Intercultural Communication via Virtual Worlds

It is a small world and after all the years of discovery and settling we are left with people who are defined and act in ways according to where they were raised. People are different and alike within and across cultures. People are people. But the same human emotions we all share also create some of the most powerful barriers to communication between cultures. Mainly fear and anxiety hinder our ability to feel comfortable around people from other cultures. Through internet globalization and the concept of virtual worlds the world is getting smaller because we have access to each other with a simple mouse click. These new channels create new relationships and learning possibilities between people of different cultures that could vastly improve the way we think about others.

Intercultural communication is basically communication between different cultures. It seems like an easy concept to grasp but recognizing the level to which it affects the way we think about others is much harder. On the surface, simple language barriers restrict our contact with other cultures but what about other cultures that do speak the same language? On the surface people fear Arab looking people because they may be a terrorist but what about the people that fear African-Americans because they may be a “thug” or a criminal? The cultural divide is not restricted to people from other countries or skin color. Cultures are different whether you fly half way across the globe or half way across the country. The fact is you are comfortable with people from your own culture because you know what they are like. And you know what they are like because you have spent a lot of time around them. And spending time around a culture eliminates the fear of unknown that restricts us all.

Virtual worlds are places on the internet where people get together and socialize. They can take many different forms. It could be just a casual setting, a game setting, or even a classroom setting. The actual world may be simulated but the interactions are real.
Being in a virtual world can loosen major barriers for intercultural communication that would be harder to do in the real world. First of all you are (ideally) in the comfort of your own home in a safe environment. You also may have a greater feeling of anonymity because you are interacting with people outside of your everyday life. Both of those factors contribute to relieving anxiety. According to Jandt (2010), in the presence of strangers (or people of different cultures) our anxiety level is high which ultimately leads us to avoid interactions. It is the same anxiety we face our first day at a new job or at a new school but at least if we are around people we can relate to we are more likely to attempt interaction. Interacting with a stranger has a high probability of being awkward. In a virtual world you can worry less about awkwardness or embarrassing yourself because most people will be strangers to each other.

Interaction in the virtual world as it is now is still limited compared to the real thing. The major difference is reading people’s nonverbal behaviors. Simple behaviors such as facial expressions can say more than actual words during an interaction. Smiles, frowns, or fright (just to name a few) are a universal language of humans and even animals. Another nonverbal behavior restricted in the virtual world is proxemics. Different cultures have different “personal space bubbles” meaning how close we get when communicating with each other (Jandt, 2010). Standing too close or even too far could mean different things to different cultures.

Basically our interactions with people are vastly different based on our comfort level. We are restricted by fear of being embarrassed, clueless, or misunderstood. Intercultural communication raises the level of fear and anxiety because we are interacting with strangers with customs we are unsure of. Virtual worlds help to close the gap by allowing us to interact with different cultures from our home. They say familiarity breeds contempt but being unfamiliar breeds fear and results in less interaction. What virtual worlds do is allow new access to different cultures and the possibility of familiarity.

References
Jandt, F.E. (2010). An introduction to intercultural communication: Identities in a global community (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage