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• 1 media/images.jpeg 2017-11-28T07:01:22-08:00 Cyborgs in a Multi-user Virtual Environment 14 plain 556262 2017-12-15T08:13:22-08:00

  The type of cyborg that the users of multi-user virtual environments resemble is best defined by using the definition provided in Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” as she describes the cyborg as, “...a creature who lives in both ‘social reality’ and ‘fiction’ and who performs and speaks in a ‘middle voice’ that is forged in the amalgam of technology and biology…” (Haraway, 291). Meaning, the cyborg can be defined as something on the threshold between something organically made, a physical human body for example, and something virtual. This “middle voice” that Haraway discusses is the interaction that this cyborg being has both in the physical world and the virtual world, or the public and the private sphere. This definition of the cyborg and their actions within this combination between actual and virtual can be directly applied to the users of social media who may not claim their real world identity in a MUVE and instead use a different identity. Like the cyborg, the individual is comprised of the human body, which is the real world identity, and also comprised of the virtual component, or their online interactions and identity as seen by the social media. The social reality being discussed in the quote also lends itself to a reading of being a public sphere, meaning, then,  that the fictional aspect in discussion is the private sphere. While understood that social media is a public sphere that remains partially grounded in the private sphere, a user would also take on these attributes, both comprised of physical and virtual, and existing in both the private and public spheres. The user that acquired a name, gender, physical characteristics, or species, whether through avatar form or through profile images, other than their physical real world identity is existing in both the social reality and the fictional reality they have created for themselves.
   

  The reasoning for altering one’s identity virtually may be done for a variety of reasons including, entertainment, realization of fantasy, or exploration of who or what their “true self” is comprised of. This private sphere proves to be a widely used outlet for this type of exploration because of the lack of actual real life consequences. This idea is noted in “Becoming Dragon,” “While experimenting… in MUVE, one is free of the social consequences and physical dangers of such experimentation in one’s daily life” (Cardenas). In addition, Cardenas argues that when an individual is given the  opportunity to explore this new identity in a virtual public sphere it may give them further confidence to begin to show this identity in a real world public sphere as well. “By gauging the social reactions of other users of the MUVE, one can get a small taste or idea of the social possibilities in the physical world” (Cardenas). That is, an individual may feel more readily prepared or motivated to reveal their true identity after it has been lived out in a virtual manner because of the fact that the virtual world still operates in the physical world, as it deals with actual, in real life, human users. By measuring the response through a virtual lense the user is able to prepare oneself for the real world reveal if they should choose to go ahead with it. This relates to the idea of a spectrum of interactions between the two spheres. The user who took to social media and created a virtual identity without disclosing any information on their physical identity existed mainly on the solely virtual side of the spectrum, however, when they make the choice to integrate their virtual and physical identities together they move further up on the spectrum towards the physical identity and public sphere.