The hiddenness of the online Japanese face

[imomus]

Exhibit 1: Here are three user images grabbed, pretty much at random, from Japanese networking site Mixi.



Notice anything? That's right. None of them actually shows a human face.

Okay, this happens in the West too. Many LiveJournal icons show fluffy kittens or other avatars rather than the user's real face. If we look at yesterday's Click Opera comments, for instance, we find that many of them (Jordan Fish, Charles Hatcher and myself are the exceptions) use avatars, stock images, correlatives designed to reveal something about the user's personality and interests without rubbing our face, so to speak, in her face. Since yesterday's comments were responding to a video in which I showed my face, it's interesting that two of the Anon comments, one from the US, the other from the UK, actually criticized me for showing myself. "Someone likes the sound of his own voice," said the American comment. The British one merely linked to an image of Narcissus.

So people all over the world have mixed feelings about showing their face on the internet. Some love to, others cringe away from it. But I'm particularly interested, today, in why it's done so little in Japan. Which brings us to...

Exhibit 2: In this video exchange, victorintheworld, based in the US, raises exactly the question of why Japanese are so afraid of showing their faces. cecilcut, a Japanese man, answers:

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Victor's "rant" is half-comical, half-serious. Why the hell do people who've been brave enough to be samurais, he asks, claim to be shy, embarrassed or scared of something so simple as putting their face online? Cecil replies, first justifying, with typically Japanese self-deprecation, why he's showing his own face in a video: he has no talent for writing, painting, music or art. He's also not good at video, he says, but in this field there are few Japanese to show up his lack of skill. (It's worth noting that YouTube hasn't launched yet with a fully-Japanese interface. There are few Japanese vloggers.) Cecil won't declare showing your face better than writing. Overall, he thinks it's not necessary to show your face to give your opinion -- it can be fun, but that's all. There are various ways to enjoy the internet. (Cecil not only self-deprecates, he tries to put several alternative points of view, again very Japanese; this allows for concensus. Total contrast to Victor's rant, although Victor does allow that he may be "frightening" his audience.)

This is where Cecil swings into gear with his main point: Japan's biggest bulletin board, 2ch, has changed online behaviour, he thinks. Anonymous detractors on 2ch won't just criticize what you say, they'll cut down your personality and everything about you. Cecil doesn't mind YouTubers saying he's made a boring video or something, but over on 2ch they just tear everything down. So he understands why people don't want to show their faces. Victor shouldn't be so hard on the reticent. "I'm sorry the way my opinion turned out," Cecil tells Victor, "it sounds like I'm disagreeing with you." Again, he self-deprecates out of that conflict -- if the kind of interesting Japanese Victor is demanding started emerging, jokes Cecil, "there will be no place for me. So please don't come, more interesting Japanese! There are many ways to express yourself without showing your face. So I'm looking forward to seeing those. Please entertain me!"

Exhibit 3: I asked Hisae, who translated Cecil's views, what she thought of them. She agreed with him. There's no need for people to show their faces, it seems like they're just showing off if they do. Sure, if you want to get comments that you're cute, or you want to find a boyfriend, do it. (Okay, at this point I think I'll insert a photo of me and Laila France, having dinner with Hisae -- not pictured -- last night. Not because I want to flirt or show off, but because it might interest people who've heard the record we made exactly ten years ago. Laila plans to move to Berlin and is here apartment-hunting. After dinner we went to a club, where a Japanese guy came up to me with the line "You're that guy from the internet!")



Hisae continues: MySpace just launched in Japan, she says, and it seems to attract more show-offy people who show their faces. They're somehow people with connection with the West, she thinks, or people who stayed in other countries for a while. This interests me -- is Rupert Murdoch undermining yet another country with his invasive mores? Just how successful is MySpace Japan so far? Are the people on there the "interesting Japanese" that Cecil hopes don't emerge (despite the fact that he seems to be one of the face-showers himself)?

I think it's time we invited a marketer into the conversation.

