper and conventional transport more expensive the whole concept of buying goods and services is changing dramatically.” (Aldrich, 1981). In those days, he could not have predicted the cultural and economical impact of his invention. So is the vanishing of the physical retail a thing of the future and are we merely waiting for technological developments to provide us with the shopping experience we are used to? Marc Augé’s (1998) notion of places, non-places and spaces is useful for distinguishing the traditional shopping place from the virtual non-place. This categorization of the Internet as a non-place is supported by Bolter and Grusin (1999) when they claim that “Cyberspace is a shopping mall in the ether; it fits smoothly into our contemporary networks of transportation, communication and economic exchange” (Bolter and Grusin, 1999, p. 179). As explored in later sections, due the increasing richness of contemporary commercial web sites, the contrast between online and offline shopping is starting to blur. If web shops manage to replicate the shopping experience of the High Street, it will be harder to categorize them as non-places. Nowadays, online customers can listen to CD content, browse through books and even try on clothing in a ‘virtual dressing room’. I will explain how the shopping experience step by step is replicated on the web.

This essay will explore the culture of online shopping and with this information, analyse whether its popularity could form a legitimate threat to its counterpart, physical retail. By looking at business-to-customer (B2C) companies that are represented both online as in real stores, and converging theoretic perspectives and statistics, we will be able to acknowledge the emergence and impact of the web shop. Throughout this essay, I will focus on companies that exhibit their goods in both the physical and virtual world. I will also shed light on companies that intentionally remain online and reasons for this by looking at contemporary research on consumer migration from ‘bricks-and-mortar’ to ‘clicks-and-mortar‘ retail, and vice versa.

Through several relevant sections in this essay I have assembled the hard facts on this migration to virtuality and its motives. By combining researches it will become clear that consumers find it important to use the senses and see, touch and try on a product before purchase. The price also plays, perhaps due to financial crisis, a major roll in decision-making (Blauw Research, 2009, ACNielsen Homescan, 2005, and Nielsen Online, 2008). Firstly I will look at the different forms in which virtual shopping is exhibited and its accessibility through various media. Then, I will shed light on important consumer groups that play key roles in contemporary virtual shopping culture, as I believe this information to be essential to validate further statistics. After looking at the implications of online shopping, I will analyse the facts to open discourse on the potential of the web shop.

The many faces of virtual shopping

Virtual and online shopping comes in many forms. For example a website like Amazon.com; a diverse online store made up of several virtual departments. This website contains a minimalistic look, and is therefore able to load quickly on both broadband and the older dial-up modem connections. According to Dodge (2001), simplicity is the source of the website’s commercial success, together with an organized virtual shopping experience. While even most contemporary shopping web sites consistently bear these basic forms of design, they will always exhibit essential geographical dimensions (Lange, 2001, in Currah, 2003).

Before analyzing which effects websites like these can have on their physical counterpart, or bricks-and-mortar retail, we need to acknowledge their advantages and disadvantages, reasons to switch to the online channel or back. I aim to discuss some of the most popular forms of media in which a virtual shop is able to exist. This section will proove that the virtual shop is not only able to present itself within a computer’s browser, there are other interactive channels to lure us into buying goods.

Andrew Currah (2003) adds how websites like Amazon integrate a certain amount of artificial intelligence, using real-time information about the users and their behavior to combine simplicity and interactivity on a personal level (Currah, 2003). It is interesting how these sites, consisting of many pages of purely computer generated code, seem to act on a more personal level. It is implemented as if to present a knowledgeable fictional employee that knows what you bought, what you might need to buy, and your interests. Currah (2003) divides contemporary commercial websites into two catergories; The first one consists of websites created to enforce a ‘wow’ effect, interactive websites with a colorful, rich content and a slow loading time. According to Augé (1998) non-places like these produced by hypermodernity. As technology is creating virtual game worlds and fictional computerized locations, these immersive web sites can indeed be categorized as such. The second category are minimalistic websites such as Amazon, a functional and fast loading website. In both cases, these commercial website are available every hour at every day and from a single location.

Amazon is an online store, lacking any presence on the High Street and shopping malls. Unlike Amazon, most web shops in fact are created as an extension of an already existing physical store. These websites are created for many purposes. Shops that sell mainly one brand use it as a promotion technique or a brand identity representation. Not only do web sites refer to their shops and locations, some shops in fact instantly refer to their website. Reason for this could be to stimulate online sales and perhaps eventually to disappear from the physical market into the non-place of cyberspace, saving money on shop employees, building costs etc. This is the case with ‘shopname.com’ retailers to be found in shopping malls. The Dutch ‘Kijkshop.nl’ (Lookshop.nl) consistently started using the domain name as a logo, as if to instantly direct people to their website (see appendix nr. 1). The company went online during the web shop boom in the late 90’s and changed their logo not short after that. Currently, this electronics dealer’s physical shop consists only of showcases, which might resemble walking through a website’s product database. This way, the shop’s strategy is to make the consumers wander in a serene state of orientation, unforced by obtrusive store employees. Also, when orientating on the market online, virtual representations of a store might even be visited before their physical counterpart. When this happens, the overall ‘experiential value’ (Currah, 2003) is the key factor in levering a company above its competitors. As the browser-based variant of the virtual shop is widely accessible to many of us, this is logically the first form to mention in this section. In fact, Nielsen (2005), a company focussing on media research, writes on their website how in 2005, 55% of the United Kingdom’s population had Internet access at home. When looking at other locations to go online, such as schools, libraries, work etc., the number rise as high as 80%. By looking at these facts, we can acknowledge the immense accessibility of the Internet and understand why it is being used to represent companies.

In its online form, there are different media used for virtual shopping that one would not immediately think of. Not only have we seen a growth in amount and diversity of offered goods online, the channel and medium through which these are offered has also changed. In their article about E-commerce use among digital TV subscribers in Spain, Garitaonandía and Garmendia (2009) touch upon this increasingly popular form of shopping. They explain, “subscribers to Digital+ can buy goods, play games, do online banking and credit their mobile phones through the use of the remote control, meaning that the television itself becomes a device for electronic commerce (t-commerce)”, (Garitaonandía and Garmendia, 2009, p. 418). By implementing this form of shopping in Digital TV, companies manage to combine all offered advantages of television with their goods. The TV set, being an embodiment of entertainment and education, provides the attention advertisers are looking for. After the popular use of radio as one of the main information media, television is no longer used merely as a ‘background medium’ (Martinson et al., 2002). Its visual output demands an attention that is able to grasp the attention of many a passerby.

Websites like the previously mentioned Amazon, but also eBay, converted their website for mobile use. No longer are shoppers restricted to a computer or even the (arguably) mobile laptop, now they are able to fulfil shopping urges anywhere within reach of a mobile network signal. In many cases these mobile shopping pages are nothing but a simplified version of the original shopping website. In other cases, however, we are being offered a service that approaches virtual shopping slightly differently. ‘Frucall’ for example is a new service that allows consumers to call a certain (highly charged) number and enter a product’s bar code or ISBN number. A voice will then read out the cheapest prices on a variety of online shopping websites. Frucall therefore embodies yet another approach to keep up with ever-evolving technology to acquire consumer attention, and to be one technological step ahead of  competitors.

