Exploring Dimensions of Cyberspace and Unpacking Psychological Entanglement in Cline’s Ready Player One: A Cyber Psychological Analysis

Abstract

This research article examines Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One to explore various dimensions of cyberspace, named the OASIS. The purpose of this study is to get insights into how cyberspace has evolved patterns of human psychology. Owing to this, different aspects of cyberspace, including identity construction, techno-human interactive mechanisms, synchronous and asynchronous temporal patterns, and the evolving contours of reality, physical, and sensory dimensions, have been explored. The study has employed John Suler’s eight-dimensional model of cyberspace fabrication. Suler’s multifaceted theoretical contemplation provides a solid foundation for approaching and exploring human experiences in cyberspace. The first dimension of the model addresses the dimension of identity in cyberspace, giving insight into how people present themselves in the online realm, adapting their persona according to their aspirations using various digital tools, and finding a refuge for their complexes. The analysis illustrates how OASIS users merge the shards of their actual selves with their desired selves to create their digital profile. Insights into the interactive dimension reveal how layers of manipulation shift from providing a sense of agency, control, purpose, and accomplishment to rendering an individual a pawn in the hands of technology. The virtual illusion makes them feel that they can co-create or solely create their experiences, exercise control over their lives, and the events around them. This sense of power further traps immersed individuals into the illusion of cyberspace, as they start to substitute click-oriented power with a sense of autonomy. The analysis reveals how temporal patterns in cyberspace create an illusion of timelessness, making OASIS users believe they can transcend the limits of time while remaining within the virtual realm. The study further explores how hyper-immersion and the increasing appeal of the virtual blur the boundaries between the real and unreal, making individuals perceive the virtual as something more authentic than the real. While exploring all the elements, the study focused on unpacking the psychological complexities that cyberspace causes, showing how human pursuits of escaping the dystopia of the physical world pave the path for another version of the same. The one that is more complex than the previous one.