Exhibit 4: Clast is a website of market data on Japanese consumer behaviour, a "market segmentation tool" in blog form. Perhaps if we cut through the marketing jargon (CGM = consumer-generated media, ie self-made videos on YouTube etc) it can tell us something about Japanese reluctance to show faces online? Clast's W. David Marx writes:

"Japanese user-originated visual media - on YouTube at least - has almost always been primarily TV clips and never included any of the "kids lip syncing" type videos that litter the American contributions." He notes "a reluctance to upload "true" CGM on the consumer side". A sample of YouTube clips reveals "original or semi-original content that does not necessarily visually reveal or feature the creators themselves. Very little CGM in Japan has launched the creators to the mainstream media level, but this may be a mixture of the relatively low-quality of the content, the limited scope of the humor, and the closed-nature of the Japanese entertainment world."

Mr Marx concludes: "We should see more and more of this kind of "anonymous" CGM on the net in the future, but it is unclear at this point whether it will become a force bold enough to really warrant the kind of "Person of the Year" praise that Web 2.0 won in the U.S. last year."



Exhibit 5: Finding the explanatory value of this somewhat limited, I turn to Kaiping Peng, a cultural psychologist from the University of California at Berkeley. In a fascinating pdf excerpted from the Oxford University Press' Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Peng lays out what I think are the real reasons for Japan's online facelessness.

He cites Hofstede's individualism-collectivism dimension, and says that self is a cultural concept, perhaps the most important cultural concept. Western Europe and the USA, Peng says, stress an independent self, whereas Asian societies stress an interdependent self. Whereas Westerners tend to be dispositional (in other words, to attribute things to inherent traits of personality -- like Victor telling the Japanese not to be shy because they're samurai), Asians tend to be relational -- to explain things in terms of relationships. (Interesting: the word "relational" has come up a lot on Click Opera this week in reference to an emerging art practice in the West, "Relational Aesthetics", which focuses not on fixed, unchanging objects but on contexts and social networks.)

In Asian societies, says Peng (who worked at University of Beijing before coming to California), "self-identity is more socially-diffused across important others rather than strictly bounded with the individual... We might crudely characterize the slogan of collectivism as “my in-group is important” while an interdependent self might be described as “my in-group is who I am.”

You can see where this is going: why show an individual when you could show a relationship, a network, a group? Why show an object when you could show a field, a person when you could show a context? Why be dispositional when you could be relational? Are we in the West becoming more "Japanese" or are they becoming more "Western"? Personally, I find cultural psychology, with its fascinating experiments, the best explanation for the hiddenness of Japanese faces online. Or maybe my good friend Narcissus just never made it that far East?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

That's an interesting thought, given that most of the Japanese people I know really enjoy taking pictures with people and are quite serious about photography as a hobby. There are a ton of Japanese flickr albums where you can see the faces of the picture-taker's friends and sometimes the picture-taker herself. Maybe that's different since viewing the albums is not imposed on anyone? Hm.

[(Anonymous)]

Finding the explanatory value of this somewhat limited

Good to see a return to the old Marxy-bashing.

I'm unconvinced that there is a) such a substantial difference in the showing of the face between Japanese & Western Internet users, and b) even if there is, your explanation seems tacked on, just another outing for a pet theory. If things were the other way round, if it were the Japanese who put their face on the Net more, I'm sure you'd find a way of telling us how this was actually because they were more "relational".

[imomus.livejournal.com]

If things were the other way round, if it were the Japanese who put their face on the Net more, I'm sure you'd find a way of telling us how this was actually because they were more "relational".

That's such a huge and implausible "if", conjuring such a vastly different parallel world, that it's almost impossible to say how cross-cultural psychology would work in it. How, historically, did your looking-glass-Japanese get so boastful? And how do we describe that as "relational"? By the sophistry that there have to be selves for there to be relationships?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Because I love this cultural pschology stuff, I want to summarize a few more of Peng's conclusions in that pdf, for people who don't have time to read the whole thing:

