Yves MakhoulHome - Blurring the Public and Private spheres of society
December 12th 2008 03:11
Is this a screen shot of a new society?
Home has just been unleashed on the masses. This is news for the gaming industry, but what does it mean for the world? Let’s look at this from a social sciences perspective.
Joshua Meyrowitz contended in 1985 that the adoption of new media seems to involve a shifting or blurring of the boundaries of public and private. Rather than a blurring of lines occurring between these two sectors, there is evidence to show that what was once private is becoming public and what was once public is transforming itself to the private realm. Therefore, a shift rather than a blurring appears to be taking place in our society and Home is one major component on the verge (once all the bugs are fixed) of possibly playing a role in that blurring – if Sony gets it right.
A concept that was introduced by Jürgen Habermas was the Public Sphere . This notion involved the idea that there is a public space which is able to mediate between society and state. It is a concept that has been brought about by democracy – the power of public opinion to sway leadership positions. Public opinion could be shared firstly on the streets, followed by newspapers, on the radio and then television . Most notable in recent years is the further development of the public sphere due to the introduction of the Internet. The Internet’s power in the public sphere is sometimes feared by governments as it can be used as an incredibly persuasive political tool – the Chinese government has banned hundreds of websites from its citizens for this very reason – with humour, The Age reports “the great firewall of China” as the Chinese government’s solution to keeping its citizens ignorant to the outside world and also reports Iran banning more than 10,000 websites due to “immorality”, with the threat of jailing journalists and bloggers who disagree with the ruling elite . For the governments of the world to be so aggressively involved (and concerned) over the Internet as a public force, its influence on today’s public sphere must be extremely high.
However, this is not so much a blurring of public and private spaces, but more of a shift. Politically, what was once discussed between friends, once organized at various universities or even recruited on the streets can now all be done with the power of the Internet. Democratic discussions can now take place between the non-elite population, sharing of information and opinions no longer has to be dependent on the leaders of a nation as it is incredibly easy to exercise one’s opinion and gather a group of followers using the Internet as a tool – therefore it has made it easier to bring about social change .
An extremely popular cultural commodity of late is the iPod MP3 music player. It is the most popular music player in the world and many are unable to understand the reason for its leading place in the market. When Apple introduced video playback to its iPod range they managed to sell a million Video-iPod units within 20 days – those things aren’t cheap. Apple profits further by selling single pieces of music, video clips and full movies and television shows for a per download price on its iTunes music store. Needless to say, the device and service are extremely popular. The iPod has distinctly set itself up for the future now with the Touch and iPhone lines. It is a great example that shows the shift between public and private spaces, as it promotes the listening of music and watching of video in solitude. It has been banned from a Sydney based school for this very reason. According to International Grammar School principal, Kerrie Murphy, it creates “social isolation”. She was adamant that society as a whole should be extremely concerned that “people [are] not tuning into other people because they're tuned into themselves” . There is the idea that music was once a very social form of entertainment, bringing people together from all walks of life , now with technologies like the iPod music is transformed into a very personal hobby. The iPod is one in a long list of products/services that aim to “isolate” individuals from the rest of the REAL world.
Although the iPod/iPhone is culturally changing western nations in its own way around the globe, there is a belief that a personal relationship with the device is created with each individual. Each person’s music collection is unmatched by others, for instance. Markus Giesler, an assistant professor of marketing at York University in Toronto has researched devices such as the iPod extensively. He believes the iPod is part of a new wave of ‘cyborg’ humans who extend their ‘selves’ using the latest technological advancements . The iPod no longer exists as just an MP3 player. It becomes an extension of a person’s memory that is able to store the soundtrack of a whole lifetime. The device becomes a special component to one’s life through time, like photo albums, and home-video tapes from the past, the iPod has allowed for the storing of memories. One’s iPod can truly become the memoirs of one’s life.
Pierre Bourdieu once stated that “Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier” . This idea can be utilised to describe a person’s tastes in many things. If we are to go by various Bourdieu theories then we could ask whether the type of programs people watch classifies them into a group, and whether this classification somehow degrades their status simply because they are being segregated into the lower class norm (by giving into a formula) . Many would argue that popular shows such as Big Brother or American Idol exploit people for the sake of entertainment. However, the reason for such show’s popularity might stem from a desire to watch what was for so long deemed very private. People taking a shower naked, partaking in very personal conversations and conducting themselves in extremely compromising situations on television shows, only became a popular form of entertainment recently.
Perhaps the reason they became so popular stems from the fact that these were seen as very private matters in the past. The actuality that so many television viewers have taken a liking to this display of entertainment further supports the idea that a shift in what was considered private and public has occurred. Antonio Gramsci used the term Hegemony to describe the dominance of an elite class over another . It is a term used to describe the ability of the elite class to influence the non-elites by making them feel that their (the elite’s) way of seeing the world is the right way – eventually ingraining it into the collective subordinate psyche that such notions are ‘common sense’ or the ‘natural’ way of things . One of the ways in which the elite develop these notions is through the freedom of what the non-elites can and cannot consume, with or without their knowledge. We can see now that the elite do not approve of such shows and many politicians are rallying to ban them for the sake of society . It will be interesting to see what comes of this opposition, considering the mainstream public has embraced the shift in spaces. Perhaps it has already been solidified in our society that this shift is inevitable, or alternatively Gramsci’s theory will hold true and the elite will force their views as the ‘natural’ ways of things.