By ‘redirecting’ the function of the television and the mobile phone towards virtual shopping, we see this augmentation of the medium; the application of the medium is broadened to uses that they were not initially designed for. In some ways, one might say that virtual shopping is a product of the blurring of boundaries between these media. It’s important to focus on the theoretical significance of these commercial websites in all its forms. The Internet for example, has the capacity to ‘localize, collapse and fold geographically extensive markets into web sites’ (Leyshon et al, 2002, in Currah, 2003, p. 7). By spreading the company’s promotion out over several media types, they can create multiple points of contact, improving accessibility. A customer might, for example, orientate and compare products and prices in the online shop, and then visit a nearby physical located version for purchase and other detailed information (Currah, 2003). Some web shops do this by writing “Call or visit us for the price” next to the product’s image.

We have seen how these various forms of non-places offer an alternative for places. On the field of mobility, consumers can do their shopping from any location within reach of a mobile signal. From the comfort of one’s own home, shopping manifest itself through television and the personal computer. But is every user similar? In the following part of this essay, I look more closely at the buying behavior of some important groups of online consumers.

Target Groups

The most important focus of shopping websites is of course the (potential) customers. But of whom does this crowd actually exist? Computers are now being used by a varied range of people for a multiplicity of uses. Web designers will need to  ‘unfocus’ layouts and interactivity to attract a broader range of people. I will look at two groups of consumers that play a roll in online shopping as great as the group that designs it. As mentioned by Martinson, Schwartz and Walker (2002), the emergence of a greater amount of female users now more intensely reflects the demographics and emancipation has also broken through on the field of computerization. Women have seemed to be ignored previously on the Internet, application and video game market.

For women with young children, a day in town might in many cases be seen as quite a mission. For this reason, online shopping offers a possibility to remain at home with their children in a safe and comfortable environment. Perhaps for this group, the disadvantages of online shopping are taken for granted in return of saving themselves a tormenting day out. If one does decide to venture out, nearness and accessibility of the shopping facilities require a certain standard. Martinson et al. (2002) researched which leisure activities are being practiced by fourteen different women. At first, they note “We found it interesting that none of our participants mentioned online shopping as a leisure activity. Even though some participants mentioned shopping as leisure (e.g. browsing through a gift shop or stationery store), none of the women in this study mentioned continuing this activity online as a leisure pursuit.” (Martinson et al, 2002, p. 45).  This result is interesting when considering the popularity of online shopping in general. Shopping is mentioned, but online shopping isn’t even seen as a leisure activity by any of the fourteen participants. In my opinion however, this might only exclude online shopping from being mentioned as being leisure. Virtually shopping for groceries or Christmas presents, for example, is a form of online shopping that for many would not be stated as leisure, while many consumers, both male and female, indeed take an active part of it.

In ‘Coming of age with the Internet’ (2006), Mcmillan and Morrison explore another important group of virtual shop users, namely teenagers. This group forms the next (and current) generation of virtual shoppers and analysis of its behavior is essential for future design implications and marketing focusing. Students, for example, are an ideal group to focus research on, as they are young enough to maintain an open mind towards media and the Internet, and mature enough to have started building ‘lifetime patterns of media use’ (Mcmillan and Morrison, 2006). Young people find that parents and grandparents did not understand the potential of interactive technologies while these teenagers, however, live in a digital media culture. First contact with virtual shopping, however, was to be established due to actions of these earlier generations. Many parents bought the child’s first computer and paid for broadband bills (Mcmillan and Morrison, 2006). From this perspective, every generation within the family plays a key roll in establishing both a physical and behavioral connection with the web shop.

Recognizing these important consumer groups is important when looking at the cultural history of the online customer. Differences in consumer behavior patterns decide whether a migration from offline towards online transactions will shape. As soon as consumers begin to use the Internet, the High Street loses crowdedness. In 2008, 86 percent of Internet users worldwide have purchased goods online while in the United Kingdom figures go up to an astounding 97 percent (Nielsen Online, 2008). One can imagine how the online sales of goods will increase once these users establish trust with the web shop after many successful transactions.

E-shop ‘till you drop

Although there are many advantages of the web shop, as explored previously, it also comes with some issues. First of all, even though using a reasonably connected computer may seem obvious to the western population, for many, even in Europe, do not have access to computers. This lack of access forces these potential buyers to stick with market places and bricks-and-mortar retail. If they do indeed manage to acquire access, the essential skills needed to perform online transactions might be missing. As described in this essay’s section about target groups, young people currently grow up with interactive media and will therefore understand more easily the complexity of virtual shopping. This is less the case with previous generations that had to relearn technology in, for example, photography (analog to digital), television (the tube to Youtube) and now, shopping.

I’d like to consider the statement of Currah (2003) when he notes that “On the Internet, the situation’s completely different . . . there’s no fancy window displays, not the same atmosphere, the in-store layout, the serendipity etc. . . . to encourage impulse purchases.” (Currah, 2003, p. 14). Although the shopping experience is hard to compare between these two spaces, I will argue that ‘fancy window displays’ do indeed take their presence in the form of Home pages on the company’s website. Overall, impulsive buying is not merely a matter of the physical market, Internet addiction shapes in its own way a means to grasp the user’s attention and lure them towards spontaneous purchases. Thus, shopping behavior manages to express itself in different forms. One of the impulse control problems caused by virtual shopping is a significant new issue in computerization; it is categorized under ‘Net compulsions’. Among others, this includes obsessive online gambling and indeed, online shopping. (Griffiths and Davies, 2005) As this gambling-like compulsion occurs in both the traditional and the virtual shop, it needs to be acknowledged as one of the great dangers of online shopping.

As companies fight a virtual battle for online attention, some cross the line of accessibility for the greater good of aesthetics. Once web sites are embellished with unfamiliar new components, special software needs to be downloaded. This does not only delay the consumer’s quest to the online information or services they need, it scares them off. Luckily for these users, a majority of modern web sites are tailored to any system and companies tend to seriously invest in the accessibility of their online location. “Sites are sophisticated, security is good, delivery times are efficient and shopping via a pc really does offer true convenience to the time poor consumer.” (ACNielsen Homescan, 2005). Not only do I wish to purely present the faults of the online shop, there are indeed side effects to be mentioned with a positive effect. Nicholas Scibetta, director of Global Media Network, noticed how web shops tend to create forms of virtual communities. According to Scibetta (2009), 44 percent of online shoppers read customer comments and feedback ratings. “The opinion of others weighs heavy in making purchase decisions. … Also, many comments are being made on each other’s reviews. … The effect is that social networks are being created through the web. “ (Nicholas Scibetta on Retailnews.nl, 2009, freely translated). The website Retailnews.nl adds how these comments are even more appreciated than the actual product descriptions on the site (Retailnews.nl, 2009). This is confirmed by Nielsen’s President Jonathan Carson, “Recommendations from fellow consumers – whether they are people they know or fellow online shoppers – play an enormous role in the decision-making process” (Nielsen Online, 2008).

