Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the idea of virtual realities (VR) as a possible bridge between people in the globalized world. It tries to find out how shared experiences with VR act towards new kinds of belongings. Could they compete with the current nation- or ethnicity-based identities?

Paper long abstract:

The current expansion of social networks, hybrid approaches to work and education, and the games industry into most aspects of everyday lives poses unexpected challenges and dilemmas to anthropologists. These changing scapes of online and offline human interaction lead us to the question of whether virtual worlds and realities could lead to the formation of new kinds of communities that occupy space in the wider social structure.

The crux of this paper is built around the idea of virtual worlds as a possible bridge between people in the globalized context. Could these technological advances offer ways of bridging or even replacing the current nation or ethnicity-based identities? The paper is based on the author's ongoing research into virtual reality technologies and digital games. It is anchored between autoethnography, remote ethnography and laboratory experiments focused on the bodily experience with VR headsets. The focus is on the shared experiences with virtual realities and the ways these experiences act towards community and identity formation.

Rather than directly suggesting that virtual realities and worlds will lead to societal changes, we wish to ponder the ways these changes could happen. On the other hand, the options for resisting these changes will be considered and discussed, such as efforts to censor virtual platforms by various actors.