The Economic, Social and the technological trend has been termed as the Information or the Informational Revolution. The Information Technology revolution has definitely changed the culture of the societies. The Information Age itself is a subject that can be studied deeply. The way communication is made or the process of communication itself whether it is interpersonal or mass communication has changed from its original form. This is an era where the Industrial Revolution has passed on its glory to the Information Age. Information itself is a resource existing outside the circle of a cultural and a social context. Today, information is available anywhere, anytime in a fraction of seconds depending on the device that one uses. Initially, people had to wait for newspapers each day, the only source for mass information. Then along came the radio which provided an audio element. Along came the television which was considered as the best source of information provider as it had both the audio and the visual element. Events happening far away could be broadcasted to every corner of the world. The internet was the next thing which brought along unimaginable change to the world of news broadcast. The so called new media which also includes the mobile phones has made it possible to acquire and at the same time access information on the go. There are various applications that exist today downloadable to the mobile device. Social networking sites can be accessed through mobile phones. Music can be downloaded directly and one can even watch news or television programmes on mobile phones. Thus it is quite obvious that the convergence of information is at its best.

The information and communication technology is at its peak now. The field of communication that involve transfer and sharing of digital signals in the form of electronic data transmission such as text, image, voice, data etc is perhaps doubling every year. There is a digital convergence in the so called global village where information is easily accessible and transferable. Today there are millions of terminals around the world, be it home, offices, educational institutions, medical organisations and much more which can share information across the globe from anywhere and at anytime. There is significance in how ‘place’ and ‘space’ is thought of. Terms like ‘virtual communities’ or ‘cyberspace’ are used to describe computer mediated spaces. It is thus made possible for individuals or users to interact within a suitable platform through means of emails, online forums or bulletin board systems, chat rooms and in other ways. (Bell, Loader, Pleace, Schuler, 2004). The information culture is indeed outdating and replacing existing media devices with new ones constantly. Telephones, Video tapes, Walkmans, Desktop Computers are now replaced with mobile phones, Blu Ray Discs, i pods, Laptop note books respectively.

Today in this real world, there are various people who are fond of entering a virtual world where they have the possibility of creating an environment for themselves and also the capability of personalising their own surroundings. They live as binary digits in the virtual world in the form of an avatar. But reality is well differentiated from the virtual world. As Pauwels (2005) points out: “Virtual” too often seems to imply “imaginary” or “fake”. Surely all mediated interactions are “constructed” in a very literal sense, but then our whole conception of society is a series of constructs’. Virtual Reality itself is an Information Technology device that is used to reconstruct elements such as images, visuals and sounds from the real world. These elements can stimulate or provoke the senses and the whole set up can be used for learning and experimental purposes. Virtual Reality indeed is an imaginary world where the user can escape momentarily from the real world and step into a different one and depending on the kind of set up the user enters, access it as a tool for knowledge, entertainment, creation and many other purposes.

The whole concept of virtual reality was put to use when the necessity of creating a copy of reality arose. And one of the first techniques used were the flight simulators which put various users to test a real time situation. The U.S Army in this way trained various pilots during the World War II by setting up a cockpit on a platform and the user was given a joystick which when moved tilted the whole platform accordingly. Later on high quality moving visuals were then displayed on the cockpit screen were the camera movements were kept in sync with the action of the pilot. It was the computer technology that was solely responsible for uniting the various components of the simulator. The Simnet Project, a military based venture created tank simulators and there by trained soldiers to wage virtual wars. The objective was not to learn how to drive a tank but to empower oneself with combat techniques on a rough battlefield. Thanks to The Pentagon, a detailed database on every square meter of Iraq’s terrain was reproduced virtually and thus used in a simulation for training purposes. Apart from Military or Defence, the simulators have been used for commercial purposes too. Various aviation institutes train budding pilots in simulators in the virtual reality mode so that when the user is ready to take on a real plane, he or she gets the notion of flying in full confidence and is unable to differentiate from the virtual training received to that of flying a real plane. Thus the experience gained in the simulator turns out to be more effective than flying sky high (Flichy, 2007).