Books remains the main product to be sold online, followed by clothing, DVD’s and video games. Groceries and automobiles however, do not share this popularity (Nielsen Online, 2008). Even though a sophisticated security system is linked to almost every legitimate web shop, consumers seem to find the purchase of a vehicle through the Internet a step too far. Either this is the main reason, or the possibility of bargaining makes us rather step into the showroom of a car dealer. Perhaps it is the fumes of leather and the ability to experience the car. In the next section we look closer at the gathered information and theories, and relate these with hard statistics on the trends in online shopping.

Desertion of High Streets

“A decade ago, as online retailing began to take off there were all sorts of outlandish predictions of how rapidly it would grow – if you believed some pundits, the high streets would be left deserted as we all retreated to our computers to do our shopping.” (Rory Cellan-Jones, 2009)

Now we have seen in which forms goods are offered and by which means, we could analyze how this affects the act of physically shopping. Do we ignore the convenience of modern technology and give in to our need of crowds, noises, smells of the High Street, or, do we embrace this development and purchase our goods online from now on? If we consider Cellan-Jones’ statement, as quoted above, the development of shopping in its virtual form has not evolved quite as far as expected a decade ago.

As we have seen, there are many advantages of online shopping which are magnified by Nielsen Online’s ‘Pre-Holiday Survey’ of November 2008. This survey analyses shopping behavior prior to important holidays. Out of 1300 active online shoppers, 76% name the main reason to purchase online is the possibility to shop 24 hours per day. This is extremely useful for buying last-minute gifts. Other reasons include time saving, avoiding queues, and avoiding crowdedness in the stores (Nielsen Online, 2008). Rory Cellan-Jones (2009) argues how online shopping has become the way most people now deal with their present purchases, for example around busy Christmas times. While this time of the year evolves around buying presents, the Internet offers a solution for quick and cheap shopping. As Cellan-Jones (2009) points out, the choice of products divide the group of consumers in those who buy online and those who buy offline. He argues how the Internet presents itself as the natural place for shoppers to purchase books, DVD’s and music. The High Street focuses mainly on other goods (Cellan-Jones, 2009).  I would suggest that the annual ritual of Christmas shopping gains in attraction by being part of the overall Christmas feeling. For this reason, many shoppers choose to partake in the event by visiting their local decorated shopping mall instead of spending these festive days behind a monitor.

Alan Langford (2008) takes the idea of the physical shopping experience a bit further by comparing it to sex, a multi-sensory experience. Just like intercourse, shopping is seen as an act that involves sight, sound, taste, feel and smell. (Langford, 2008) According to him, serious issues will be raised once the technology of shop’s online presence also involves exploring these senses. An arguable point comes up once Langford notes that the only remaining advantage of bricks-and-mortar retail is instant gratification (Langford, 2008). This notion is being contradicted by the fact that certain goods are brought to the customer by the click of a button. Examples are online-streamed movies (Netflix), music downloads (iTunes Store) and articles (of which many being used in this term paper, from Sage Publications).

Here we stumble upon one of the key attractions of online shopping; an instant online delivery of any product that could exist in digital form. Of course, the speed of transaction of these goods is completely dependant on the Internet bandwidth of the user. Unlike ‘touchable’ products, the sale is not restricted by stock size or holiday bustle. In some ways, physical goods are being represented in virtual form. Many companies tend to virtually present all aspects of the product that one would initially look for in the shop. For example, 360° views of the product, online simulation of digital devices, even virtual dressing rooms. Even the shop employee is being replaced by a live chat function to answer questions or make suggestions (Currah, 2003).

After the switch to the online shop, consumers do not wildly go on a spree and order anything from anywhere. As with traditional shopping, the returning customer is a major source of income. Globally, 60 percent of online shoppers regularly buy at the same website (ACNielsen Homescan, 2005). This might be partly due to an increase of trust once the fist package has made it way to the customer’s doorstep. Blauw Research (2009) in the Netherlands researched reasons for this switch of shopping channel. Unlike Nielsen Online’s ‘Pre-Holiday Survey’, this so called ‘Multichannel Monitor’ does not focus merely on shopping behavior in busy December times. After orientating both online and offline, the first motive to buy in a web shop is the price difference (48% of 1706 interviewed participants). 35 Percent of the participants switch due to the convenience of purchasing product at home. Interestingly, the switch is made the opposite way as well. The majority of people (34%) buy offline for the reasons of being able to see, touch and try on the product. Secondly, special offers and sale in the physical shops attract a large percentage (27%) of people who make the switch, especially in times of financial crisis (Blauw Research, 2009). I may conclude that the senses play a most important roll in purchase decisions. Also, keep in mind that advertising and other promotion gets a chance to grasp the customer’s attention in the High Streets or shopping malls. This could very well influence these statistics. Researchers discovered that the Internet is the number one source for information and orientation before purchase, but the actual shop is where orientation mostly leads to purchase (Blauw Research, 2009).

In closure of this section, its useful to mention that “place and non-place are rather like opposed polarities: the first is never completely erased, the second never totally completed” (Augé, 1998, p. 79). Bricks-and-mortar retail might be put under pressure from their online competitors, and eventually some might be forced to close. But High streets are often situated in the cultural centre of a city, a place rich of history and atmosphere, and could therefore not just be ignored.

Conclusion

In this age of e-commerce, virtual shopping plays a major role on the market and will remain to do so for the time coming. As consumers getting more and more used to Internet payment and the process of online shopping, the fear of security breaches is slowly diminishing. In some cultures however, the crowd remains distrustful. This also happens with the Latin population described by Garitaonandía and Garmendia (2009). In their article they describe how this is combined with a lack of access for a large percentage of the population and a deep-rooted shopping tradition among Latin people, who prefer to examine goods prior to purchase instead of shopping online via a catalogue (Palacios, 2003). Statistics from Blauw Research confirm that this is also the case in the Netherlands, a westernized country proven to show very similar results with the United Kingdom (Nielsen Online, 2008). It is to be believed that these shopping traditions seem to manifest themselves in every country with a reasonable history of markets and shopping. However, products that don’t need to be examined prior to purchase have proven to be the best selling items on the net. “Some of the biggest buyers of books on the Internet are from developing countries – China, Brazil, Vietnam and Egypt – indicating massive growth potential for online retailers that can specifically target these fast-growing markets.” (Jonathan Carson in Nielsen Online, 2008). For these locations, the commercial website promises to develop into a ‘new and remarkably dynamic space of consumption’ (Currah, 2003).

The Internet has always been a non-place of hedonism, an untouchable location without boundaries that has proven to provide means of escapism for many. This is partly where online shopping finds its charm. The act of shopping online has been commoditized and plays a key roll in contemporary Internet culture. Even the function of the shopping mall, combining several stores in one location, has been digitalized. So called ‘portals’ resemble virtual malls, merely composed of digital shop fronts (Currah, 2003). Computerization can be seen as one of the embodiments of modernity. Augé (1998) stated; “Modernity does not obliterate them [places with history] but pushes them into the background”. We could see how traditional shopping mall is one of those places that are in danger of being ‘outspaced’ by virtuality. Behavioral patterns of the users will always decide if this will be the case. Therefore, further research on shopping behavior of our next generation could provide us with clear and accurate information on the switches to the online channel or back. Back when shop owners knew every single customer, a sense of community was created within the boundaries of the store. Nicholas Scibetta (2009) taught us how this phenomenon is forming on commercial websites when users comment on each other’s reviews and online discussions are started concerning a product. Perhaps this is one of the first steps in replicating the physical shopping experience.

