The New York Times recently praised the VRChat platform, particularly the trend of VR Parties, virtual reality party experiences that resemble those of "real" nightclubs.
The musician Turels (a pseudonym), diagnosed with Still's disease, was able to continue creating thanks to virtual reality and specifically designed equipment. It was a way for him to "reclaim a part of his life" and counteract the symptoms he suffers from.
Accessibility is a major challenge of the web. While the focus is often on disability and how technical means could include a greater number of citizens, its social dimension is also at stake, as in the case of these VR Parties.
The undeniable observation is that connections from these virtual parties extend to the Discord platform, where real communities are created, developing nodes of socialization for people who otherwise might not have the capacity and might interest a portion of the 15% of men and 10% of women who claim to have no close friends. The transition from a virtual experience to mediated socialization is increasingly interesting new players.
In the world of video games, the U.S. military infiltrates certain franchises like Call of Duty and Twitch streamers, according to Vice, to accelerate the recruitment of certain minorities.
Regarding VR Parties, can communities be created ex nihilo, overcoming socio-demographic biases? An interesting approach that requires a phenomenal time investment from certain community members, through roles like moderation, education, and presentation, similar to chat rooms. But this could also invite a reconsideration of the work of caregivers, volunteers, or even social professions. After all, if associations organize solidarity missions, why would orchestrating them on a Discord server be inconceivable?
Word of the day: dabloons
It's a massive phenomenon on TikTok that contradicts discussions about inflation or cryptocurrency advocates. While scrolling on TikTok, you come across a video tagged #dabloons that uses the application's "slideshow" feature. At the end of the video, a mysterious cat tells you if you've just won dabloons, a mysterious virtual currency, or if, on the contrary, you've lost some. And of course, dabloons do not exist at all.
What may seem like a funny web culture joke already has over 1.4 billion views on TikTok and is starting to come to life among millions of platform users: tutorials for creating dabloons, the creation of small applications to track how many dabloons you gain or lose (easier than using an Excel spreadsheet)... Proof that a shared story, even on completely absurd elements, can give it life... and vivance. Dadaism of modern times, in short.
Impressive links
Xavier De la Porte interviewed Ethan Zuckerman for the podcast "le code a changé." He questions the supposed disruption of Web3 and the notion of critical mass for social networks. His perspective: rather than trying to find an alternative to Facebook, ensure that a user is a member of a myriad of small networks of different sizes that follow their own rules. He takes the platform Archive Of Our Own (at 13’25) as an example and discusses the difference between moderation logic and governance logic.
"Turning everything into private property just means that other people will own everything."
Ethan Zuckerman
Benjamin Simmenauer (IFM) reflects on the year 2022 in fashion. An interesting analysis: "we could name this period 'exhibition in the room,' the goal being to dress exclusively for one's phones." A body for others, living for social networks?
...see you soon!