When a user enters the virtual world, not a new body but a virtual body is created. In a virtual space, the body is not similar to what exists in the real world. The virtual body can always be modified or disposed. Identity can be created and exposed but most probably it will not match the original personality of the defined user. One can get detached from the physical self and the real world. The fantasy of leaving one’s body and finally being reincarnated in a computer network or as a robot for the sake of achieving immortality is present in the ideas of engineers such as Moravec or Vigne – for whom scientific activity is much the same thing as forecasting or writing science fiction (Flichy 2007). But one thing to be noticed here is that in the virtual world there are always end users. It is not a man to machine communication but the machine which acts as a medium for man to man communication in a virtual world. Internet Relay Chats are available on the internet where two users can converse logically knowing the purpose of communication as well as the original personality of the communicator. In contrast to this, there are completely illogical setups that exist in the binary world that enable communication with an unknown user or an avatar and involve in various ‘virtual social interaction’.

Rheingold elaborates the description of cybersex in his book ‘Virtual Reality’. He says it could be an individual user on one end who wears a tight body suit tailored with sensors that can transmit and at the same time receive tactile sensations. The whole system is then set up and linked with the internet where another partner can gain access to a multi-sensorial representation of the body. The physical bodies may be far, but the senses can be kept intact. It cannot be compared to real sex but Rheingold believes that it requires no commitment to a partner in a relationship. Virtual lovers do not have the necessity to build a relationship. In contrast to this, Cyber tourism is another milestone in Virtual Reality where a cyber tourist can actually sit at home and visit a tourist destination, walk around, experience and see sceneries.  But this still lacks the enthusiasm of visiting a real place in a physical body that can breathe, feel and also witness fatigue due to travel.

Computer-user interface elimination is a needed condition for virtual reality immersion. The user nurtures the computer. He or she is part of the data. Interaction thus takes place in the virtual world, through simulations which contain some aspects of the real world to a great extent (Winn, 1993). It is quite well understood that the virtual experience can never replace the real one, because there are limits to virtual reality no matter how sophisticated it may be. In the real world, experience will be different because there is no reconstruction and the mind of the person is firmly accustomed to accept the reality factor that there is no second chance.

Virtual reality promises to transform knowledge and experience and to turn education and training into tools that are much more direct and effective than nowadays (Psotka, 1996b). In the James Cameron movie ‘Avatar’, scientists create some kind of a human-alien hybrid bodies called avatars that function through a mental link created from genetically matching humans. The human can turn into his or her avatar from one platform and roam the forests physically. This somehow relates to the concept of entering a virtual world, but as far as the film is concerned, the avatar enters the real world virtually. The main character in the film somehow becomes a cyborg because he acquires the form of an alien from a disabled human being that initially could not walk but could test his power, walk and run with the new body form obtained that worked with the stimulation of mind. There is always a line between the real and the virtual. The term cyborg emerged in the 1960’s when scientists were trying to combine cybernetics and a living organism to produce certain activities. This fascination of human-robotic relationship forming a new device was further researched only to find various science marvels evolve in time.  It is interesting to note that the film also used various virtual reality concepts in its making. A virtual camera system was used with motion capture technique displaying augmented reality on the monitor replacing the actor’s movements digitally in real time. Another new technique known as ‘face capturing’ was put to use. The actors had to wear skull caps which were basically fitted with a tiny camera and were angled in front of the actor’s faces and the camera thus captures the facial expressions and digitally transferred it to computers. Physical action in one sense was being converted into the digital format that can henceforth be manipulated.