Consider the notion of Rory Cellan-Jones (2009), where he tells us how a decade ago predictions were that we would only stick with virtual shopping by now. That E-shopping is a rising phenomenon cannot be ignored; “whatever consumers are buying and from whom, it seems that Internet shopping, particularly for everyday goods such as groceries is here to stay. It marks a new era in home shopping and is fast becoming an established part of our lifestyles” (ACNielsen Homescan, 2005). But perhaps our predictions are too futuristic. To see crowds disappear from the malls and High Streets is surely not plausible in the next decades. Currently, virtual shopping has proven to be a useful promotional extension of bricks-and-mortar retail and another point of access to the shop. The amount of cases of shops making the switch to online, and remaining here exclusively, has been too small to show a significant difference in the streets. The fact that books and clothing are the main sales objects on the net (Nielsen Online, 2008) does not seem to influence the dominance of bookshops and clothing stores in any city centre.

Even though virtual shopping was created in the 1980’s (Aldrich, 1981), it has only been intensively used in this decade. Thus, future research on the trends of online shopping could more accurately present its growth. If this does imply that the web is the way to go, we might see a higher amount of shops migrating online. This might be a fluent process where, as in the case of Kijkshop.nl, the store is slowly preparing itself for this step. As mentioned before, the urge to be able to see, touch and try on the product before purchase has been the main reason to visit the physical shop (Blauw Research, 2009). This confirms the very first quote in this paper. Once technology is advanced enough to stimulate all senses, virtual shopping will replace its traditional counterpart. Until then, the tradition of markets, shopping malls and High Street will remain.

References

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Aldrich, Michael (2008) ‘The Michael Aldrich Archive’, http://www.aldricharchive.com, [accessed on 4 January 2010]

Aldrich, Michael (1981) ‘Doing the Shopping in front of a TV’, Computing, September 1981.

Augé, Marc (1998) ‘Non-places: an anthropology of supermodernity’, London, Verso

Blauw Research (2009) ‘Multichannel Monitor 2009’, for Main Business Retail and Thuiswinkel.org, http://www.thuiswinkel.org/uploadedFiles/Kenniscentrum /Onderzoek_en_cijfers/B10340%20Multichannel%20Monitor-4x.pdf, [accessed on 14 December 2009].

Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin (1999) ‘Remediation: Understanding New Media’, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Cellan-Jones, Rory (2009) ‘Christmas shopping: Online v High Street’, BBC News article, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/12/christmas_shopping_ online_v_on_the_high_st.html, 7 December 2009, [accessed on 16 December 2009].

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Garitaonandía, Carmelo and Garmendia, Maialen (2009) ‘E-commerce use among digital TV subscribers: audiovisual abundance and virtual purchase – predictors of e-commerce use among digital television subscribers in Spain’, New Media Society 11(3): 417–432.

Griffiths, Mark, Davies, Mark N.O. (2005) ‘Does Video Game Addiction Exists?’ in the Handbook of Computer Game Studies, edited by Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, London: MIT Press.

Lange, E. (2001) ‘The Limits of Realism: Perceptions of Virtual Landscapes’, Landscape and Urban Planning 54: 163–82.

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Palacios, J.J. (2003) ‘The Development of E-commerce in Mexico: A Business-led Passing Boom or a Step Toward the Emergence of a Digital Economy?’, The Information Society 19(1): 69–79.

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health issues and prevention methods
in immersive multimedia

An essay by Pieter Groenendijk, © 2010 University of Sussex

Introduction

With a boom in technological development, comes a rise of issues; technological side effects that seem to work against us, instead of making our lives easier. In this essay I wish to explore the health issues and analyse the effects of contemporary technology on our well-being. While looking at how health is being jeopardized by embodiments of modernity, I will not merely list possible negative effects. I aim to discuss by which means certain digitally mediating hard- and software, once immersed into, could pose a legitimate danger to their user. By using key arguments in research about this topic, I will attempt to gain perspective into predicting future prevention initiatives. I wish to explore this topic by introducing different relating theories on the fields of Technological Determination and Attention Economy. I will research solutions to redirect attention, for example by using a so-called Mobile Phone Jammer. Also I will explore current prevention methods. This essay consists of several sections. I will be describing the possible dangers of immersion and discussing matters of responsibility and prevention, as these are important aspects of immersion hazards.

Dangers and Dependency

In the case of mobile phones, car navigation systems (Sat Navs) and other devices that are transported with us, the risk is not only the object itself. Another hazard lies in our dependency on the device. While new Sat Navs boast colourful screens and high quality sound effects, we are tempted to treat this device, which was initially designed for its safety features, as an entertainment system. In fact, many of these devices implement mp3 and video playing functions. A distraction as such is inevitable and the attention devices like this draws is one that cannot be justified in the eyes of traffic safety. Our dependency on the multifunctionality of this gadget results in, first of all, an increase in our will to yield at the attention it produces.

In her article ‘How many Movements’, Caroline Bassett notes how mobile phone use embodies our ability to move within different spaces. “[Capacity] has honed considerably our ability to engage/dis-engage from particular stimuli, and from particular kinds of spaces…” (Bassett, 2003, 347). She takes the idea of attention a bit further by mentioning how attention is not merely a geographical matter, but a matter of investing (Bassett, 2003). With this, investment is subject to a kind of selection that decides if we, for example, listen to the voice on the other end of the phone line, or rather the fast approaching lorry. As she puts it, attention on one object or space, automatically diminishes our attention on the other. Once immersed into devices like an iPod Video or live television streaming on mobile phones, we need to carefully select our ‘mode of perception’ (Bassett, 2003, 348-349).

From the perspective of technological determinism, there has been the debate about neutrality of technology. “Some critics of determinism argue that the tools themselves are ‘neutral’ – for them bias can arise only from the ways in which tools are used, not from the tools themselves (remember the folklore saying, ‘it’s a bad worker who blames the tools’)”, says Daniel Chandler (1996), while others insist in the non-neutrality of technology, which means that we can not use the technology without it using us. Especially with technological devices, we are clearly experiencing the impact of our usage. During a walk around the city, while sending text messages at the same time, notice how the mobile phone demands a considerable amount of our visual (texting) and aural (calling) attention (or both, video calling) and temporarily places our thoughts in another place than that of the street. In relation to this example, Neil Postman argues that “the computer, and television are not therefore simply machines which convey information. They are metaphors through which we conceptualize reality in one way or another. They will classify the world for us, sequence it, frame it, enlarge it, reduce it, argue a case for what it is like. Through these media metaphors, we do not see the world as it is. We see it as our coding systems are. Such is the power of the form of information” (in Chandler, 1995 p. 8). By considering this statement, we understand how this conceptualized reality in some ways is able to replace our physical one, a transformation in which lies the danger of immersion. Not only is the reality framed, or sequenced, but also in some ways even diminished (as in a ‘fireplace’ DVD) or augmented (as in fictional action movies), which catches our attention. After all, no one watches a reality show because it shows reality like the viewer knows it, there wouldn’t be a need for watching.