* Chinese participants were more likely to refer to the field, whereas Americans were more likely to refer solely to factors internal to the object.
* One theme that emerges is the willingness to see personal qualities as fixed and enduring or malleable and changing (Dweck, 1996). This difference seems to map well onto the cultural dimension of independent and interdependent selves: the former notion features a more fixed self, the latter describes a changeable, context-based self.
* Chiu, Hong and Dweck (1997) found American perceivers more willing than Hong Kong perceivers to ascribe fixed, enduring traits to people.
* Americans would be more focused on evidence directly from or about a target (e.g., a self description) while Chinese would be more focused on contextual evidence (e.g., a description of the target by a friend, a description of the target’s friend ).
* Knowles and Ames (1999) suggest that Western cultures stress a “norm of authenticity” such that a person’s external actions and displays should be consistent with their internal attitudes. “Saying what’s on your mind” and “straight talk” are sought-after qualities in the West. Eastern cultures, meanwhile, may view such displays as impolite and potentially bizarre.
* When asked how important various pieces of evidence are in determining what someone is thinking, Americans, on average, rate “what they say” as more important than “what they do not say” while Chinese show the reverse preference.
* Categorical versus relational thinking: Shown a picture of a man, a woman, and a child, Chinese children were likely to group the woman and child together because “the mother takes care of the baby.” In contrast, American children were more likely to group objects on the basis on isolable properties, such as age (e.g., grouping the man and woman together because “they are both grown-ups”).
* Americans are more likely to describe themselves in abstract, fixed ways (e.g., using trait terms such as “friendly”) while Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese are more likely to refer to social roles and other people (e.g., “I am Jane’s friend”).
* Peng and Nisbett (1999) describe Western reasoning as embracing three core laws. The law of identity (A = A) denotes that everything must be identical with itself. The law of the excluded middle (A is either B or not-B) implies that any statement is either true or false; there are no half-truths. The law of non-contradiction (A is not equal to not-A) proposes that no statement can be both true and false.
In Eastern folk thinking, on the other hand, Peng found "a dialectical epistemology. This folk dialecticism differs from the rarified (“dialectical”) philosophies of Hegel and Marx in that these approaches often assume or insist upon some original contradiction or opposition which is then resolved; the Eastern folk dialectical epistemology Peng and Nisbett describe accepts and even embraces contradiction rather than attempting to “fix” or resolve it."
They describe three assumptions which underpin the Eastern dialectical epistemology. First, the principle of change suggests that reality is a dynamic process; something need not be identical with itself because reality is fluid and changing. Second, the principle of contradiction notes that, since change is constant, contradiction is constant; the very nature of the world is such that old and new, good and bad exist at the same time in the same object or event. Third, the principle of holism holds that, since change and contradiction are constant, nothing in human life or nature is isolated and independent; rather, all things are related and attempting to isolate element of a larger whole can only be misleading
* One of the strongest implications of the notion that Westerners adhere to a logical analysis of problems is that, when presented with contradictory propositions, they should be inclined to reject one in favor of the other. Easterners, on the other hand, might be inclined to embrace both propositions, finding them each to have merit.

[(Anonymous)]

I love cultural psychology! Especially that paper where they show that Asian people bump into things more often, because they concentrate more on the context and less on the focal area.

der.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

No, der, that's rabbits.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

We could take an non-East-West line on this question, and just say that the internet, all over the world, is split between two tribes, those who want to be anonymous because they want to be free/slash/nasty, and those who want to be visible because they want to be-open-and-trusted/slash/show off. The anon-nasties and the honky-donkey-tenderminded.

Historically, I'd say the anon-nasties were there first; they dominated the 1990s internet, jousting in MUDs and MOOs, strong-encrypting their emails via penet.fi, and revelling in the fact that nobody knew they were dogs. The tenderminded showoff type is more recent, and enjoys the support of those authorities who want to make sure we don't do anything underhand or terroristical-like, or who just want to compile a big marketing database from our every utterance.

Interestingly, Cecil is blaming the Anony-nasties on bully-tin board 2ch for keeping everybody in Japan Anonymous. But surely that would also keep everybody potentially nasty too? Just as I know that if someone has a LiveJournal they're more likely to be civil here, I think visibility has a civilizing effect in general. The more you're situated and vested, the more you're going to play nice. So surely Cecil should have argued for all Japanese de-masking, if the nastiness of 2ch is what he wants to avoid?

But actually, that's not what he's arguing for. He wants pluralism and flexibility -- a bit of this, a bit of that. Anon when you need to be, visible when you want that. That's what Hisae said too. I think they're both wise. It isn't either/or.

[zzberlin.livejournal.com]

<< because they want to be free/slash/nasty, and those who want to be visible because they want to be-open-and-trusted/slash/show off. The anon-nasties and the honky-donkey-tenderminded.>>

Only two categories? What about the ones who want to be free/slash/nasty/slash/showoff? Call them the honky-donkey-nasties...

