Entering a synchronous chat space, called "College Chat," I came across a group of individuals spending their Friday afternoon chatting in a room filled with "college" students. The first thing I noticed when I was brought to the site was the rules which I have listed below:
College Chat Rules
- This college chat room is totally free. Simply enter your nickname and press connect. There is no registration required.
- By entering, you agree to be at least 16 years of age.
- Absolutely no phone numbers, emails or instant messaging IDs are allowed to be posted in public.
- Any suspicious activities relating to the exploitation of chat users, report it to a mod or admin immediately.
- Do not flood the chat room or disrupt other users in any way. You will be banned if you do.
- Although we do staff moderators in this chat room, they cannot be on every minute of the day.
- Do not give out any personal information to anyone, no matter how much you think you can trust them.
- Hack/exploit of the chat is a punishable offense by law. We have logs and will report to ISP/Police anyone who does.
- PERMANENT server bans will be placed to users who attempt to exploit/hack our college chat rooms.
The rules seemed straigtforward and rules #4 and #6 clearly expressed that the Leviathan, or anointed moderator, was present to reprimand and censor those who did not conform to the rules set forth. Wallace would have called these rules placed discreetly for all chatters to see a virtual "sign at the door," forewarning members that there are rules and one is expected to follow these rules.
As I began to chat with members in the group, I saw that indeed, many chose to follow the social norms and conventions set forth in the usual chat room environment, as well as conforming to the rules laid out by the website administration. Everyone was careful to not use any sexually explicit terms and only discussed superficial topics such as school and what everyone enjoyed doing. It seemed sexual soliciting was actually only occurring when people "pm'ed" one another. In order to test if this "Leviathan" really existed, however, I chose to experiment on my own. I began typing in sexually explicit words such as "sex", "d*ck," etc. and was immediately booted from the site. Low and behold, the moderator had done it's job and kicked me out for breaking the rules and not following the norm. When I re-entered the chat to talk to the same individuals as before I explained what happened and was immediately told by "conni" that "Yeah, they'll kick you out for saying things like that." I was curious if I would be kicked out again if I repeated the same offense, so I started typing in those words and...nothing happened. I was not kicked out of the chat room like I had five minutes before. However, this time I was warned by people within the chat. They said, "You better not do that or you'll get kicked out." and "If you don't stop I'll report you to the Committee."
My experience seems to support Wallace's theory of the Leviathan pretty clearly. To start off, people in the chat did conform to the social conventions or rules set forth by the site which restricted their own freedom of expression in order to be a part of the chat room. This explains why many immediately wanted to "pm" as soon as they got on the chat, they knew that if they were to make sexual comments in the large chat room they would be punished. However, there was no moderators in private chat. In addition, the Leviathan enforced the normal rules quite well because as soon as I broke one of the rules, I was booted from the chatting space.
In addition, Wallace discusses the fact that "...human willingness to conform and our eagerness to preserve an online group environment. (p. 70)" would lead to the emergence of a Leviathan if one were not officially present and a reproach may be forthcoming as well. In my case, this is exaclty what happened when I continued to use the sexually explicit terms and was warned by members of the chat room that they would report me if I continued using terms which were not allowed.
Therefore, it seems in the College Chat room, members were made aware of what the social norms should be due to the rules set out by the chat room itself. The Leviathan placed by the chat room is present throughout most of the day, but when it is not present, it seems members will continue to enforce the rules and take the Leviathan's place to maintain order. Therefore, in this online space, it would seem that there is always a Leviathan present, ready to censor and reprimand those who do not follow the social norms set out by the chat room and fellow members.
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