Recently, one of the most unavoidable issues raised by digital media immersion is the one of video game addiction. While video games become more realistic and immersive, the gamer seems to be subjected to the existence of another world that shapes therefore, for many addicts, a means of escapism. For example, one of the most popular video games in contemporary gaming culture is ‘World of Warcraft’ by Blizzard Entertainment. This game does not only ‘feed’ escapism by exhibiting a world very different from ours in where the gamer is able to seek distraction from reality, but it also offers a chance to meet gamers from around the globe who can be teamed-up with or challenged, or customizing their online representation. This combination moved 240.000 gamers to buy the game in the first day of sales alone and yields a current 11.6 million subscribers. The immersive and addictive features of the game have proven to express a variety of dangers ranging from cardiac arrests, due to playing the game for several consecutive days, to murder, for the mere motive that one player stole a virtual sword of the other. Once the touch with reality is lost it seems that users see this new world as lawless in where violent behaviour is justified.

The phenomenon of video game addiction is further explored in Mark Griffiths’ and Mark N.O. Davies’ chapter in ‘Handbook of computer game studies”. According to them, addiction to immersive environments can be distinguished into two subcategories, namely ‘passive’ (e.g. television) and the ‘active’ (video games). These subcategories lie, in my opinion, in close relation with each other. Especially now the boundaries between television and interactive video (games) are beginning to blur with the emergence of interactive television and online television ‘on demand’. Griffiths and Davies note how photosensitive epilepsy is being triggered by flickering patterns and rapid scene changes, and how conditions called “Pac-Man’s Elbow” and “Space Invaders’ Revenge” (Loftus & Loftus, 1983) form the early notions in the early 1980’s of what we now know as Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). One indirect health issue as a result of video game addiction is a lack of physical work out, possibly leading to obesity. With this example we see how an issue like addiction for immersive multimedia could not only project its dangers directly on the user, but also how indirect problems echo it’s use.

Responsibility

In ‘Computerization and Controversy’, Jonathan Jacky (1995), software engineer for a radiation therapy clinic, touches on one of many issues derived from technology. In this case not by immersive multimedia, but by problems of radiation irregularities in a medical radiation device designed to fight cancer cells, the Therac-25. By setting the problems caused by the Therac-25 as an example, Jacky attempts to categorize the ones to blame into three main groups. This categorization proves not only to be relevant in the case of the medical devices like the Therac-25, but also seems applicable in many other fields like the one of immersive multimedia.

First of all, people who are subjected to risks and dangers due to hardware and software errors will initially cast their eyes towards the product itself. In the context of immersive multimedia, one could say that distraction and other dangers caused by immersion exist due to the mere existence of the product. The distractive features of the cell phone are in this case the classic example. George Sweigert, inventor of the cordless telephone, could not have imagined the potential of his creation, and the issues it would carry. The distraction risk that comes with the use of the mobile phone, shows us how the product indirectly endangers us, i.e. diminishes our awareness of direct hazards in our environment. This category relates closely with the next.

By creating highly popular devices, comes the responsibility to ensure and maintain safety on all levels before launching the product onto the market. Manufacturers and vendors make up the second category. Devices that are able to produce any hazardous situation, by exposing radiation or being made up out of dangerous parts or materials, are inevitably connected to the moral issue of launching the product on the market in the first place. If safe use of these products relies on human action or software, which in most cases could not be seen as error-proof at all, the vendor and manufacturer could be held responsible. Most recently, cases of iPods that have caught alight due to overheated lithium ion batteries, illustrate how even these small entertainment systems potentially form a threat.

The last category noted by Jacky (1995) is responsibility of the users and customers. By purchasing a mobile device, for example, one must keep in mind that safety in the direct environment takes priority over whatever occurs within the virtuality of the device. Furthermore, consumers should always educate themselves on the ways the product might bring danger into being. In general, news agencies are on top of any negativity that digital gadgets could produce, and consumers’ associations fight for consumers’ rights to safe and reliable goods. The following case study will look at how immersion in a virtual environment contributes to harm risks and, of course, how this could be avoided.

Case Study ImmersiOS

I would like to take this opportunity to discuss possible problems that need to be taken into consideration while developing ‘ImmersiOS’ (Groenendijk, 2009). ImmersiOS is a Front End Interface, built to manipulate desktop programs and preferences on any Operating System. Through a Virtual Reality helmet, the user will be controlling the desktop in a virtual room where object directly correspond with their function. For example, reaching out to a telephone will start a program that allows the user to contact their friends and relatives, the guitar will play music once looked at, etc. In this product, one could imagine the immersion to which the user is subjected while using a virtual reality helmet. Earphones will block out all sounds and a view-filling screen provides the interactive imaging. In this stage of development I am considering the dangers that this product could produce if it was actually being used.

Half of the concept’s tendency to enhance immersion is by replacing the view of the physical world around the user with a virtual one. The other half concerns with the aural side of the application. A technique I could use by predicting potential dangerous situations is to focus on similar cases related to the affected sense. Immersion due to audio could be compared with listening to music through noise cancelling earphones, where the hearing sense is stimulated by only one input, namely the one of the music set instead of the outside world. To prevent issues, Computer Science professor Nancy Leveson (1991), notes that system safety should be defined in terms of hazards rather than accidents or disasters (in Kling, 1995). With this, she makes the key point that the first dangers are the possibility of hazardous occurrences, followed by the actual accidents or disasters.

The way Leveson (1991) tries to distinguish direct dangers from indirect dangers is one that is applicable in many fields of computer technology, including this one of interface design for immersive digital media. Direct dangers are in the case of ImmersiOS are; the loss of balance due to disorientation, seizures in photosensitive people, hearing damage through high audio volumes, etc. Indirect dangers could be not being able to hear or see dangers around the Virtual Reality user. Fortunately, senses like smell (fire) or touch (heat) are still unoccupied and therefore free of a state of perilousness.

By considering theories of Leveson (1991) and Bassett (2003), I could apply these to the issues in ImmersiOS. I could manage this by, for example, leaving the aural features out, focussing the user on the visual interface, and keeping the sense of hearing open to warnings from the physical world. On the visual side, an increase of spatial awareness will in most cases result in a decrease of immersion. Think about contracting the field of view of the Virtual Reality screen, and leaving space for the viewer to see the physical world past the screen; an increase in safety, but a decrease in immersion.

Prevention initiatives

Before being launched onto the consumer market, all technological products are being extensively checked for parts that pose a direct danger to their potential user. Also, indirect dangers, raised due to the immersive use of these products, are an important issue increasingly touched upon by manufacturers. Video game company Nintendo, for example, has been using epilepsy warnings on their video game cartridges since the 1980’s, and has, with the introduction of new control and imaging features added several other warnings to the list, including notions varying from repetitive strain to motion sickness. This supports the idea that an increase in technological development causes an inherent increase in various dangers.