[(Anonymous)]

Just as I know that if someone has a LiveJournal they're more likely to be civil here, I think visibility has a civilizing effect in general.

Isn't a little more complicated than that? Unlike you, most people on Livejournal don't reveal their actual names. We still don't know who they are, all we know is that they have a consistent chosen identity within one particular electronic community.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

On my journal, I ask that anonymous posters identify themselves; it's just good manners to introduce yourself, make yourself accountable on at least a nominal/symbolic level for what you do and say, even if it is a mask.

The majority of personal journals can't really be lumped in with corporate websites or massive broadcasting organs like TV or radio: it's like saying there's no difference between somone's split level in Teaneck, NJ and NBC's address at Rockefeller Plaza. The idea that one's journal is fit for public abuse simply because it can be seen by the public is a stupid one. It's a slippery slope, since the same rationale would then hold for those who have phone numbers publicly listed in the area phonebook. Both have to be sought out actively, so should we not be annoyed with crank calls and solicitations? Furthermore, don't our homes line the streets with easily seen addresses, subject to public view? Why, anyone with a car can drive right up our wide-open street! Someone can spy on us sunbathing in our back yards using Google Earth. We're just asking for it!

It doesn't matter if I have tivoli lights and a red carpet leading to my door: If you're coming into my home, you'd best wipe your feet on the mat, remove your hat and introduce yourself, or you'll be thrown out on your ass.

--Honkey Donkey T.

[fishwithissues.livejournal.com]

I definitely see the divide between anon/veiled and embodied/exhibitionist types in the twin emergence of youtube and second life. It would be interesting to see what would happen if youtube were to add a 3D interactive world and second life were to add video chat... This utopian Four-Eyed monsters video podcast really straddles the line in a nice way--they're great.



Having done the avatar thing for most of my internet life, I'd say for me it comes less from a desire to "act-out" without consequences, and more from a place of self-mediation and escapism--let me use these tools to make myself look and sound like my best dream version of myself. It's hard to do that with video if you don't like your face or the sound of your voice. I still have issues (heh!) with that stuff and sometimes want to retreat into anonymity, but I'm getting better at "lifting the veil", and/or letting my insecurities guide the editing process such that I usually manage to tweak out the more embarassing stuff into something I'm proud to upload.

[(Anonymous)]

What would interest me more is why Japanese males often use such extreme prosody when talking in a relaxed setting. You know these weirds loops in the pitch & the changes of register, so that it almost sounds like they're shouting, but without actually raising the volume much.

This Victor guy has it down very well. (No comment on the fact that an American names himself "Victor in the world", btw.? You are slacking off!)

der.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I agree, that Japanese rhetorical mode is fascinating. It's the sound of concensus-building, and it's not as modest as it claims to be. Cecil wants to cover all the opinion-bases, so that he gets the whole room on his side. Victor, on the other hand, is play-acting a pig-headed character who shouts at a whole nation for being too quiet! With Cecil it's one man, multiple opinions (but relative sincerity). With Victor, one man, one opinion -- but he's an actor, essentially, jousting for fun. Cecil builds concensus and makes room at the table for everyone, Victor puts on a good piece of theatre.

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

in my case i just haven't updated my icons in a while! :P

very nice to see ms. france!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

But why are you covering your face, Mischa?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

MySpace faces cultural differences as it woos Japanese (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/16712654.htm) (AP article from last month) is super-relevant here:

Visit Japan's top social-networking site, the 8-million-strong ``Mixi,'' and you'll see prim, organized columns and boxes of stamp-size photos -- not the flashy text and teen-magazine-like layout of its American counterpart, MySpace.com.

The difference in appearance between the two online hangouts reflects a broader clash of cultures -- and illustrates the challenge News Corp.'s MySpace faces as it jumps into the Japanese market.

Mixi knows how to thrive off the nation's cliquish culture so different from the aggressive me-orientation prevalent in American culture.

``MySpace is about me, me, me, and look at me and look at me and look at me,'' said Tony Elison, senior vice president at Viacom International Japan, which is offering its own Japanese-language social networking service here. ``In Mixi, it's not all about me. It's all about us.''

Mixi Inc. President Kenji Kasahara, 31, and others say the services merely reflect the cultural differences.