Over the last few years, gaming has obtained a completely new trend. Video games too have become very sophisticated delivering a complete experience of virtual reality. Where else can skill enhancement and entertainment be served in a blended form? This kind of an experience can be termed as hyper reality. When there is more than one information and stimulation that is available which can be processed at a time, it relates to the characteristics of hyper reality. It seems as if humans need virtual help to get on with their daily life. There are treadmills that are attached to video screens which make the jogger feel as if he or she is trailing the forest woods or running along the beach. Household appliances such as the fridge and the microwave come with inbuilt monitors that allow you to browse the internet, do online purchase from a nearby grocery store so that you don’t have to walk all the way in order to buy food. To help fall asleep or to relax in nature or even meditate, virtual vacation is available where electronic sound waves produce the sound of sea waves and hundreds of nature sounds to choose from.

Computer games have truly progressed to a great extent from the initial DOS based games where a bunch of pixelated characters moved around to ultimate graphic realistic characters that are close to realism. With the latest processors and the video graphics card available in the market, it is now even easier and possible to run such applications on fine tuned or high configured systems. The hardware has allowed the bits and pieces of reality to be reproduced in a virtual world in order to stimulate the users and experience a higher version from that of the previous simple ones.

The prevalence of an economy now not only exists in the real world, but there is a complete whole new economy that exists in the virtual world which can be witnessed in online multiplayer games such as ‘War craft’ or ‘Second life’. These are not just ordinary games for child play but in fact a serious replication of the real world designed to entertain in a commercial way where users can experience virtual lifestyle which is identical to that of the real one.

Universities and research organisations are finding out how video game technologies can be used to change the way people learn. Initially there were input output devices such as the keyboard, mouse or the joystick to play games. But the concept of Augmented Reality games arose where an integrated device could be used to play games which provided an indirect virtual experience. Virtual Reality was also made possible on video games where a greater level of immersion was felt. Today there are special game consoles made available to experience the nearest to a real life situation experience. A whole new realm of online games as well as applications are available that allows the person to modify oneself to a whole new personality online. Applications such as Second Life allow users to create alter egos and interact with other players worldwide, allowing to play with virtual money which can later be converted to real currency. Basically the user can form relationships, involve in trade and perform other activities which are similar to that of the daily life ones. This is another example which spills light on the dual personality that a person might obtain one being the real life and the other one being the virtual one. The user maybe the same but the way the personality is controlled absolutely differs from the real and the virtual. A case study can be illustrated here: A British couple had to end their marriage in a divorce after the wife found out that the husband’s avatar in second life was having sex with a virtual prostitute. The wife quoted in a newspaper that, “He never did anything in real life, but I had my suspicions about what he was doing in Second Life.” The whole situation looks a bit absurd, but when it comes back to differentiating between the virtual and the real it seems as if both go hand in hand and an action in one can result a consequence in the other and vice versa.

There are First Person Shooter games such as Half Life, Doom, and Quake which involved moving around with a gun and completing different objectives to proceed to the next level. ‘ Grand Theft Auto’ is another game that has similar properties or features but the user actually controls the character moving around the city, riding a car or a motorbike, shooting people, completing ‘jobs’ or ‘missions’, involve in drug trading, stealing, vandalising and much more. It was so close to realism because the character was a puppet in the hand of the user and the game progressed according to what the user manipulated throughout the game. The only problem here is that the same rules from the virtual one cannot be applied in the real one. This can somewhat be compared to cyborgisation of a character through a media device where it is easy and fun to move and navigate in virtual space.

The making of such computer games is indeed a tedious job where the physical process has to be replicated accurately with visual as well as sound effects. Two Researchers from the field of computer science, Doug James and Changxi Zheng worked on simulating a physical process that could improve sound effects in a more effective and accurate manner. They simulated the tiny bubbles that were responsible for the different sounds produced with the flowing and splashing of water. This was achieved by modelling those bubbles in the way they burst and vibrate, which resulted in generating a real virtual sound. Various other researchers feel that in the time to come, realism can be achieved more rapidly with simple replications of physical fundamental particles and forces that constitute the world we live in. It will be possible to build a realistic world around us (Barras, 2009).