Predictions of future problems and prevention methods on the matter can be made once a clear vision of the field in coming times is established or by following current progresses. Monitors get bigger, mobile handheld devices get smaller, and this influences the way they may affect our health. A popular design perspective for computer hardware is the one of ergonomics. Over the last decade this has proven itself to be one of the key focus points in product design, together with aesthetics, and I foresee maintenance of this target. RSI, for many still an arguable phenomenon, is being fought and the prevention thereof is even used in promoting new computer mice or keyboards. To relate this back to my focus on immersive multimedia, could RSI not be seen as a product of user immersion into computer programs and even Internet and video game addiction? In Sat Navs, an increase in the artificial intelligence of these systems makes sure we are warned not to control them while driving, to drive on the assigned side of the road, even to pay attention to speed cameras. Of course, the interesting notion here is how a device that is designed to direct attention, is telling us to direct our gaze away from it. As Bassett notes, “to pay attention is to prioritize: to invest and to disinvest” (Bassett, 2009, 348). We can only hope that users learn to effectively prioritize spaces, and are not being led by the aesthetics or aural attractions laid out by product designers.

In the case of video game addiction to the World of Warcraft video game, the Chinese government has come up with an ingenious way to prevent gamers from playing the game for more than three hours in a row. A journalist of BBC News (2005) explains how the Chinese government put a curb on excessive gaming by diminishing the characters powers and abilities once the time limit was exceeded. Breaks of five hours will be forced upon gamers before they will be able to resume their games. Even though, in my opinion, these software restrictions are inevitably subject to hackers, this can be seen as a serious initiative to prevent video game addiction.

The usage of mobile phone while driving is in many countries bound to laws of traffic safety. Hereby the first step is set, but the effect is still far from the one that usage limitations, as described above, produce. Another approach is being made by the Cellbuster (a product by Cellbusters Inc.). This small device rings an alarm and warns the passing cell phone user to switch their phone off, once a cell phone is activated in the proximity. So called ‘Mobile Phone Jammers’ could be used to block incoming or outgoing signals within the desired space. Translate these initiatives to dangerous environments and we could see phone free (attention rich) highways and busy pedestrian crossings. In the UK, however, the use of Mobile Phone Jammers is illegal, although proposed for use in jails. In other countries, it has been used in theatres, high schools, libraries and churches. Use of these devices in traffic has unfortunately not yet been explored.

Conclusion

It is important for us to acknowledge the potential hazards that are part of these gadgets. As I have pointed out, dangers do exist, but there are many reasons why consumers still choose to use these gadgets in places where our full attention is required. Think about motives like connectivity, entertainment, even fashion as being the justification of our purchase and usage. I do not reject the fact that the moderation in which modern technology supports and improves users’ health surpasses the amount it works against us. Unfortunately, manufacturers will constantly need to inform us about all hazards their product might inflict. In general, many problems are being avoided by the notion of these warnings and we can only hope that effective use hereof is able to ensure our safety. Effective ways do not stop with warning signs, stickers or screens only. Companies are starting to use RSI information videos or demonstrations for office workers and, as described above, time usage limitations on software. On the other hand, immersion in these virtual spaces should not be overly reduced by safety measures, for this could also reduce the experience and value of the product. Designers should therefore design products that are both safe and immersive, which might be seen as quite a challenge.

While being immersed into a virtual place, especially in places like traffic, or other situations where misuse of digital media could jeopardize the safety of others, preventions like these could prove a to be life saving. Using the theory of a distinction between hazards and the actual accidents (Leveson, 1991) is useful and applicable to product design and, as my case study proves, also for immersive software design. By determining these issues in our designs, we will be able to filter out more problems and provide products that ensure safety on many levels. In the field of traffic safety, interesting possibilities still lie with products like the Mobile Phone Jammer, the use of which has potential to see an increase in use, depending on law restrictions. Responsibilities lie, as described by Jacky (1995), not only with the manufacturers, but in my opinion also with our own logical sense of properly using these devices.

References

Bassett, Caroline (2003) ‘How Many movements?’ in The Auditory Culture Reader, Oxford: Berg Publishers.

BBC News (2005) China imposes online gaming curbs, online news article, journalist unknown.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4183340.stm [accessed on 12 December 2009].

Cellbusters Mobile Security Products, http://www.cellbusters.com, [accessed on 7 December 2009].

Chandler, Daniel (1995) Technological or Media Determinism, Online Book,

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/tecdet/ [accessed on 25 December 2009].

Chandler, Daniel (1996) Shaping and Being Shaped, CMC Magazine, 3(2) (February).

Ferdinands, Ben, Documented deaths due to World Of Warcraft, online report, http://www.fibonaccisys.com/WoW_report.php [accessed on 16 December 2009].

Griffiths, Mark, Davies, Mark N.O. (2005) ‘Does Video Game Addiction Exists?’ in the Handbook of Computer Game Studies, edited by Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, London: MIT Press.

Kling, Rob, Dunlop, Charles, and Jacky, Jonathan (1995) Computerization and Controversy, especially part VII, ‘Systems Safety, Normal Accidents and Social Vulnerability’, London: Academic Press.

Leveson, Nancy G. (1991) Software Safety in Embedded Computer Systems, Communications of the AMC, 34(2) (February).

Loftus, G.A., Loftus, E.F. (1983), Mind at play: the psychology of video games, New York: Basic Books.

Groenendijk, Pieter (2009) Interactive Media Practise Project Plan ‘ImmersiOS’, Blog http://pietergroenendijk.wordpress.com/category/digital-media/ [accessed and created on 25 November 2009].

• A map of nationalities, showing only portraits, emphasizing contrasts in race, complexion and facial structure. Possibly I could map the journey in the history of certain migrant groups or nomads. example: Mapping the migration (journey) of African slaves, showing their original dark complexion in Africa, transforming into slighter light coloured throughout history in the U.S.

Human Migration

Skin Colours around the world

• A similar project, but with evolution of the language accents. Particularly that of the British language, diverging to accents in America, Australia, South Africa, Caribbean, etc. (link) (embedding)

Dialects in England

• A backpacker’s tool to help deciding the next city on the trip. Showing popular locations, including weather, job availability, hostel prices, native language, currency and local news. example: You’re next city could be either Amsterdam or Oslo. By clicking on both cities you see that Amsterdam uses the Euro, Oslo doesn’t. So you decide to spend your last Euros in Amsterdam.

Useful links

Timeline embedding in Google Maps
http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2008/08/dipity.html

Change borders, start time, size etc… for your Youtube video
http://code.google.com/intl/nl/apis/youtube/player_parameters.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhawgd0REhA&feature=player_embedded#

Create simple customized Youtube players
http://www.youtube.com/custom_player

Javascript tutorial for Google Maps (in Dutch, so use Google Translator)
http://www.whelp.nl/googlemaps-eigen-markers/

Make your own markers for your map
http://mapki.com/index.php?title=Icon_Image_Sets

Create overlays for Google Maps (photos, colours, even animation (!!) in Google Maps)
http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/software/gmapcreator.asp

Google Earth, for 3D models, timelines, flight simulators, tours, etc…
http://earth.google.co.uk/userguide/v4/ug_toc.html

Social Web

The Social Web is currently used to describe how people socialize or interact with each other throughout the World Wide Web. Such people are brought together through a variety of shared interests. There are different ways in which people want to socialize on the Web today. The first kind of socializing is typified by “people focus” websites such as Bebo, Facebook, and Myspace. Such sites promote the person as focus of social interaction. To do this an online identity (and a profile) is constructed by each user. In many ways the profile is similar to a passport.

