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THE INTERNET AND VIRTUAL "REALITY"

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 The internet and virtual „reality” 193

Vesna BALTEZAREVIC*
Radoslav BALTEZAREVIC**

THE INTERNET AND VIRTUAL „REALITY”

Abstract: The Internet is undoubtedly one of the most provocative sociological and psy-
chological phenomena. In addition, the Internet is a new virtual world of „reality”. Computer
Communications and entire virtual culture show inseparable connection between technology
and society. The Internet connects people, connects all those struggling communicators who
cannot cope in the real world. But, would it be fair to speak about human interaction in space,
which is not a space, in the time that is stuck somewhere between computer programs and the
people who are not people but „borrowed fictional characters”. We have to accept that the In-
ternet is networking, or virtual society as a space inhabited by virtual friends. At the moment,
we lack many answers, but running away from reality indicates that in the real world there are
so many problems which lead humans to a desire to escape into the virtual world.
Humanity has lost interest in everything that happens in the real world. Conformism
prevailed not only in behavior, but also in thinking. Modern man has less and less time for
real meetings and socializing. Globalization, the reduction of individuality,cloned sameness
kills the charm of the real life, socializing and communication.
Key words: the Internet, virtual, reality, computer, people, communication

INTRODUCTION
The Internet communication and the whole cyber-culture show an inherent
connection between technology and society. The social interactions of millions of
people around the world, along with the creation of their virtual identities, social
relationships and communities, lead to the scenario in which the computer tech-
nology and virtual communication are actually forming the parallel society and
the new virtual cultural space.
Mass communication has become the dominant mode of information ex-
change necessary for a contemporary man. In the system of general globalization,

 Full professor, John Naisbitt University, Faculty of Culture and media, EASA fellow
*

 Assistant professor, American University Middle East Kuwait, Faculty of business ad-
**

ministration
194 Vesna Baltezarevic, Radoslav Baltezarevic

the mass distribution of information has become increasingly globalized, and om-
nipresent. Space without „boundaries” in the media sphere provides a media plat-
form for creating the layout behavior of public opinion. Thus, contemporary me-
dia „outgrew” its basic informative role, consequently transforming into the crea-
tor of „reality” [1].
Each individual has an awareness of the self and his/her belonging to the spe-
cific type of people, as well as the ability to identify one’s own personality traits,
skills and knowledge, share convictions, values and attitudes that are different in
relation to any other group [2]. The skill of a communicator to establish a good
communication relationship with others determines his/her position within the
social group. In a situation where an individual is not satisfied with the expression
of one’s own personality within a social setting, because the degree of realizing so-
cial integration did not bring the expected recognition, the person begins his/her
search for a new social framework. One of the alternatives is the use of the Internet,
which can significantly contribute to the alleviating of the feelings of loneliness [3].

SOCIAL BELONGING
Each individual has an awareness of the self and his/her belonging to the specif-
ic type of people, as well as the ability to identify one’s own personality traits, skills
and knowledge, share convictions, values and attitudes that are different in rela-
tion to any other group. A person builds its identity through preserving the indi-
vidual, while adapting to the collective behavior patterns. In an environment char-
acterized by a high percentage of psychological problems experienced by the gen-
eral population, the need for finding security within the group becomes more pro-
nounced. Belonging to a group, or a certain collective, apart from security brings
also a certain sense of self-evaluation. This phenomenon not only identifies one
with a particular group, but also provides the experience that the group bestows
some special qualities, thus making one stand out from the others.
Man is a social being with a potent desire to belong, both at the individual and
larger social group levels. If satisfactory level of communication is not achieved in
the real world, spiritual groups create online communities to promote their beliefs
and the community becomes an informally bound group of people who share their
expertise and passion. How successful is the modern man coping with a globalized,
alienated world where there is less and less time for face–to–face contact? It is but
a small group of people who can successfully cope with the unstoppable current
of daily changes, who are able to build their own social capital. Such individuals
or groups achieve an advantage over other players who are struggling in the mod-
ern age. Alienation, increasing isolation and burden of searching for ways to meet
basic human needs in times of transition, as well as the accumulated effects of the
global crisis in poor societies is constant, resulting in restrictive human encounters
and the communication deficit. Persons who have problems with social adaptation,
who are burdened with a sense of low self-esteem and rejection by other members
of the group, are looking for alternative methods that can help them fill these gaps.
 The internet and virtual „reality” 195

