In Thomas Keenan’s essay, Windows: of vulnerability, the window is explored in terms of whether it opens up the public world to the private, allowing the people behind the window to see out, or opens up the private world for the public world to see into, violating the private lives of the people behind the window. Expanding this dichotomy with Anne Friedberg’s essay, The Virtual Window, which ascribes the metaphor of the window to screens, whether that is the movie screen, the television screen, or the computer screen, a greater understanding of the computer screen can be attained. Of particular interest is the computer screen as a window into cyberspace. The user interacts with a keyboard and a mouse, and seems to be in the safety of a familiar environment, safe and private. But if the computer screen is indeed a ‘window’, and indeed the computer screen is a window where all of cyberspace can look out, or ‘in’, and see the actions and trace the position of the user, this also makes this familiar environment a part of a public one, expanding the public sphere as new media expands and promulgates itself through society.
However, another way this violation can be perceived is through the metaphorical public sphere that private users subject themselves to when they interact with new media. When private users go on the internet, they become part of the public sphere willingly, bombarded by all of the different types of sensationalist media everywhere. There is a very key distinction between these two interactions between the public and private spheres. The first consists of a violation of the private sphere, whilst the second involves a willing entrance into the public sphere on part of the private users. One way this entrance into the public sphere through the window of the computer screen can happen is through any one of the media objects that the internet promotes as ways to meet new people. In this particular instance, the 3D virtual world, Second Life, is most applicable to this interpretation of the window. In light of the window as a method of stepping into the public world through a private environment, Second Life creates a graphical model of the ‘window’ space Keenan describes in his essay, functioning in a dichotomic way to not only allow users to look out and see the world, but also for the world to see the user publically. Essentially, Second Life creates a second window through which users can step into the public sphere.
Second Life, as advertised online, “is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect, and create using free voice and text chat.” (www.secondlife.com) Users create avatars that are meant to resemble themselves in real life, and, interestingly enough, Second Life has been used extensively to social network and find jobs. The reason Second Life is relevant is because it serves as a ‘real’ (as far as computer graphics go) window space that Keenan talks about abstractly in his essay. In a sense, it serves as a metaphorical way that we can further understand the idea of the computer screen as a window. When users enter Second Life, it is similar to the act of entering the internet in general. Computer users have a certain identity that others cannot share, like their IP address, that can be traced and whose actions can be watched. This is not unlike the avatar in Second Life whose name is unique to anyone else’s and can also be traced. It may seem as if the avatar chooses whether or not to be seen, since the human user behind the character only interacts with others when he or she wants to, but the fact is that others can see every action that is performed. Similarly, computer users may think that they are not being watched, since it seems like they are the ones choosing when to interact with certain websites and certain people at certain times, but the reality is that they have already entered the public sphere, leaving the safety of their private one. Second Life allows people to create an identity in a computer that has its own identity which enters a world, a world of liminality, where it can interact with others, just like how the computer can interact with others, seeing the world, but also being seen by others. Thus, the computer acts both as the user of the avatar, as well as the avatar of the human user.
Things can be complicated, however, because people don’t make avatars completely reflective of their selves. This results in the representative world of Second Life becoming unrepresentative, losing its metaphorical connection. Users can change their gender, their race, essentially living a ‘second life’. As human users navigate through the internet, it is more difficult to create this second identity, especially if the computer screen is indeed a window through which the public has full access to the private world. Second Life essentially creates a graphical representation of this interaction of the visible private and the invisible public, creating another set of windows into which the public sphere can interact in.
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