New Words for New Worlds

I was (very generously) invited to attend Yale Anthropology’s conference on Mixed Realities: Ethnographic Approaches to the Virtual.

As the only “corporate” at the workshop (non-PhD), it was endlessly fascinating to hear academia’s approach to our cultural grey: the space in-between the digital and physical.

And in that sentence laid the most interesting, buried insight to the entire gathering of the world’s leading anthropologists and sociologists:

Our mere struggle with expression.

We are rigorously articulating something that does not exist, yet does: the digital.

There is no such thing as “online vs. real life”... all life is real. And there is no “virtual reality.” All experienced reality is real. It’s called the Digital Dualism Fallacy.

We know very well that actions online have offline consequences, and away from keyboard experiences inform our online action.

There is no divide...

But then how do we effectively distinguish our experiences mediated through emerging, foreign technologies?

Here lies the mess.

Over the two days of the conference I began to note (and draft a taxonomy) of our inconsistent vocabulary describing our confusing, blurry moment.

All the words below are related within the category — and each bullet has it’s own theme of similarity

Recipients

• Audience vs. Following vs. Community

• Network vs. Masses

• Internal vs. External

• Private vs. Public

• Open vs. Closed

• Friend vs. Follower vs. Connection vs. Receiver

• Peer-to-Peer vs. One-to-Many

Identities

• Self vs. Avatar vs. User

• Character vs. Actor vs. Mask

• Person vs. Body vs. Human vs. Meta-Human

• Influencer vs. Creator vs. Artist vs. Virtual Influencer

• Node vs. ID

• Name vs. Account vs. Real Name vs. Handle vs. Username

• Troll vs. Bot vs. Army vs. Mob

Actions

• Mediate vs. Express vs. Reflect

• Communicate vs. Voice

• Engage vs. Participate vs. Interact

• Broadcast vs. Stream vs. Transmit

• Post vs. Publish vs. Share vs. Send vs. Text vs. Message

• Perform vs. Positon vs. Posture vs. Act

• Visit vs. Enter vs. Browse vs. Scroll vs. Navigate

• Download vs. Upload

• Click vs. Tap

• Add vs. Follow vs. Connect

Materials

• Post vs. Content

• Tweet vs. Update vs. Status

• Text vs. Chat vs. DM vs. Message

• Meme vs. Lore

• Info vs. Data vs. Media

• Image vs. Picture vs. Screenshot

• Video vs. Stream vs. Movie vs. Show vs. Episode vs. Series

• Song vs. Stream

• File vs. Folder

• Download vs. Upload

Temporal

• Presence vs. Present vs. Past

• Live vs. Real-Time vs. Near-Real-Time

• Archive vs. Permanent vs. Ephemeral

Spatial

• Space vs. Environment

• Channel vs. Platform vs. Medium vs. Screen

• Feed vs. Timeline vs. Homepage

• Network vs. Global Village vs. World

• Internet vs. Browser vs. Web vs. Cyberspace vs. Internet

• Page vs. Address vs. Site vs. Tab

• Metaverse vs. Multiverse

• Game vs. Market vs. Town Square

Divide

• Digital Reality vs. Reality

• Real Life vs. Real World vs. Meat Space vs. Away From Keyboard

• Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality vs. Mixed Reality

• Real vs. Fake vs. Genuine vs. Simulate vs. Actual

• Technological vs. Analog vs. Alternative

• Remote vs. Here

• Online vs. Offline

• Blur vs. Immerse vs. Intersect vs. Bridge vs. Switch

...A robust list, yet still incomplete.

“Mixed Reality” is often interpreted as a technological mix — a reality obstructed, or divided by hardware and software. Something physical. Sensory.

However, I’m more interested in our ideological mixed reality. One where we — emotionally, mentally — are not on the same page.

We each experience reality differently from one another.

And in this interpretation, language plays a critical role.

On one hand: One can review all of these words and conclude: we’re set. We’ve got plenty of metaphors, abstractions and descriptions to communicate what we’re experiencing here.

But on the other — and where I’m left thinking — maybe we have so many words because we don’t have the right ones.

Maybe we’re left with so many interchangeable phrases to describe “online” because we struggle to define new experience with antiquated terms.

We’re grasping for language to describe a phenomena which did not exist until very, very recently. The words did not, and do not exist.

Maybe what we need are new words for new worlds.

So... Let’s make up a new word and see if it fits or sticks.

We already have so many.

Another won’t hurt.