According to the UN “Sport can… help build a culture of peace and tolerance by bringing people together… to promote understanding and mutual respect” . Sports and games have been used in schools throughout the world (including Third World nations) to develop bonds and assist in social skills. A new sort of gaming has arisen in the last three decades. The reason we’re all reading this: video games. Video games began as arcade machine during the 1970s before making their way into our living rooms throughout the 1980s. What used to be an area only consumed by a minority has now fixated itself into the psyche of western culture. Sales in the US reached a record $10 billion in 2003 and was matched in 2004 – this revenue now exceeds the film industry and the video game industry is seen as one of the few that will completely bypass our ongoing economic climate and a possible oncoming recession. Roger Koppl in his essay: Man has fallen and he can’t get up: an essay on Postmodernism and Advertising states that in today’s commercial society “advertisements offer us many false temptations” before describing our drive to live other lives through the consumption of products . Home taps into this idea directly, more on that later.
However if we take this idea into consideration for gaming as a whole, we can theorise that perhaps many people’s love of video gaming stems from the fact that their imaginations are piqued by entering into another world – the feeling of entering another dimension in the comfort of one’s own home. For example, an advertisement for a Legend of Zelda video game that has recently been released may build the desire to enter the Zelda world, explore it, fight for peace, take in the deep story and basically engross oneself in the experience of an adventure. Realistically, a person living in our society cannot become a hero with an assortment of weapons on horseback single handedly saving the world from impending doom, but the video game allows them to make it happen. However, this form of game-play is once again very private. Adventure games which can span up to 60 hours of game time are usually played in solitude, as there is not the option for a second player to join. This once again has caused a shift in society because of new media.
Playing a game was once a very public and social hobby, but has transformed. Game developers have created various Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMMRPG), which are played online via a broadband Internet connection. It is essentially another world people can lose themselves in while playing with other real people (with made up characters) Online. This scenario creates a virtual community within a video game with people befriending others from all around the world without ever having met the real face behind the made up characters. Forums associated with such games include many stories describing events such as conventions, which are held in various cities where people get to actually meet the users they have been interacting with in the cyber world (sometimes for years). This further signifies the shift in the way people play games in our society today. New technology may not have wiped out the old ways of playing games, but it has broadened the range of ways to do so and in effect paved the way for the future, which may in fact be dominated by this way of interacting with one another .
This brings us to Home. It’s an accumulation of all these new facets. Within home, there will be ads for various products (games, films, clothing lines etc.). Our consumer society will be tapped into buying products and services not only in the real world, but in this newly crafted virtual world. Like an MMMRPG it will allow for communication between people from around the world via text and voice. It’ll allow the player to create his or her own avatar, that may or may not look like the player. The player may play themselves, or they may decide to play a completely imagined virtual individual. It’s socializing for a new generation. Like Facebook and Myspace, it begins to blur the line between private and public spheres. In fact, it may do it even more so. Sony allows you to create your own living space, a virtual home with the virtual world. Other people from around the world can visit and chat. They may even bring with them gifts to decorate your house with. It may sound crazy, but this is all happening right now.
There is much evidence to conclude that the line between public and private spaces is blurring, but there is also as much evidence to show that it is simply shifting. As attitudes and culture with a society change, so too does the way in which we entertain ourselves, interact with each other and participate in various activities. Many factors go to influence such changes and I believe with the onset of home (and other virtual worlds being created now and in the future) a significant factor – supporting Meyrowitz theory – is new media and technology. We can run away from it all we like, but by the looks of things, this new type of interactivity could quite possibly be a new social sphere in which Generation Y’s social life takes place.
Refrences:
Louw, Eric. The Media and Cultural Production, (SAGE Publications: London, 2001) p93.
History Archive, “A History of the Revolutionary Working Class” , January 2004 (01/11/05), Really Long Link
Berg, Chris.“The Net is anarchy: keep it that way”, The Age. 24 October, 2005 (02/11/05) Available: Really Long Link
Warschauer, Mark. "Does the Internet Bring Freedom?", February 2000 (03/11/05), Really Long Link
Doherty, Linda and Baker, Jordan. “No more songs in their pockets: school bans iPods”, Sunday Morning Herald Online. 22 March, 2005 (01/11/05) Really Long Link
Mazalek, Ali. "Interacting with Music in a Social Setting", June 1997 (04/11/05), Really Long Link music social gathering&hl=en&client=safari.
Kahney, Leander. "My iPod, My Self", 28 January, 2005 (04/11/05), Really Long Link
Soong, Roland. “Distinction: Television Program Choice by Social Class”, Zoo Latina. 23 May, 2001 (01/11/05), Really Long Link
Chandler, Daniel. “Marxist Media Theory: Gramsci and hegemony”, Aber.com. 10 April, 2000 (31/10/05), Really Long Link
Koutsoukis, Jason. "Push to ban 'offensive' TV shows", 17 August, 2005 (05/11/05), Really Long Link
United Nations. "What does sport have to do with the UN? ", January 2005 (04/11/05) Really Long Link
Richtel, Matt. “Video Game Industry Sales Reach Record Pace in 2004”, The New York Times. 19 January, 2005 (01/11/05) Really Long Link
Cross, Mary. Advertising and Culture, (Praeger, London, 1996), p82.
Castells, Manuel. The Rise Of The Network Society. (Blackwell Publishers: Oxford, 2000), p92.
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