In cyberspace, we often have the opportunity to meet the complete lives of oth-
ers. As one has written a diary that is being exposed to the sight of the observer:
there are photos of all events, often in chronological order placed on a daily basis.
A full life is exposed to the bare nakedness and available to everyone. The persons,
who are doing this in a virtual community, are usually detached and unavailable
for conversation and sharing of secrets in real life.
Social anxiety is for many the biggest real life obstacle for establishing relations
and contacts with other people. In the online world, one is spared of such an ob-
stacle: we can be anyone. Acceptance for socially isolated people, can mean a great
deal, can invigorate their lives and bring personal satisfaction. Virtual communi-
cation gives the illusion of conversational easiness, and virtual friends can some-
times understand us, unburdened by our past, lifestyle and habits. Internet is un-
doubtedly one of the most provocative sociological and psychological phenomena.
True friendship is based on a sincere relationship, the intimacy and confidence,
body language, signals. Can a network provide that? Friendship on social networks
is largely based on the same or similar interests, because someone behind the mon-
itor came to the same place where you are, for a definite reason. In cases of people
who are, for example, living in a small town and cannot meet people with similar
interests, it is a unique opportunity to find a „soul mate”.
Internet connects people, connects all those struggling communicators who
cannot cope in the real world. Would it be fair to speak about human interaction in
space, which is not a space, in the time that is stuck somewhere between computer
programs and the people who are not people but „borrowed fictional characters”.
We have to accept that Internet is networking, or a virtual society as a space inhab-
ited by virtual friends. Statements by some members of these communities, such
as: Who is not on Facebook, does not exist, does not show the degree of correlation,
but the level of more drastic alienation [4].
Visitors of the virtual space claim for the virtual communities that they are
„more real than their real-life” and that real life is just one of the „windows” and
not necessarily a place in which a person feels better [5].
The person on the Internet can create a virtual role that will appear with a fic-
titious identity, form a new entity, or a different view of themselves. Often the new
person has been in opposite relation to the real one. It has everything that a visitor
of internet wanted to become, but did not [6].

THE INTERNET AS GLOBAL REALITY

Communication methods, as well as the position of man in a social setting,
have been simultaneously changing with the development of human society and
its technological advancement. In the absence of real time for meeting with people,
the attraction of the Internet becomes new phenomena of the human community.
Virtual world offers pleasure to a communicator positioned by his own choice in
the computer world, as opposed to dissatisfaction or disorientation of the real word.
Internet allows individuals to be involved in these virtual creations. They
are providing users with an opportunity to meet new people reacquaint with old
196 Vesna Baltezarevic, Radoslav Baltezarevic

Figure 1. Using of the Internet technology [9].

friends and quench their communication needs. It does sound nice, but we need to
ask ourselves whether such communications actually result in alienation.
But on the Internet, in virtual space people are feeling free, and often cross into
communication anarchy in the absence of censorship. In such behaviors the excess
of their freedom, often leads to endangering other people’s freedom [7].
Avatar is a virtual body the one who enters into the virtual community inhib-
its. In this case, an avatar is a body that is used when a person from the real world
goes into the virtual world to visit other members. Avatars usually have a human
face, but they are also present in the form of animals or objects. Avatars are built
mainly on some of the characteristics or preferences of their owners. Entering the
virtual world is like going to a plastic surgeon: one can change the appearance ac-
cording to the personal preferences, while the „surgical” procedure is painless and
free of charge.
Anonymity that the Internet provides to its users represents a surrogate mask
which is, by turning on the computer, mounted on the face.
„When self-doubt in one’s own beliefs, person adopts other people’s beliefs or
actions in order to receive their guidelines for appropriate behavior. The theory of
social comparison explains that conformity provide us different means of self-eval-
uation” [8].
Figure 1. illustrated that the Internet technology has become part of our every-
day life: Almost 50 percent of the world’s population, or 3.42 billion people use the
Internet every day. Mobile phones actively using the 3.79 billion people, or 51 per-
 The internet and virtual „reality” 197

