• On My Mind

Cyberpsychology has evolved from a subject area where only researchers in the field have vested interest but also where businesses, governments and the average geek on the net take notice. In the very near future though, I suspect there are going to be many more people looking towards research in the area especially to learn about how technology, more specifically Internet technology can be leveraged in our daily lives. As simple technological advances can have great potential for reshaping our lives and shaping those of the younger technologically savvy generation, the study of cyberpsychology raises very important questions in effort to make technology a whole lot better and safer for us to use.

Example of Important Questions Raised by Cyberpsychology

One research paper that illustrates this on a very simple level is authored by neuroscientist Ian Robertson. He discussed the challenges we experience when trying to remember friends’ mobile numbers and even our own. Can you remember your mother’s mobile number? Like me, if it’s kinda sketchy in your head, that’s exactly what Robertson is talking about. He believes that there is a connection between the ability of our gadgets to store such information and our ability to recall this information.

Though on the surface this appears rather simple, this may have serious implications for our memory and its capacity to hold information. Let’s think about it. Perhaps such technology allows us to better use our memory by concentrating only on important details or on contrary, it reduces our ability to remember. Who really knows these things anyways? Cyberpsychologists do!!!

Not All of Us Research Social Media

Coincidently as we’re now well into an ‘age of social media’ and several high profile research studies emerging from the field are concerned with social media (e.g., Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, Youtube), we can’t simply disregard cyberpsychology as being a case of supply and demand. Yes we are interested in these online services but cyberpsychology goes far beyond this.

There are researchers (e.g., Mark Griffiths) looking at online gaming, gambling and addiction, some who focus on identity online (e.g., Jill Arnold and Hugh Miller), education (e.g., Phil Banyard) and even how the journey of finding love translates online (e.g., Monica Whitty).

Currently I work as an online media consultant helping Caribbean organisations build their online presence successfully. Leveraging my specialist knowledge about online behaviour and years of experience in website design and development I work alongside marketing, communications, public relations and information systems professionals helping their organisations connect better with their online audience and build lasting relationships with them.

Not Saying Social Media Research Is Not Important – It Is Needed, God Knows It Is!

Considering all those new online professionals (e.g., social media ‘experts’/‘scientists’) coming out of the woodwork, I am one of those people who believe that giving advice in this area requires specialist knowledge and training in an area where the differences between how we behave online and offline are appreciated and well understood. Currently some of these ‘professionals’ are trying this method and the next method because it worked for a big company or some other significant entity. This methodology is at the least scaring me silly. What happened to using the scientific approach for business, doesn’t it apply anymore? Or is there a problem with its validity and or relevance when it comes to social media? Apparently, social media resides outside the boundaries of science or so others would like us to believe. Did we forget the scientific approach could be used when studying social phenomena? Do please look up social science.

Of course disciplines such as marketing, communications, public relations, information systems etcetera still have relevance in this area but they all subscribe to psychological theory in one way or another. Therefore, they will all greatly benefit from being informed by the science of psychology which comprehensively considers the complexity of human behaviour both online and offline, and was doing this ‘since Adam was a lad’.

Coming Clean

Before I finish up here I just want to be honest and mention that before doing my Masters at Nottingham Trent University in Cyberpsychology, I was honestly convinced that I would be merely ‘filling in the gaps’ in my knowledge and would receive some evidence in the form of a degree for my future employers to confirm my professional prowess in the area. However, I quickly dismissed those thoughts once I started the degree as my perspective was beginning to change drastically. This does not mean that I don’t blame those individuals who are naïve about the area though, like me at the time, they were not giving it enough thought to see its many worthwhile applications.

I began to not only apply established psychological theories and research in cyberpsychology to understand current behaviour but more importantly, to me at least, I found myself elaborately thinking about what can be possible when technology and people become more integrated and the best way this can be done. Simon Watts, who was one of my lecturers at NTU comes to mind. He gave us a paper entitled ‘Social Psychology as History’ to take a look at and I remember feeling quite frustrated while reading it but soon I came to terms with this frustration and saw it as a challenge to be more forward thinking, to embrace my inner trekkian spirit I believe this approach characterises cyberpsychology and what it ought to be. With technology changing so fast there really isn’t any other approach that can be taken.