In "Leisure Theory in the Information Age" by Wes Cooper and
"Reflections on Recreation, Park, and Leisure Studies" by Daniel L.
Dustin and Thomas L. Goodale, the authors raise two very important
issues about the growth and impact of an increasingly symbolically
constructed culture. This new culture has developed due to information
technology and these changes in our culture have created a more narrowly
specialized type of education for professional careers which is
increasingly taught electronically. In turn, these changes in education
have undermined the traditional community of scholars concerned with
values and contributing to the public good.
As Cooper describes
it, our work and leisure has increasingly taken the form of "symbolic
manipulation" rather than manipulating the physical environment, so that
more and more "we and our environments are increasingly becoming
symbolic constructs." This increasingly symbolization of our society has
affected both work and leisure, so that whether one is at work or
involved in recreational activities, one is more and more not
interacting with the physical world as with a symbolically-created
virtual world.
For example, instead of going bowling at a bowling
facility with a group of friends, one may participate in an online
bowling game with a network of other online bowlers one communicates
with electronically. Instead of meeting friends to talk about an event
in person or even on the phone, one may experience an event through TV
or an online presentation and then text back and forth with others about
it. Instead of going to a movie theater with friends and family
members, one may download a movie from Netflix or see a video or series
of short video Webisodes on Hulu or YouTube, and then share emails about
it with other viewers. The rise of video gaming through social gaming
sides like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, where one gets virtual supplies and
equipment to help one get ahead in the game, are another example of
this growing manipulation of symbolic constructs in everyday life.
Cooper's
essay is devoted to considering what to do about this transformation
into a more symbolic society. His Alpha model suggests that in the
future, these symbolic worlds will become more and more important, and
we have to be better able to adjust to this increasing ratio of the
symbolic to the non-symbolic in our world, based on whether we see this
shift as something to be valued or a warning about a future which is
more and more a symbolic construct. Or as Cooper puts it:
"Alpha...gestures towards future possibilities, such as the increasing
importance of virtual spaces in our lives." (p. 469). In this Alpha
view, this growth of sociable virtual spaces will become more and more a
natural part of our lives, which we take for granted, much like we have
taken for granted the development of a subjective consciousness as an
essential part of our personal identity. As such, this growing influence
of virtual spaces will contribute to creating new forms of educational
institutions, work, and leisure, such as reflected in the growing number
of online courses and graduate programs, telecommuting at work, and
online leisure activities.
As an alternative to this growing
virtual takeover, Cooper suggests that there might be a Beta
Trial-and-Error Hypothesis, which represents a middle-ground approach
between giving in to an inevitable takeover of this social virtual world
replacing a grounded reality and a Luddite-like effort to a return to
"a golden age of freedom from high technology." Instead, in this trial
and error approach, an individual can choose to seek out the best of
both worlds by combining an involvement in a symbolically constructed
environment with participation in real life activities. Likewise,
organizations and institutions can choose which approaches work the best
for them, such as by deciding to combine virtual courses and real ones.
Finally,
Cooper proposes the Gamma Symbolic Utility Hypothesis in which he
suggests that the symbolic meanings one has for something have a
symbolic utility (or SU) which should be taken into account along with
the expected utility (EU) of something, and both can influence the
decision someone makes by contributing to the decision value (or DV),
which is composed of both types of utility. In other words, we don't
just make decisions based on rational factors, as proposed by Rational
Choice Theory (RCT), which is the kind of approach economists use in
assessing the choices people make in spending their money, but by other
considerations. As Cooper puts it: "decision value (DV)...aims at
finding a balance between maximizing outcomes or payoffs and maximizing
what has positive meaning for an agent." The implications of this
hypothesis for examining the influence of the increasingly important
symbolic constructs is to recognize the ways different people may assign
different meanings to the choices they make to participate in physical
activities or in virtual worlds.
I think this discussion of the
growing influence of symbolic structures and virtual worlds in our life
today is an important one, because this discussion raises issues for
those assessing the health of our modern culture and for the providers
of leisure and recreation, which has become increasingly the domain of
private enterprise as the funding for public leisure organizations has
shrunk. While many people, including Cooper, seem to have a negative
perspective in viewing the high-tech take-over of society and blaming it
for the separation between people who are engaged in virtual
activities, such as social gaming, I think this a wrong-headed approach.
In fact, I have seen studies in the news that suggest that those who
are most active in online virtual worlds also have more social
connections, since they socialize in the everyday real world based on
their experience in the virtual world and they use that to supplement
their other real world physical activities.