Other aspects of Social Web

1] Facebook Activism

2] Performance

3] Facebook and Politics

Knowledge Web

Web 1.0, 2.0 and the Semantic Web

Brain Machine Interface (BMI)

“People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you’ve got an overlay of scalable vector graphics – everything rippling and folding and looking misty — on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource.” Tim Berners-Lee (Inventor of the World Wide Web), 2006

The Feeling Web?

Touchable Holography and the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display

More about Tactile Display (Robert Howe, Harvard University, 2002)

Mood Recognition Technology

Theory

Social Web

If information of all kinds is worked upon by and between machines, humans relationships also change. (Bassett, 2008)

Concept of individualization:

Individuals are freed from the contexts of tradition, history and, under globalization,space, are free to, and perhaps forced to, actively construct their own biographies and social bonds (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002).

Social relationships/ post emotional society:

The Transformation of Intimacy

A society in which emotion, and more properly the obvious and overt display of emotion, exists as a resource to be manipulated in the effort of self presentation.

He argues that emotion is increasingly detached from genuine moral commitment and/or from meaningful social action. (Mestrovic 1997)

Blogging, for the most part, is based on the notion that information is a commodity that is used to build and maintain relationships. In personal journal blogs, it is personal information, created through relationships of mutual self-disclosure, which attains a commodified status. Social relations become primarily ‘informational’, not ‘narrative’ (Wittel, 2001: 66).

Database Culture

One of the most powerful causes of a rise in database culture is obvious: a plethora of information brought about not only by the Web, but the parallel process of the convergence of all media to digital format. (Lev Manovich, 2001)

Phatic exchange is a term used to describe a communicative gesture that does not inform or exchange any meaningful information or facts about the world. Its purpose is a social one, to express sociability and maintain connections or bonds (Malinowski, 1923: 315)

Knowledge Web

The history of medium technologies is recursive so that the same issues are taken up ‘again and again at regular intervals’ although ‘with different connotations or results’. (Kittler in Armitage, 2006)

In her article ‘Fragmented Future’, Darcy DiNucci argues that Web 1.0 as we know it, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfulls, as being the embryo of the web ‘versions’ to come. The first signs of a Web 2.0 culture are beginning to appear and the embryo is beginning to develop. The Web was going to be understood not as screenfulls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens.

According to a Wikipedia article, the semantic web can be defined as ‘a vision of information that is understandable by computers, so that they can perform more of the tedious work involved in finding, sharing and combining information on the web.
Applying meaning to information from different sources is called data-meshing. So the Semantic Web is a mesh of information / knowledge, linked up in such a way as to be easily processable by machines, on a global scale.

Example 1: Wikipedia, one of the most ubiquitous ‘wikis‘ around. It can be hared, edited and accessed by anyone.

If such a web is successfully created, productivity of our informational and laborious leisure will increase, and we will practically be served by ‘digital butlers‘ (Bassett, 2008). Basically, each time we tag or make a link, we are teaching the machine.

As with the example of the Pivo 2 car robot, intelligent forms of information display are even used to strengthen a relationship between the user and these ‘digital butlers’ (Bassett, 2008).

Feeling Web?

“If a prevalent version of web 3.0 is realized, the semantic web will understand its own content – or will at least be able to compute it.” (Bassett, 2008)

The commanding robot called Gerty in ‘Moon’ (2009)

Miko Coffey argues that today, we’re starting to understand that the smart machines won’t look like robots, and that the artificial intelligence won’t be hard-wired into a self-contained unit. She mentions how the Internet is the smart, fast learning machine. (2007)

Stelarc

Questions

• Can you think of more issues in medium technologies that seem to return regularly? (Kittles)
• Can these developments of these technologies pose new dangers or problems, perhaps from the perspective of surveillance or identity?

1. The emergence of individualism
2. Virtual communities
3. Internet as a place of expression
4. Self-branding (on social networks, the job market and as a spectacle)
5. Identity in Surveillance
6. Case Study – Big Brother
7. Michel Foucault
8. Final Questions

Individualism

Pre-individualism, before the age of computerization

• Repetitive labour, usually 1 or 2 jobs in a lifetime
• Rigid gender roles
• No varying environments
• A world in the grip of Fordism (mass consumption)

Individualism

• Users and consumers adapt easily to new environments
• New gender roles
• New career directions
• Emergence of a desire to express one’s individuality

This transformation in adaptability seems healthier
(Like an immune system, only healthy if adaptable)

Virtual Communities

In Britain, more than 90% of 18-24 year old survey respondents use social networking sites. 39.6% of respondents over 55 engage in some form of online social networking. (Ciao Surveys, 2008)

“It’s a chance for all of us who aren’t actors to play [with] masks.”
‘WELL’ discussion group about online personae

True Identity: Ones identity emerges from whom one knows, one’s associations and connections.

Sherry Turkle observes; It is potentially most liberating to become acquainted with our dark side. (The Pirate Bay comments)
With many selves, this multiplicity is not viable if it means shifting among personalities that cannot communicate. This multiplicity creates fragmented selves.

Kenneth J. Gergen (American psychologist) argues that these online representations create a ‘saturated self’ or a breakdown of identity. Many details are added and left out. Multiple online identities can NOT be called multiple personalities, because all these different parts, split-offs, of the self are disconnected fragments, not full personalities.

Online Representation: Justifiable?

Internet as a place of expression

Can virtuality be seen as a prison? For some people, the internet can be used a place for healing and romance, like dating websites. It could be helpful in reaching certain goals.

The cyborg (where human and machine are one) has become a post-modern myth. Some create some sense of believe in it, for example where gamers are totally immersed in the game. People can get lost in virtual worlds. (WoW)

Also in the case of ‘Surrogates’, we see a diminished nature of the ‘real’ in a culture of simulation. In online communities, the possibility of creating multiple identities goes against any real and unitary self. Users are still bound to desires, pain, and mortality of their physical selves.

Self-Branding

On social networks: we can see a blurring of the distinction between private self and instrumental associative object.

On the job market: creating a detachable, saleable image or narrative.  The branded self is like a commodity for sale in the labour market. It needs to have its own promotional skin, within the confines of the dominant corporate imaginary.  Self-promotion is not new, like personal advertisements in newspapers.

‘everybody’s got something, and that something needs virtual representation’. (Halpern, 2006)

For many professionals count that they must remain in control of their message at all times, even in private. The brand is not ‘you’, it’s the public projection of your personality and abilities.

‘When you’re promoting brand YOU, everything you do – and everything you choose not to do – communicates the value and character of your brand’ (Tom Peters, 1997, The brand called you)

As a spectacle, it shows a means to achieve a branded persona

• Some TV shows instruct how to manage the demands of fame and effectively perform one’s own celebrity brand, like America’s Top Model or X-Factor.
• Attention gets sold to advertisers, through for example party picture websites. The lines between the company, the advertisers and the individuals are blurred, as they are all linked together in one promotional package (the website).
• Successful branding  is being used in a imaginative popularity contest, to accumulate the highest amount of friends. See these as commodity-signs to be collected and consumed in the social marketplace.