Social networking sites such as Facebook offer a variety of games within the site which attract young users at the same time do not give an age restriction for choosing to play. Simple childish games can be played online like ‘Farmville’ where the objective is to build a farm or perform actions like buying vegetables, growing crops on the fields, purchasing cattle and things of that sort. Different Facebook users can grow their own farms and take care of their cattle.  The game has certain limitations which prevent the users from becoming the best farmers. In order to reach a high score, products can be purchased virtually for real currency online. The sense of being an online farmer by buying these virtual commodities somewhat provides the user a sense of relief in the real world altogether providing a new experience.

Another concept is the so called reality television which is not an apt name because reality is in fact very different from what is being broadcasted on television. The impact of reality TV reflects on the younger generation which ultimately causes a bad influence because the person is unable to distinguish between the real and reel life. This happens because people tend to accept or digest the content that is shown on television and change their perception towards the world. Everything is simple these days. The internet is indeed a boon, virtual activities has become a part of our life which in turn has made life so easy that all you have to do is fiddle with the keyboard and the mouse to book a ticket, watch a movie, buy some grocery, own the latest top ten songs and even know what your friend or relative is thinking through ’status updates’ on the blessed social networking sites. We don’t have time for anything. We judge people and come to conclusions by the way a person presents a profile, the kind of updates he or she posts, by the pictures they post of themselves in the cyber world. For instance you post a picture of yourself enjoying in the pub; obviously, there is no need for an explanation of what kind of conclusions will be drawn even if the person is a complete different personality. The question is, whether there a difference between actual interaction or interpersonal communication that is happening mutually and the one that occurs in the ‘binary digit’ world? What can be done about this? Should we rethink our strategies and reset priorities?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Francisco Antonio Pereira Fialho and Araci Hack Catapan (1999), Knowledge Building by Full Integration With Virtual Reality Environments and Its Effects on Personal and Social Life, Bulletin of Science Technology Society 19; 237
2. Daniel Levi and Sara Kocher (1999), Virtual Nature: The Future Effects of Information Technology on Our Relationship to Nature, Environment and Behavior; 31; 203
3. Fotis Liarokapis (2006), An exploration from virtual to augmented reality gaming, Simulation Gaming; 37; 507
4. Patrice Flichy (2007), The Internet Imaginaire, The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England
5. David Bell, Brian D. Loader, Nicholas Pleace and Douglas Schuler (2004), Cyber Culture, Information Societies
6. Steven Poole, Working for the man, http://stevenpoole.net/trigger-happy/working-for-the-man/ (2008, October 27)
7. Colin Barras, Innovation: Physics brings realism to virtual reality, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17389-innovation-physics-brings-realism-to-virtual-reality.html, (2009, June 28)

What does the meaning of a democratic country imply? The freedom of speech and the rights to express views and not to forget one which is the rights to privacy. But are we enjoying our rights? Today in this surveillance society everything is sugar coated and the paranoia of being watched lurks in everybody’s mind. Close circuit cameras in massive numbers are seen almost everywhere on the streets. The powerful government has various surveillance techniques that watch us closely. Starting from simple speed cameras, which monitor and regulate traffic to phone conversation recording and tapping, text message logging and email screening, constant surveillance on messages posted on social networking sites. Yes, there is no doubt that we are being watched. But how does this affect us? According to a survey conducted on public attitudes towards CCTV installations on behalf of the UK Home Office, it was interesting to find out that around 82% of the people who took the survey were happy and had no objection towards the installation of CCTV and another 80% thought that it really helped in reducing crime (Spriggs et al, 2005). This means that the public is completely aware that they are being watched and do not have any objection towards it. This is because of the impression that such surveillance technologies exist for the sake of crime tracking. The main argument here would be if a person is completely innocent then why worry about it?

An article from the European Journal of Criminology, titled: ‘The Surveillance Consensus’ by Leon Hempel and Eric Topfer led to this discussion of how we live in a Modern Panopticon Society. The article is a collection of information regarding the surveillance methods used in UK, France and Germany. Most of it was about statistical data and research material on public reception of CCTV and the reasons for installations and the evolution and growth of CCTV. The argument here is that we are forced to behave, or in other words disciplined, in the public under the fear of being watched and reported. Privacy is dead and this statement is well defined in further arguments.