Certainly, there are
some social misfits who find the anonymity of virtual worlds a way to
have a social life which they cannot have in everyday life because they
lack social skills. But for most people, participating in online
activities is not an escape from everyday life, but a supplement or
complement to it. An example of this is the popularity of social gaming
for the popular crowd in high school and college. Also, many employees
and independent contractors, including myself, have found becoming
technologically savvy and participating in or presenting everything from
Webinars to online conferences crucial for being employed in today's
economy. At the same time, these employees and independent contractors,
myself included, participate in a wide variety of real time meetings,
such as referral clubs, Chamber of Commerce mixers, and industry
conferences. It is not an either-or situation but the use of both worlds
that is necessary today to be competitive.
Although Dustin and
Goodale don't use the terminology of symbolic constructs or refer to the
Alpha, Beta, and Gamma hypotheses in their article, they discuss how
this increasing symbolization of life affects education, and in
particular how it has impacted the education of leisure and recreation
professionals. They suggest that this change has undermined the
traditional use of education to prepare students not only to enter a
profession but to have humanistic values leading them to want to
contribute to making a better world. Dustin and Cooper also express
concern that the new technology enabling these virtual worlds has
undermined the traditional educational institutions that have provided a
geographical place where students can gather and have a personal social
interaction with one another. Instead, there has been a growth of
online courses and programs, enabling students to gain the professional
credentials for a field without having to interact with other students
or their professors.
As Dustin and Goodale observe, the field of
leisure studies first emerged at the University of Minnesota in 1937,
where it was guided by a public service ethic to provide leisure
services that "contributed to a better quality of life for individuals
in the community." Then, in the 1960s, which was marked by the rise of
the National Recreation and Park Association as the primarily
organization for the professional and lay community in the leisure
field, leisure studies were devoted to preparing students to work as
professionals in the field. However, since the 1970s, as public leisure
services have lost funding, the private sector has become more
important, and more and more students have been educated to serve these
private enterprises.
As a result, the focus in leisure education,
as well as in other fields, has shifted more to preparing students to
get well-paying jobs in their career specialty, and this education has
increasingly been provided through distance learning, making it more
convenient for students to take courses at their home or office at
whatever time is most convenient for them. As Dustin and Goodale
observe: "The ultimate expression of this is distance learning,
correspondence courses and degree programs in electronic form...Not
since the printing press has technology had such an impact on learning
and the dissemination of information." This shift has also meant that
there has been a decline in face-to-face interaction, and degrees and
certificates have become like commodities, which are purchased to make
one more marketable for a career.
These are important
transformations, made possibly by the rise of new technologies and new
systems for delivery of information, and they have been transforming
educational systems, just as they have been transforming interaction in
everyday life. For example, computers, along with cell-phones, e-mail,
and online accounts have become necessities in everyday life, as well as
in education, whereas they were more like personal luxuries a decade
ago.
However, while Dustin and Goodale argue that these high-tech
developments are detrimental to the educational experience, I think
these developments open up tremendous opportunities for individuals who
once could not get an education because they can now access it at their
convenience. Certainly, this system can be abused, such as when someone
hires someone else to take their courses, write their papers, and post
them on line for them, without any way for the professor to verify
exactly who is taking the class, because of the anonymity of the
computer (unless some system is devised to record who is in front of the
computer typing a paper or online reply). But in general I think the
system offers great opportunities. For example, there are now extensive
digitized libraries of material online, and it is no longer necessary to
spend hours going to a physical place, which involves fighting traffic,
waiting in line, or searching on stacks to get that information. Also,
the privatization of leisure has opened up many new career opportunities
in the private sector for those who are able to respond to these
opportunities or create new careers for themselves, such as a leisure
researcher or consultant, who advises people on the new leisure and
recreational possibilities. Indeed, this has become a brave new world
with all sorts of new possibilities for those who can respond and adapt.
GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., J.D., is a nationally known writer,
consultant, speaker, and seminar/workshop leader, specializing in
recreation and leisure, business and work relationships and in
professional and personal development. She has published over 50 books
on diverse subjects. Her latest books include: THE VERY NEXT NEW THING,
PLAYING THE LYING GAME, WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; ENJOY! 101 LITTLE WAYS
TO ADD MORE FUN TO YOUR WORK EVERYDAY; and A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR WORKING
WITH HUMANS...MANAGING EMPLOYEES FROM HELL...and WORKING WITH BAD
BOSSES. She is founder and director of Changemakers Publishing and
Writing and Changemakers Productions, and has been a featured expert
guest on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including Oprah and Good
Morning America. She is the host of a weekly syndicated talk radio talk,
CHANGEMAKERS, featuring interviews and commentary on various topics.
Her Websites are at
.
She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California in
Berkeley, a J.D. from the University of San Francisco Law School, and
M.A.s in Anthropology; Mass Communications and
Organizational/Consumer/Audience Behavior, and Popular Culture and
Lifestyles from California State University, East Bay. She is getting an
MS in Recreation and Tourism.
