Virtual collective consciousness
Virtual Collective Consciousness (VCC) is a term coined by two behavioral scientists, Y. Marzouki and O. Oullier in their 2012 Huffington Post article titled: “Revolutionizing Revolutions: Virtual Collective Consciousness and the Arab Spring”[1]. VCC can be defined as an internal knowledge catalyzed by social media platforms and shared by a plurality of individuals driven by the spontaneity, the homogeneity, and the synchronicity of their online actions.
Origin of the term
The concept of VCC evolved from the seminal empirical study conducted by Marzouki and his colleagues[2] on the contribution of Facebook to the 2011 Tunisian revolution where the concept was originally called ‘‘collective cyberconsciousness”. The latter is an extension of the idea of ‘‘collective consciousness’’ coupled with ‘‘citizen media’’ usage. The authors made also a parallel between this original definition of VCC and other comparable concepts such as Durkheim's collective representation, Žižek’s ‘‘collective mind’’[3] or Boguta’s ‘‘new collective consciousness’’ that he used to describe the computational history of the Internet shut down during the Egyptian revolution[4]. Since VCC is the byproduct of the network’s successful actions then these actions must be timely, acute, rapid, domain-specific, and purpose-oriented to successfully achieve their goal. Before reaching a momentum of complexity, each collective behavior starts by a spark that triggers a chain of events leading to a crystallized stance of a tremendous amount of interactions. Thus, VCC is an emergent global pattern from these individual actions.
In 2012, Marzouki and Olivier coined the term Virtual Collective Consciousness and extended its applications to the Egyptian case and the whole social networking major impact on the success of the so-called Arab Spring. They also provided an illustrative picture of this VCC model.
Theoretical underpinnings of VCC
Marzouki and his colleagues used various theoretical references ranging from sociology to computer science in order to account for the key features that render the framework for a virtual collective consciousness. The following list is not exhaustive but the references it contains are often highlighted:
- Durkheim's collective representations[5] are at the heart of VCC since collectivity taken decisions according to Durkheim's assumptions will approve or disapprove individuals’ actions and help them eventually reach their final goal.[1]
- McLuhan's global village: The shrinking of our big world to a small place called cyberspace is made possible by technological extensions of human consciousness. [6]
- Jung’s collective unconscious: When a society is witnessing significant changes, the anchoring of archetypal images (e.g., political leaders) seems to be deeply rooted in individuals' collective unconscious that is likely to bias their political choices. [7] [8]
- Wegner’s Transactive Memory (TM)[9]: social networking platforms such as Facebook during the Tunisian revolution or Twitter during the Egyptian revolution served as placeholders of a VCC where information can be harnessed and steered to the highly specific revolutionary purpose.[10]. Although research on TM have been originally limited to couples, small groups, and organizations, Marzouki et al. study strongly suggests that an effective TM can operate on a very large scale.[2]
References
- ^ a b Marzouki, Yousri; Oullier, Olivier. "Revolutionizing Revolutions: Virtual Collective Consciousness and the Arab Spring". The Huffington Post US. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
- ^ a b Marzouki, Yousri; Skandrani-Marzouki, Inès; Béjaoui, Moez; Hammoudi, Haythem; Bellaj, Tarek (2012). "The Contribution of Facebook to the 2011 Tunisian Revolution: A Cyberpsychological Insight". Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 5 (15): 237–244. doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0177.
- ^ Gutmair, Ulrich; Flor, Chris (1998). "Hysteria and Cyberspace: Interview with Slavoj Zizek" (Interview). Telepolis. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
- ^ Boguta, Kovas. "Visualizing The New Arab Mind". Retrieved 12 June 2011.
- ^ Durkheim, Emile (1982). Rules for the sociological method. New York: Free Press.
- ^ Marzouki, Yousri. "Revisiting Whitacre's "Cloudburst" Through the Wisdom of the Crowd". The Huffington Post US. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^ Marzouki, Yousri. "Tunisian Citizens Are Akin to Choosing a "Father-like" Leader". nawaat.org. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
- ^ Marzouki, Yousri (2013). "Facebook and public empowerment in Tunisia". International Relations and Security Network. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
- ^ Wegner, Daniel M. (1995). "A computer network model of human transactive memory". Social Cognition. 13 (3): 319–339. doi:10.1521/soco.1995.13.3.319.
- ^ Marzouki Yousri (2013). "Facebook Contribution to the 2011 Tunisian Revolution: What Can Cyberpsychology Teach Us About the Arab Spring Uprisings?". Computer Systems Experiences of Users with and Without Disabilities: An Evaluation Guide for Professionals (Rehabilitation Science in Practice Series ed.). CRC Press. pp. 85–86. ISBN 9781466511132.