While self-assertion is quick and direct on MySpace, with posted profiles upfront about personal views, Japanese tend to be more reserved and prefer to gradually get to know each other.

The messages on Mixi are surprisingly positive: You look great. It's so nice seeing you. I feel the same way. Kasahara calls it a ``friendly mood that values harmony.''

``I feel people speak their minds on MySpace,'' he said. ``Japanese tend to like peaceful communication. We're often told how heartwarming Mixi is.''

...

The look and mood of MySpace's Japanese site, however, will not differ from the American original.

MySpace claims it has drawn more than a 100 million people worldwide, including thousands of Japanese who already used MySpace in English, according to the company. Softbank declines to say how many have subscribed to the Japanese version of the site

Michiko Yoshida, who studies social networking at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo, thinks MySpace's emphasis on self-assertion will have only niche appeal in Japan..."

it's difficult

[(Anonymous)]

to get them to show their genitalia as well. what with all that digital blurring and what not....

[thehakujin.livejournal.com]

That first pic is music artist kumisolo (http://www.myspace.com/kumisoloproject)! I like her a lot, and she does show her face in the pictures section.

I think a mask or some other picture is a lot easier to remember for people, so it's a good idea for artists. MySpace (the personal pages part) is almost like a dating site, where you want to see the person. Mixi sounds more like a message board, where people use avatars, usually not their real picture. (Unlike the real msg boards which are totally anon.)

I don't know if you can say it's a totally Japan thing. The first people on a site set the trend and people who join just follow it.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not saying it's a totally Japan thing, I'm just choosing to look at why it happens (and happens more, it seems) in Japan.

Can't agree that a mask is easier to remember than a face -- I probably knew that that masked girl was Kumisolo, but I'd totally forgotten! If I'd seen Kumi's face, I would certainly have remembered.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

"You're that guy from the internet!"

Oh I love that! You are internet famous, Momus!

Also, Laila is beautiful and I want to marry her.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

I often link the habit of many icons of yourself plus changing them for each comment (or so) as a way of showing "this is how I would look if we where sitting at a table talking about this".

What if this is connected with the visual culture of us even?... But then I wonder, are the Japanese more visual or less visual than us?

after forty-odd comments

[(Anonymous)]

YES I LOVED THAT LAILA FRANCE ALBUM, NICE TO SEE HER FACE AGAIN

apparently your career divides into two eras: Before Blog and After Blog, and everyone from Before Blog is dead or doesn't read your blog

Re: after forty-odd comments

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm just "that man from the internet" now!

The medium the message!

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

I'm out on arguing this because investors are flocking to get in on SONY's MSOGs industry and China has passed legislation on it's use.The West's need to feed on a big forever and the East's acceptance of the sublime relation group sort of proves Momus
invincible in this unvenomed topic.

[ashleyandel.livejournal.com]

It's funny, because I was rather ignorant to the internet before the last while (besides your Click Opera, being a fan), and have only recently bought a new Mac with the sales from some canvases I've made. In my sphere, unfortunate to you, MySpace is an institution and most of my *actual* friends use it. I encounter a fair share of avatars, but frankly even if you do use your face as an icon (a word you hate), you can't escape the fact that ANY site that prompts self promotion is a mask in itself. Live Journal is a masquerade just like MySpace, it's just that the tyranny of the masses (and God Bless the fact I have many friends) propel me to use the stupid site to garner interaction.

My point is that anything you post on the internet, no matter how personal and high-lighting will always be obscured by the fact that in front of the luminescent screen you are picking your nose, fiddlng with your junk and smelling your fingers just like people in their cars (who are oblivious to the people looking at them in their stinky hunks of metal).

Please put on your avatar mask, our game is underway.

[ashleyandel.livejournal.com]

Oh, and it's a sad thing to say that you're now "the man from the Internet", because it was your music that practically drove me to get involved with the internet.

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

but i am ugly

[dzima.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1QwjqYeLBA

showing faces

[(Anonymous)]

I assume that this woman is English.
800-odd!
http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/rachellatsko/

Stephen Parkin

drum machines?

[schizo-robot.livejournal.com]

out of curiousity, if you can remember, what drum machine did you use on "the hairstyle of the devil?" was it a roland 505? i have one, and it sounds similar, but can't tell for sure. sorry for getting so off topic.

-scott kessler.