Rethinking virtuality in a digital media age

Authors

• Jennifer Gibbs University of California, Santa Barbara

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33352/prlg.95925

Abstract

Scholars have studied virtuality in teams and organizations for over two decades. The term “virtual” is often used loosely and imprecisely, and theoretical debates have flourished over what differentiates virtual from non-virtual teams. In these debates, scholarship has not explicitly considered the significant ways in which the technological landscape has changed over this time. While the virtual is often treated as a separate space from “real”, physical or face-to-face interaction, the increasing technological saturation of our lives has resulted in a blurring of online and offline worlds such that these distinctions may no longer hold up. I will explore whether the term “virtuality” still has currency and the ways in which we must rethink our underlying assumptions about virtuality in a digital media age.