After various attacks such as 9/11 and the London bombings, it is almost wise to accept the fact that the CCTV is indeed helping to identify and prosecute those responsible or atleast get an idea of what went wrong and where. It eventually played two roles, crime prevention as well as helped in the prosecution process of the suspects with solid proof. Mike Neville, a Scotland Yard CCTV expert remarked that the CCTV was a complete chaos since only 3 per cent of the street robberies were solved using CCTV images, which is indeed an alarming statement and around 80 percent of what was captured was unclear image, which had no benefits (Telegraph, 6 May 2008). In the last ten years, the UK Home Office has spent three quarters of the crime prevention budget for the installation of CCTV cameras and 500 million £ of the public money went into the investments of the CCTV infrastructure (Murakami wood, 2006).

This situation can be related to the idea of the Panopticon, a type of prison, proposed and designed by utilitarian Jeremy Bentham. The design allowed the gunmen to see all the prisoners but in return the prisoners had no idea where the guards are watching. In such an atmosphere, Focault’s theory of Discipline and Punish is amplified here, which brings out the fact that mistakes are not committed because of the fear that someone is always watching. It is similar with the surveillance strategies that exist today. We are being surveyed in all ways, known and unknown, but we don’t know who is watching or when and where we are being targeted. What is more powerful here is not the machine but the user of the machine itself. Technology is always driven by a user who is the real watcher. The technology and the machine is just a tool. The privacy of our lives may indeed be at stake as every single moment of it, all the movements, if wanted can be converted into data, stored and processed by the government without our notice. The Panopticon functions in the manner of a laboratory of power due to its mechanism of observation and gains ability to penetrate into man’s behaviour, knowledge follows the advances of power, paving way to discover new knowledge objects on all criteria in which power is exercised (Foucalt 1987).

The home office in the UK makes it possible for the CCTV and its objectives to exist in the most reasonable way. The image of the existence of such a surveillance camera is portrayed to be a necessary tool that helps the public where the public element and the crime element are on both sides with the CCTV as the watcher and the gatekeeper between the elements. The public is thus convinced. In a survey conducted on the concern of the CCTV among students, unemployed and respondents from other categories, in most cases the argument was that people considered themselves not to be a subject of concern. The bottom line is that if no crime has been committed by an individual, then why bother about the existence of the CCTV itself (Best 2010).

Nowadays data can be obtained through means of monitoring. An interesting example can be given here. The killing of the Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room created news waves across the Middle East. The after math turned out to be very interesting because the CCTV aided massively in tracking down the suspects and precisely caught each and every movement made by the suspects who were all caught on camera, which again opened the gate for more leads and made it possible to investigate. The suspects landing in the airport, boarding taxis, arriving at the hotel reception, following the target in search of the correct room were all recorded. The whole execution plot made sense when the images from the CCTV, which served as pieces of jigsaw puzzle, when put together brought out the whole story as if the operation was captured on tape like a movie. In this case, the suspects were obviously aware that they were being watched and even disguised themselves. Well, in spite of surveillance, the killing took place which means that the suspects planned an execution allowing the CCTV to be their sole witnesses.

What needs to be critically discussed here are the ill effects of being watched by the Modern Panopticon. Nothing is private anymore. Even if your cell phone does not have a GPS, you can still be tracked and information can be obtained and stored. Everything that is done in the public is being recorded somewhere. The expectation of privacy in the public sphere is impossible. Surveillance happens in supermarkets, restaurants, retail shops not only for the sake of preventing and tracking crime but to monitor customers’ purchase behaviour of for marketing purposes. There are various data mining companies that hold personal information such as bank details, home address, telephone numbers, insurance policy details and much more. These are then sold to major corporations or even the Government, so that a background check or investigations can be conducted. The danger that lurks here is that all this information is vulnerable to identity thieves and hackers where the data stored can be easily misused. When personal identity falls in the wrong person’s hand, transactions and various other activities can be carried out without the knowledge of the real identity holder making it possible for the innocent to have committed an offence that was never done originally.