Figure 2: Growth in the number of Internet users 1996–2014 [10].

cent of the world population. Profile on social networks has one-third of people, or
more than 2.3 billion. Nearly two billion social network users access their profiles
via mobile phone — 27 percent of the world population. Cyber society is, in fact, a
society created by the modern technology, mainly computer technology. However,
mobile communication, telephone communication and audio-visual communica-
tion also belong to the virtual society, within which every action takes place in real
time, but in the invisible, virtual space.
From the figure 2. we can see that in a developed world number of the Inter-
net users has emerged from 11 percent in 1996 to 77 percent in 2014; the develop-
ing world recorded significantly weaker progress-from 2 percent at the beginning
of the observed period to 39 percent in 2014. Use of the Internet is an interactive
process in which users, with distinctive characteristics, are on one side and a virtu-
al space with its specificities on the other side [11].
Virtual communication has significantly affected the nature of social life and
social interaction at the end of the 20th century. Through contact with other people
we fulfill both our individual and collective needs [12].

SOCIAL NETWORK
The number of social network site users is growing on the yearly basis, but over
time there are also an increasing number of people, especially on Facebook, shut-
ting down their accounts or using it much less frequently. The reason for this is the
198 Vesna Baltezarevic, Radoslav Baltezarevic

Fig. 3. Social network users [13]

options by means of which other users, as well as the newly introduced options, are
rendering the services obsolete and strenuous.
From the fig. 3. we can conclude that Facebook is the largest social platform.
People go to Facebook to „meet” their friends and to find out what they are doing.
Facebook is a bank full of photos, and it looks like some kind of modern record of
who is who and what he/she is doing.
Although the reasons why people join social networking are heterogeneous,
one factor stands out as a particularly strong motivation: the desire to maintain
contact with friends [14]. Researchers speculate about another factor — our need to
publicly show social contact and closeness. Social networking has its other seem-
ingly paradoxical way: contributing to feel lonely.
There is a connection between the extensive use of the Internet and the sense
of loneliness and depression. After the first online experience, level of satisfaction
with their own lives and the degree of social cohesion as a decreasing function of
ways, i. e. scope of use of the Internet begins to decrease [15].
The relationship between Facebook and unhappiness is conditioned by social
comparison. It is our intention to compare with people at relevant parameters con-
sidered similar to themselves. In the context of social networks, of course, we tend
to network administration with such people. If they inform us about their person-
al or professional achievements, here appears less sense of values. When the own-
er of the profile limited to passive participation — monitoring posts of your friends
 The internet and virtual „reality” 199

without commenting and like- Facebook has the opposite effect: it reduces the feel-
ing of connection, and increases the feeling of loneliness.

CONCLUSION
People passing through various stages of development of human society react-
ed differently to the changes that have transformed their way of life. With the ad-
vent of computers and the Internet, a technological leap in the human communi-
ty took place, laying the foundations of a new, parallel virtual world. The need for
communication, as well as the challenge sets sail for the inexhaustible virtual land-
scapes and typing of the feelings on the keyboard, is opening a recently initiated
odyssey quest for answers.
We can conclude that the modern era, although providing with highly produc-
tive technological discoveries, demands a shift towards a genuine human being. Al-
though the social life is focused on virtual contacts, communication is still consid-
ered a central component of effective social processes with priority given to the re-
spect of human.
Modern technologies have significantly contributed to the redefinition of com-
munication, and the transition to the techno sphere is carried out with the support
of IT network which increases the risk of value systems conditioning. The benefits
of the Internet are great, but only when it is understood as a tool, and not as an in-
stant replacement of real life.

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