Identity in Surveillance

Popular entertainment, such as reality TV, has helped to propagate the idea that online self-disclosure democratizes fame, and equates surveillance with self-expression. Mark Andrejevic states,

“This equation is crucial to the rationalization of consumer labor anticipated by the architects of an online economy that relies on upon surveillance, not only as a means for anticipating and customizing consumer demand, but for adding value to products and creating new ones.” (Andrejevic, 2002, p.253).

Andrejevic notes that electronic commerce allows for mass customization, where individuals can overcome the homogeneity of mass culture. However, he claims that this allows producers to meet consumers’ needs, “consumer control boils down to the ability to have preferences monitored in detail” (Andrejevic, 2002, p.256). For web sites that rely on user-generated content (Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Blogger, various mash-ups), users provide content, which adds value to the site, and is repackaged by companies collecting user information before being sold back to them. Those opposed to some of the new ad systems are already working on ways to route around social networking advertising schemes. However, these efforts will have limited effect on the profitability of consumer labor, or the acclimatization of surveillance in western culture.

Case Study – Big Brother

Big Brother

Part of the Big Brother franchise was first developed in The Netherlands and is currently the second longest running series in the franchise.

The show appeals to so many people because it breaks down the wall dividing the private and public worlds. Our culture separates the two, bringing private life into the public sector.

Audience in relationship with Big Brother
-The show hands an intriguing idea to viewers
-People essentially discover “themselves” through watching the show
-Could the audience be seen just as “normal” like the people on the show?
-Are their everyday habits like the characters’ they watch on TV?

Big Brother has been able to reach televisions around the world due to its emphasis on the real.

Big brother and surveillance TV programs are training for power and System to nurture citizens as they wish as they reproduce their power, even to let people reproduce capitalism in their life.

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault states that in the modern era we are all under surveillance, even if we are unaware.

Michel Foucault

Foucault challenges the commonly accepted idea that the prison became the consistent form of punishment due to humanitarian concerns of reformists, although he does not deny those. He does so by meticulously tracing out the shifts in culture that led to the prison’s dominance, focusing on the body and questions of power. Prison is a form used by the “disciplines”, a new technological power, which can also be found, according to Foucault, in schools, hospitals, military barracks, etc. The main ideas of his book Discipline and Punish (1975, Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la Prison) can be grouped according to its four parts: torture, punishment, discipline and prison.

Final questions

• Could acts of misrepresentation be successful in our contemporary promotional culture?
• Do you agree that the internet and its online identities can be used as a medium between the user and their real life targets? (For example in dating, learning or healing.)
• How does surveillance society effect the way we see our own identities?
• Is it true that we claim that we are living in a democratic / modern era even if we are under surveillance by the System (Habermas) and it’s power?

]]> http://pietergroenendijk.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/online-representation-of-the-self/feed/ 0 pietergroenendijk cartoon personalbranding bigbrother foucault08 http://pietergroenendijk.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/interactive-media-practice-project-plan/ http://pietergroenendijk.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/interactive-media-practice-project-plan/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:28:21 +0000 pietergroenendijk http://pietergroenendijk.wordpress.com/?p=11 ]]> 360° VR OS Front End Interface “Immersi-OS”

Illustration: Kerry Roper

Excerpt

“When data of any sort are placed in storage, they are filed alphabetically or numerically, and information is found (when it is) by tracing it down from subclass to subclass. It can be in only one place, unless duplicates are used; one has to have rules as to which path will locate it, and the rules are cumbersome. Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path. The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain.” Vannevar Bush, As we may think, 1945

Critical Introduction

As Bush described in the excerpt above, the human mind does not organises or orders information like as done with files or, translated to nowadays, computers. There I shall to explore this theory and visualize it by creating an interface in where the computer is structured like and behaves as its user would do. I will be creating a new form of Front End Interface for any Operating System. Instead of windows, layers and icons, the user will be immersed in a virtual room where objects correlate with programs and preferences. For example;

• Click on the window and you could lower the shades to change the environment brightness.
• Click on the guitar to start your music
• Click on the cell phone to call your contacts.

Interface Example

In my demonstration version, this environment will be photographed in HDR to ensure optimal image exposure and quality and made into a panorama for total immersion. Relevant sounds or music will also be heard. Every object will link to a video / simulation of this object being used. This Front End Interface contains a user-friendly interface and will, thank to the natural user interface, not need an enclosed manual.

Chart of Interactivity

What are the advantages of  this product?

• Direct navigation to the required file, no folders or subfolders
• Total immersion, created to match real life
• Interchangeable skins, from an office to exotic locations to Virtual 3D modelled environments
• High entertainment value

Theory basis; articles, books and other media:

• Alexander R Galloway: Protocol – How Control Exists after Decentralization, this book mentions important rules of continuity and certain Operating Systems
• Vannevar Bush: As we May Think. “the mind operates by association”
• Jean Baudrillard (website), for his concepts related to hyperreality and simulation
• Martin Lister: New Media – A Critical Introduction, for his analysis on Virtuality and Cyberspace
• Ted Nelson’s ‘Zig Zag structure’ theory, for respresenting irregularities like they exist in information, also multidimensionality (video)
• Sharp, Rogers and Preece – Interaction Design, for a detailed description of design implementation
• Hardwired – contemporary Hollywood blockbuster starring Cuba Gooding Jr. about how his brain is being hacked into and is being sent messages, maps and video streams

Technologies used in this project:

• HDR Photography for creating clear and futuristic image
  

  HDR Photography

• QTVR (Quicktime Virtual Reality) 360° Panorama Player (qtvr)
• Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 for photo stitching, basic interaction and exporting to QTVR (company website)
  OR
  Adobe Flash with Papervision 3D, Flash Panorama Player or KrPano for extensive interaction
• Adobe Dreamweaver with HTML and CSS coding for additional interactivity, audio and embedding
  If necessary, I will also use Javascript and / or XML coding.
• Adobe Illustrator for logo design and additional branding
• Adobe Flash for logo animation
• Final Cut Pro for introduction and action videos
• Nikon D80 photo camera with panoramic head and tripod
• Sony HDV video camera or other with fisheye lens

Possible additional technologies for increased reality:

• VR glasses for total visual and auditory immersion
• RealD 3D technology for depth view imaging (company)
• Data sensor gloves combined with gesture recognition for interaction
• Full future environments might be filmed or animated for a greater experience, once this technology is created (360° video)
• Future 3D modelled, animated or filmed environments might create a space in which the user is able to walk around. Use of the Cyberwalk Omni-Directional Treadmill (mov) is a possibility for spatial immersion

Order of project tasks:

1. Read related theory and note key findings
2. Complete planning, including flowcharts and sketches
3. Photograph 360° panorama and object details
4. Record interactive actions on video
5. Stitch photos into a panorama
6. Create logos and program simulations
7. Implement interactivity
8. Test and debug entire project, author DVD
9. Write supported texts
10. Deliver project before deadline