The conclusion would be that the surveillance society itself has molded public behaviour, installed fear among the public and an eye is always being kept on every individual similar to the panopticon. It does not seem to be a very healthy situation as the rights to privacy is no more and every single person is being watched and monitored in some fashion or the other. There is no escape.

REFERENCES

1. Leon Hempel and Eric Topfer (2009), ‘The Surveillance Consensus: Reviewing the politics of CCTV in Three European Countries’, European Journal of Criminology (2009; 6; 157)

2. Eric Stoddart (2008), ‘Who Watches the Watchers? Towards the ethic of surveillance in a Digital Age’, Studies in Christian Ethics (2008; 21; 362)

3. Murakami Wood (2006), ‘A Report on the surveillance society: for the Information Commissioner by the Surveillance Studies Network’

4. Spriggs, A., Argomaniz, J., Gill, M. And Bryan, J. (2005). Public Attitudes Towards CCTV: Results from the Pre-intervention Public Attitude Towards CCTV: Results from the Pre-intervention Public Attitude Survey carried out in areas implementing CCTV. London: Home Office. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds.pdfs05/rdsolr1005.pdf

Imagine your great grandfather resurrected himself from the grave and heard you talking like this to your friend, I bet he would go back to his grave.

The world is buzzing with activities, today information can spread in a second from one corner of the world to another. What has the information technology package given us? Oh yes! a lot of factors can be mentioned viz. bridging the cultural gap, globalisation, faster communication and much more. But what has it turned us into? Looks like we are being spoon fed or spoon (over) fed?

What I mention here has nothing to do with anyone, its purely my own opinion that can conflict with somebody Else’s  view. We’ve taken everything for granted. Everything is simple these days. We have this thing called the internet, which has made life so easy that all you have to do is fiddle with the keyboard and the mouse to book a ticket, watch a movie, buy some grocery, own the latest top ten songs and even know what the person next door is thinking through ‘status updates’ on the blessed social networking sites.

Let’s take facebook as an example! (here we go again) Go through your friends list, I’m sure you will find someone who you’ve never talked with for more than two minutes in your life and yet that person is your friend in the virtual world. The fact is most people are friends on facebook but when they meet each other head to head,  its like, “errr… have I seen you somewhere before? ” or you just smile and wave at them and leave. There was this guy who I’ve never met before in my life who came up to me with a broad smile and shook my hands firmly and said, “Hi! aren’t you the one who found a cockroach in your noodles yesterday”. Well yes, I had tweeted about that and looks like someone has been following my tweets!

We don’t have time for anything. We judge people and come to conclusions by the way a person presents a profile, the kind of updates he or she posts, by the pictures they post of themselves. For instance you post a picture of yourself enjoying in the pub, obviously, I don’t have to explain now what kind of conclusions will be drawn. The question is, is there a difference between actual interaction or interpersonal communication that is happening mutually and the one that occurs in the ‘binary digit’ world? What can be done about this? Should we rethink our strategies and reset priorities?

My emphasize here is on how the whole thing has made us lazy, well I blame myself too, I don’t call and speak to my friends anymore (who live far away), I don’t have the time, I send them a message on facebook or I comment on their posts just to let them know that I am alive. And if I see regular updates by people, I assume things are fine with them and if they don’t post, then I assume they are busy and will eventually get back. What I think I should really be doing is call them up and speak to them no matter how far they are or wherever in the world they are which will make a big difference. After all we are human and we have values.  Information technology is open and available to all, it is up to us to use it wisely and get the maximum output out of it in the most beneficial way.

It talks about how the information technology has revolutionised the whole world, and the pace that it is travelling at is absolutely fascinating.