This document discusses hermeneutics, which is the method of interpreting meanings, especially of texts. Hermeneutics has been used since ancient times and has evolved with changes in communication technology. The document proposes a study to examine how involvement in virtual worlds affects people's interpretation of the real world, by comparing people with different levels of virtual world usage and those who have quit. The study would discuss various topics in focus groups and observations to better understand interactions between real and virtual experiences.

1. Hermeneutics:
Meaning in online worlds

2. Hermeneutics: what it is
 Hermeneutics is the method of
interpreting the meaning of a text.
 A text can be any form of
communication.
 The interpretation is not just what is
being said, but how it is said as well.

3. Hermeneutics: what it is
 Oldest form of textual analysis in
existence.
 Jewish scholars used a style of
hermeneutics as far back as 500B.C.
 Also used by Greek scholars like Plato
and Aristotle.

4. Hermeneutics: what it is
 Has changed over the years with
ideas of communication and
understanding.
 As technology progressed moved past
just verbal and written communication.
 We also look for the personality of the
author and who they are, and how that
affects the text.

5. Hermeneutics: case studies
 Study in Malaysia, Less tangible ways
of reading, researching how Malay’s
and Chinese interpret and react to
western on-line news papers.
 Study showed that the on-line
interaction was quite ludic – play like

6. Hermeneutics: case studies
 Using the internet to access
information made the audiences
hermeneutic activity easier.
 Differences in region/background can
hinder a persons interpreting
endeavors.
 While the internet holds a wealth of
information, sometimes physical
media is easier to carry, familiar, and
cheap.

7. Hermeneutics: case studies
 In “Addressing Alterity: Rhetoric,
Hermeneutics, and the
Nonappropriative Relation”, Diane
Davis looks at the ability to interpret
not what is said, but the saying of it.
 Rhetoric and hermeneutics are closely
intertwined.

8. Hermeneutics: case studies
 There is the substantive part of
rhetoric, that which is said, the object
which we can consider and interpret.
 Then there is actual saying of the
information we want to get across, the
performance. It is the ever changing,
and hence indefinable, way we
communicate .

9. Hermeneutics: case studies
 She used an example of a popular
episode of Star Trek:TNG. To her
interpretation, it was not what was
said in the situation that was
important, but how it was said.
 Another example is conversation. We
interpret, but never totally comprehend
each other: you remain you, I reamain
I, we, “remain both unbearably close
and inaccessible.”

10. Hermeneutics: proposed
study
 Interpreting the virtual with the real
and vis-à-vis.
 How does involvement in in-depth
virtual worlds, such as second life and
World of Warcraft, affect your
interpretation of the real world?

11. Hermeneutics: proposed
study
 How do the two inform each other?
What does one say of the other?
 Would have 4 focus groups:
 No involvement in virtual worlds
 Light users (less than 10 hours a week)
 Heavy users (more than 20 hours a week)
 Heavy users who have since quit

12. Hermeneutics: proposed
study
 Would gather the respective groups
together once a week for 4 weeks to
discuss how their on-line lives affect
their corporeal lives.
 Would also have the groups all get
together to discuss real/virtual world
interactions.

13. Hermeneutics: proposed
study
 Questions for discussions:
◦ How has your involvement in this virtual
world changed your views on these virtual
worlds?
◦ Do you spend more time (discounting
sleep and necessity) in the real world or
the virtual?
◦ Which world do you prefer to spend time
in? Why?
◦ How has involvement in this world
affected your relationships?

14. Hermeneutics: proposed
study
◦ How has involvement in this world
affected your health?
◦ How has involvement in this world
affected your job/education?
 Also have observation periods of
seeing them in and out of the virtual
world, interacting with others before
and after sessions, etc.

15. Hermeneutics: proposed
study
 We are still in the early developmental
stages of the digital era and there are
still unanswered, and even
unimagined, questions on how this
affects our humanity.