Blurring Boundaries

Walking into the campus billiard hall I manage, I am witness to a definitive example of blurring boundaries. Before me are seven students, intently engaged in manipulating individual laptops to perform winning moves in some online game each is playing. At first glance, I notice that a) each has headphones on and is ignoring the environment around them (though all are seated around the same 8 seat table) and b) each is playing the same game.

I am able to engage one of the players in a brief conversation when his game is paused, and here's what I gathered:

1.) All seven are playing the same game: Second Life (an example of a MMORPG)
2.) Each can communicate with one another - but only through typing in the game (Comfortable in their anonymity)
3.) All are friends who are in the billiard hall because it has Wi-Fi with faster connections and zero blocks - otherwise they'd be in their own residence hall rooms. (Forced interaction?)
AND THE MOST STAGGERING FACT FOR ME...
4.) Some of the gamers/students' greatest friends are players of the game - who they chat with online, but have never met in physical space. (Sharing details of one's life before "meeting"...)

While there may be a few discussion topics in the above situation - I focus now on Blurring boundaries - when the line between online and offline relationships is indeterminate and nearly irrelevant.

This is a difficult concept to grasp if you're from a generation where communication is based on face to face interaction. A concept so easy to accept if you're a student currently enrolled in an institution of higher education who easily accepts friends into his Facebook/MySpace network. For those of us in-between "both worlds", like me, it's a concept I am torn between completely understanding and being totally intolerant of, but accept that the students I work with thrive in the blurred environment. For this reason, I strive to learn more.

I clearly see the blurring of the line between an offline and online life in-terms of work habits and household duties. For example, 15 years ago I may have only recorded financial transactions in a check ledger. Today, I track all financial history online and am working on using tech resources like Mint for money management.

In terms of student affairs, blurring boundaries is a topic we will need to address and work with if we are truly striving to offer students the best experiential education possible. Students who would rather interact online than in person will feel uncomfortable in workshops of a new student orientation program that is solely based on face-to-face interactions and activities. Students, who want to invite their "friends" to events, may be including those that they have never met - creating a situation for physical or emotional distress, according to the school psychologist in my SA department.

MMORPG's provide an environment where a particpant befriends a player who has shown loyalty in a crisis. In life, we interact and make friends, determining after a crisis if the relationship is to continue. For students that are active MMORP gamers, they are versed in the blurred boundaries of online and offline relationships.

Is your institution discussing the blurring of the two relationships? 

With this grey area, a question can also be raised about data ownership and portability - what information and details about your life can be found online? Are they exact details or a character you've created (i.e. Second Life)?

Can we as student affairs professionals help students bridge the gap - aid students in recognizing the importance of having strong, supportive relationships, either online or off?

Is blurring boundaries an issue worth addressing?

Comments

[Greg Reiner]

The lines will end up being blurred even if we don't want them to. I can't wait till this generation starts running for office. We are going to have to be more accustom to knowing a lot more about someone.

I think there is shock right now because of the gap in personal information sharing between me and my students. Difference generations.

But I think this gap will shrink over time. There is only so much personal stuff you can know about someone. So as this generation moves into leadership rolls at the school, it will just be common place to know a lot about each other.

[Kevin Guidry]

I know I'm a bit late to the game...

Current research (I like Mesch & Talmud's 2006 article) indicates that whether a relationship was established or is maintained online isn't very important, at least for young people. The important things that distinguish strong from weak relationships are "duration and diversity of topics and activities carried [sic] together."

I am mystified how one can characterize relationships formed or maintained online as uniformly weaker than other relationships; it seems to be ageist or classist, an easy for one to look down one's nose at another group and view them as inferior. We don't seem to view relationships sustained by long-distance telephone or written letters as being inferior or worthy of contempt but we're quick to label "Internet friendship" as less than authentic.

In addition (and you've already noted this, Jennifer), there are many tools and environments that are available online; they are not homogeneous. An asynchronous discussion board is not a synchronous IRC channel is not a team-based game with voice chat. Those different properties are...well, different, and it's unreasonable to assume that they all have the same affect on relationships and communication.

Finally, to respond to your question: Yes, I believe that student affairs professionals and other educators can help students bridge the gap. However, at this point time I think that many of us need more help from our students as they have already bridged the gap and we have not. We can not and should not always place ourselves in a privileged place of knowledge and power.